Osvaldo Bambi
AFAS 160A1-102
Insights of the Effects of Slavery on African Americans’ Lives
Throughout the course of history, the history of African Americans has been strongly
surrounded by violence, difficulties to establish themselves into the American society, and most
importantly, freedom. The majority of the struggle that black folks still facing today originated
from slavery. Millions of Africans were brought against their will to the new world between the
17th and 19th century as a mean of cheap labor. Slavery was mostly known for the inhuman
treatment of Negroes that were brought from Africa. Africans were forced into slavery by
European men carrying guns in the early 17th century. These slaves were then packed into boats
with terrible conditions and transported to the Americas. For many of the slaves, the only hope of
escaping from being sold or transported was suicide. Several slaves preferred to jump from the
boats and die in the deep sea than being brought to countries like America and being traded like
animals by slave owners. Approximately 12 million slaves were transported to the Americas
between the 17th and 19th century in the so called “Trans-Atlantic slave trade”. Portugal was one
of the first countries to transport Africans to America to work as slaves on sugar plantations in
Cape Verde. Processes that were in the origin of the Atlantic slave trade still being discussed in
present days, and this essay will also focus on the emergence of slavery in the United States and
how it negatively affected the life of African Americans.
The Atlantic slave trade was the second of the three stages of the famous triangular
commerce. 10 to 12 million slaves were transported across the Atlantic Ocean to America in a
process that ended up becoming legal a few years later. The slave trade to North America was
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rapidly increasing mostly due to the fact that plantations of sugar and tobacco were also
expanding along the Caribbean region. This led to an increase in the demand for labor and the
Atlantic slave trade started to gain trust. The majority of Africans brought to North America for
slavery purposes were transported during the 18th century, when slave trade in America started to
expand in a large proportion. Slave trades played a crucial role in the development of the
American economy before the civil war because they were looking for cheap labor and found it
through slavery. One of the justifications that many Europeans used over slavery was religion.
Europeans justified the Atlantic slave trade by saying that Christianity was the only true religion,
and because Africans practiced that different religions, they were seen as a threat to Christianity,
which led to the enslaving of Africans. The idea of the existence of inferior races that
predominated in Europe during slavery centuries was also an excuse used to justify slavery. For
Europeans, Africans were part of an inferior and therefore deserved to be treated as inferiors to
Europeans. Although Europeans acquired the majority of the slaves through the use of gun
violence, some of the slaves were also sold to traders by other Africans due to tribe’s rivalry. As
the influx of slaves to the United States (mostly in the southern region) continued to increase, it
led to the formation of chattel slavery, which refers to a process in which human being are
treated as property, allowing them to be bought, sold, or inherited. This form of slavery was
known because of the fact that it did not allow any form of freedom or rights. The needing of
cheap labor in the southern United States was one of the main reasons for slave owning to
become legal in the united states. Since the southern economy relied heavily in agriculture, they
were in favor or maintain slave owning in the US.
Chattel slavery was responsible for the division in ideologies between the northern and
southern United States. The fact that the Northern economy relied heavily on industry, allowed
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them to neglect the use of slaves as a mean of cheap labor easier than the southern states. When
Abraham Lincoln stepped in as the president of the United States in 1861, he took a huge step
towards the ending of slavery by proclaiming the Emancipation act. As stated in the history
website, “Though the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t officially end all slavery in America—
that would happen with the passage of the 13th Amendment after the Civil War’s end in 1865”
(Mackamen). Many people thought that the Emancipation Proclamation itself would end
slavery, but Lincoln knew that it would take more than that as he feared the revocation of the
Emancipation Act after the Civil War. Consequently, the 13th Amendment was passed in order
terminate slavery permanently in the United States. Although it was illegal to own slaves in the
United States after the passage of the 13th Amendment, slavery persisted for several years in the
southern United States.
Post slavery years turned out to be the most difficult years for African Americans, as
they did not have much to start building a new life. Even in the present days, the struggle
caused by slavery can be seen and felt among the African American’s community. From the
beginning of the reconstruction through the 20th century, African Americans found themselves
lost, in need of guidance in order to be inserted in the American society. As stated in a book,
“And yet they are unskilled, without foresight, always in debt and living from hand to mouth.
Hard pressed, they might sink into crime; encouraged they may rise to comfort, but never to
wealth. Why?” (Du Bois 249). The recently feed African Americans were now suffering to
thrive in a society that was designed to impede their progress. Du Bois is trying to illustrate in
this passage that although they were free, they were not prepared to achieve success in the
American society because they could not guide themselves to success. Without a leader, African
Americans were never going to be able to achieve wealth because their mind was shaped to
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think in this manner through slavery. The end of slavery seemed to be just a drop in the oceans
because the recently freed slaves were lined up face a greater challenge, which was to establish
themselves in the United States. Du Bois states, “Indeed, we must not forget that those people
who claimed to know the Negro best, freely and confidently predicted during the abolition
controversy1-That Free Negroes would not, and could not, work effectively.
2-That the freedman who did work, would not save.
3- That it was impossible to educate Negroes.
4- That no members of the race gave signs of ability and leadership
5- That the race was morally degenerate.” (251).
In addition, this quote from Du Bois is the perfect example of how African Americans
were viewed and that challenges that they were going to face. By believing that Negroes were
not capable of being leaders, the American society would do anything to avoid Negroes to be in
a position where they have power. In order to be able to overcome all the obstacles imposed on
them by white Americans, the African American needed leaders that would help healing the
damaged confidence and impose new ideologies that would allow them to succeed gain more
power. The guidance that they needed should come from the very few African Americans that
were able to attend college because they would provide a different point of view and make the
recently freed African Americans believe that it was possible for them to successfully insert
themselves into the society.
Moreover, as the problems continued to rise for the freed Negroes, they needed
solutions, and several African American leaders such as Dubois, Washington, Martin Luther
King Jr, Malcolm X, and many more responded to the call. Du Bois was one the first leaders
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that came up with ideas to solve the problems that African Americans were facing. As stated in
an article, “DuBois demanded for all black citizens 1) the right to vote, 2) civic equality, and 3)
the education of Negro youth according to ability” (Gibson 1). Du Bois wanted more than being
free for African Americans, he wanted them to have access to the same privileges given to white
Americans. For him, the problems would only be solved when African Americans were given the
right to vote, and were provided with decent education. He believed that African Americans
would only be able to achieve full citizenship rights when the three demands he proposed were
met. Among the leaders that fought for equality and the end of the suffering that African
Americans were submitted to, Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the more successful. His
approach was more methodical and certainly more effective because he catapulted the Civil
Rights Movement into one of the most successful organizations that fought for racial equality.
As stated on biography.com, “ Through his activism and inspirational speeches he played a
pivotal role in ending the legal segregation of African-American citizens in the United States, as
well as the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965”(1). MLK
provided the solution that African Americans needed as he was able to end segregation. It was
certainly a huge step towards racial equality, but the job was far from complete. Changing the
racist mentality of people in America is a more difficult job, and more leaders needed to emerge
in order to fight against this issue.
In summary, the journey through which the Negroes have been since the beginning of
slavery was never smooth. The Atlantic slave trade between the 17th and 19th century was
responsible for originating chattel slavery in the United States of America. It was during the 18th
century that the slave’s inflow to the United States boosted dramatically due to the increasing in
the need of cheap labor to work on sugar, cotton, and tobacco plantations. America took the first
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steps towards the end Chattel Slavery when Lincoln assumed the presidency of The United
States of America and issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. It then officially ended
with the passage of the 13th Amendment two years later and just after the Civil War. However,
ending slave ownership did not meant that African Americans would have equal rights as they
fellows white Americans. Africans Americans faced several difficulties to thrive in the
American society at the beginning of the Reconstruction period, and found themselves in the
need of leadership in order to succeed. Leaders like Du Bois emerged and engaged in a fight for
equal rights, equal education, and equal access to African Americans. The whole process of
slavery created a wound on the African Americans lives that still have not healed, and it is very
visible in today’s society. It was crucial that leaders such as Martin Luther King engaged in the
resolution of problems that African Americans faced during the revolution era. Although the
problem is deeper than just being able to share the same bus with white folks without being
assigned special seats, it achievement that these leaders conquered certainly created a better path
for future generations of African Americans.
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Works Cited
Gibson, Robert. “Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois: The Problem of Negro
Leadership.” 78.02.02: Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois: The Problem of Negro
Leadership, teachersinstitute.yale.edu/curriculum/units/1978/2/78.02.02.x.html.
Burghardt, Du Bois William Edward, et al. The Souls of Black Folk. Bedford Books, 1997.
History.com Staff. “Slavery in America.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009,
www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery.
Lewis, Thomas. “Transatlantic Slave Trade.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia
Britannica, Inc., 5 Jan. 2018, www.britannica.com/topic/transatlantic-slave-trade.
Mackaman, Tom. “World Socialist Web Site.” The End of Chattel Slavery in American History,
World Socialist Web Site Wsws.org Published by the International Committee of the Fourth
International (ICFI), 8 Dec. 2015, www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/12/08/amen-d08.html.
“Martin Luther King Jr.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 18 Jan. 2018,
www.biography.com/people/martin-luther-king-jr-9365086.
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