Slave; a person who is the legal property of another and is
forced to obey them. Slaves and the system of slavery have been a part of
society ever since the early 1600s. Slavery most always has to deal with race.
In the Americans situation Africans, who were captured and brought from Africa,
were the main source of slave labor. In the 19th century the economic system of
slavery became entrenched. Entrenched means firmly established or unlikely to
change. With the new way of life coming about in America the use of slaves
became to be very dependent on the country’s wealth and seemed unlikely to
change. Not only did slavery affect the economics of America but it negatively
impacted the African race as a whole.
In the 19th century there was a dramatic
growth in cotton production. What once used to be 1.5 million pounds a
year, in 1790, turned into 2.28 billion pounds per year by 1860. The reason
behind this remarkable growth is due to the invention of the cotton gin by Eli
Whitney in 1793.The cotton gin was a machine that sorted the seeds from the
fibers, which had to be done anyway but this machine only took a fraction of
the time it would take to do it by original methods. With a faster way of sorting
the cotton, the cotton industry boomed. As the cotton industry grew larger and
began to spread across the southern region of America in the 19th century, so
id the system of slavery. More slaves were needed to keep up with the growing
demand of cotton. The cotton business was so strong that cotton sales in 1860
made up 57% of the nations export revenue. Because there was such great success
with cotton, and the production of cotton was based on the need slaves, slavery
seemed to be firmly established at this time.
On the other side of this great economic boom was the
negative impact it had on the African slaves. Africans had their dignity
stripped from them and were treated more like animals, where the value of a
human was not as important as how much work got done. The African race was
looked down upon which affected the race as a whole. To learn more about this,
in class we watched Prince Among Slaves, a movie based off the true
story of an African prince, Abdul-Rahman,
who was captured in war and was brought to America to be enslaved.
Slavery greatly affected Abdul-Rahman’s dignity. Being born a prince he
expected his life to be lavish and to greatly rule his people of Futa Jallon,
but that reality was quickly changed. Rahmans master, Tomas Foster, did not
listen to what Rahman had to say and even cut off Rahmans' hair to show
authority. Rahman was devastated, he had his identity ripped from him and after that came to terms with himself that he would never return to be a prince and was set for a life of obeying a white man’s wishes.
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| Abdul-Rahman source- https://islaminhistory.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/prince-of-slaves/ |
While Abdul-Rahman had a
more elaborate story, the same feelings went for the other slaves who
individual lives did not matter to society anymore. American society during
this time claimed that people deserve liberty and freedom yet they ignore the
fact that slaves are humans too, and still condone slavery.
As
you can see slavery was a big part of the 19th century. Without it the growth
of cotton and the American economy would not have been so successful. But, with
the growth of cotton came the growth of slaves and overlooking human life. All
Africans in America, free or enslaved were affected by slavery. No one wants to
see their family and race forced into labor and owned by another person. The
dignity of these enslaved people during this time was most definitely wounded.
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