Preview

Positive And Negative Effects Of Slavery Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
726 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Positive And Negative Effects Of Slavery Essay
The History of Slavery and the Impact It has on Today’s Society

The history of slavery is filled with cruelty in which humans were forced to do labor against their own will without being paid for it; this has produced negative consequences on modern society, especially in Africa. Slavery in itself is evil and inhumane, and should not in any way be praised or celebrated. This dark period in our history is filled with misery and suffering for people of color, and the negative effects it has created still prevails today.
Some of the effects that will be explored in greater detail include the fact that today, countries of the West has become powerful, while Africa remains underdeveloped and in poverty; this reality is a direct result of slavery. Ngugi Wa Thiong’O agrees with my argument; in his article entitled “Learning From Slavery – The Legacy of the Slave Trade on Modern Society”, he said “slave trade and plantation slavery were of prime importance in the making of the modern world. But what was a gain for the world, especially in the West, was a loss for Africa”. As the West continued to
…show more content…
This industry was established in the U.S. through slaves who never received wages for their labor. Vanessa Vogl explained this in her article entitled “Congress Giveth, and Congress Taketh Away: How the Arbitration and Mediation Clauses Jeopardize the Rights Granted to Immigrant Farmworkers by AgJOBS”, she said “The agricultural industry in this country was built on the backs of slaves”. Slaves were not treated as human beings, but as commodities that can be bought and sold. This is a great evil that was committed against Africa, which built the U.S., and left Africa underdeveloped and in poverty. It is clear that slavery has had negative economic consequences on Africa, and it continues to this present

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    One of the most harmful effects that European conquest caused on the world was the practice of Slavery, and it took place in Africa. First, European explored African and conquered them, then they took some of African population into other countries for work labor because they stand the weather and bare the hardworking while Europeans could not . Olaudah Equiano said in his document " When I looked round the ship too and saw a large furnace or cooper boiling, and a multitude of black of every description chained together, every sorrow" (Olaudah Equiano, The interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano, P. 701). Based on this document, slave's journey to other countries were awfully bad. For example, the ship that they were traveled…

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    History shows a dark side of society where slavery was prevalent, where it was not considered a crime but had some very negative affects. Rates of violence and abuse of slavery for the early inhabitants of Central and North America. Where slaves, if they were not compliant, they were harshly treated and were sometimes even put to death. This…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Slavery has existed for thousands of years in many societies and therefore slavery should have never been abolished. Slavery in America began in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. 1 A Dutch ship brought 20 Africans into the Colony and from there slavery spread throughout the American Colonies. It was practiced in the American Colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries and helped build the new nation. More than 7 million slaves were imported to America.2 There are several reasons that support the continuation of slavery, some of which include: economic, historical, religious, legal and social goods. 3…

    • 1583 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slavery isn’t a short sweet story (as illustrated above). Slavery (a form of forced labor), contrary to common belief in the USA, did not start in the Americas, nor was it restricted to black African people; it has existed in almost all cultures and continents, and even exists to this day, in one form or another, in some places. Slavery has affected how people live, for good, and bad. Slavery made slave owners lives much easier as they get the slaves to do all of the dirty work, however, slaves live strenuous lives, and are treated inferiorly, and are considered as property.…

    • 1028 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In conclusion, Slavery was a blight on the American nation because of its toll on individuals. Slavery was inhuman, a horrible institution which caused unnecessary death and sickness to Africans, as well as taking hundreds of ears to be abolished. The Africans were almost completely helpless when it came to being enslaved, due to the fact they Africa didn’t have any defences to protect themselves from the invading Europeans.…

    • 69 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slavery. What exactly is slavery? Slavery is a human being that is owned to do labor and is not respected. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, it states that slaves were treated less that they were. Due to prejudice people of the 1800’s. If your parents were slaves you’d be born into the slave life. There was no way of getting out of that situation. It sucks to be in their shoes. Many people thought slavery was just natural for black people. Slaves were never cared for correctly. They were like nothing, just a tool. Just there for someone's amusement. Why is this happening? It's unfair no person should ever live through harsh conditions.…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Intro A community can be viewed as a people that share common languages. Attributes and many other cultural similarities. Strong communities usually signify a unity or bond. This bond forms a sense of sense of self and "brotherhood". However, this does not appear to exist in the Black community. Slavery has nearly destroyed the existence of any unity. When the Africans were taken from African, different tribes were mixed together on the ships and stripped of their identities. The differences between the African tribes had a positive affect for the enslavers because it caused disunity. Which helped them maintain control both during the voyages and once they arrived to the U.S. realizing the affect of the disunity, slave owners continued to develop…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slavery is one of the worst things that happened in American history. It brought harm to millions of people in the South and left a mark on our legacy as a country. Many people, however, do not know what the life of a slave was truly like. The life of a slave was degrading, unfair, and agonizing for those who endured it.…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slavery has been the worst of the worst issues that our history has ever seen or heard of and now a days most people still believe African Americans shouldn’t have rights. Throughout history slavery was a tremendous problem in our society because many people believed it was normal. They were taking advantage of the African Americans and using them to do their house chores, taking care of their children and overall making the slaves do the impossible. They were treated very poorly and they were expected to work in unnecessary heat conditions. Some were expected to work long hours and weren’t getting the property nutrition and sleep to recover from working those long hours.…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Was Slavery Right Or Wrong

    • 1410 Words
    • 6 Pages

    “The workings of the human heart are the profoundest mystery of the universe. One moment they make us despair of our kind, and the next we see in them the reflection of the divine image.” (Chesnutt W. Charles, The Marrow of Tradition) The terrible 245 years of slavery and then the aftermath of slavery are one of the world’s toughest times towards the millions that suffered the hardship of being black. Slavery of African Americans was where people that were black were forced into working for a white. This had caused pain and suffering and they didn’t know if they are going to die that day or be sold. Slavery of African Americans was wrong because the way that blacks got captured and transported elsewhere to be sold, their miserable life working…

    • 1410 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Morality of Slavery

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Slavery is a condition that has been prevalent. It has been prevalent in the sense that it’s as deeply rooted in human system since time immemorial. Many would contest that it is a condition that the human society is done and over with. But looking at a macro level at the issue, mankind is not yet free from this problem. That up to this computer age, slavery still exists - in all corners of the world and all races are victims of it. Contemporary slavery does not only equate to helping in the household and doing chores for the master. In some cases nowadays slaves are slaves of their own. Slavery today comes in different faces. If slaves during…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The African Slave Trade by Basil Davidson showed us slavery coming from Africa and into the Americas. Davidson showed how slavery in Africa and the brutal form of slavery that would develop in the Americas were surpassingly different. African slavery was more affiliated with European servitude which was the condition of most Europeans in the 15th century. In West Africa, for example, slaves could marry, own property and even own slaves. And slavery ended after a certain number of years of servitude. That idea came to the Americas but down the line there was a shift in thought. Most importantly, African slavery was never passed from one generation to another, and it lacked the racist concept that whites were masters and blacks were slaves. Before slavery began Northern Europeans would even entertain African royalty. Europeans spoke of barbaric and cannibals in the Southern part of African but there was no idea of inferiority. “They supposed no natural inferiority in Africans, no inherent failure to develop and mature. That was to be the great myth of later years…” So the idea of racial inequality seemed to not exist initially according to Davidson.…

    • 841 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slavery and Its Impact on Both Blacks and Whites Slavery and Its Impact on Both Blacks and Whites The institution of slavery was something that encompassed people of all ages, classes, and races during the 1800's. Slavery was an institution that empowered whites and humiliated and weakened blacks in their struggle for freedom. In the book, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, slave Frederick Douglass gives his account of what it was like being a slave and how he was affected. Additionally, Douglass goes even further and describes in detail the major consequences the institution of slavery had on both blacks and whites during this time period. In the pages to come, I hope to convince you first of the mental/emotional and physical damage caused by slavery on black slaves, and secondly the damage slavery caused in the mental well-being of white slave-owners.…

    • 1481 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slavery In America Essay

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Slavery has been a part of humanity since the Neolithic Revolution, with recorded evidence of slavery going back to 2100 B.C. (Mark, 2014). However, slavery was never practiced on such a scale as was done in the New World. Over ten million people were moved from the African continent to the New World in the largest movement of people in history (Shi, Tindall, 2016). This massive project had profound effects on the new American nation.…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In his narratives, Frederick Douglass is successful in convincing his audience that slavery not only has a negative impact on slaves, but on slaveholders as well. Douglass describes slavery as dehumanizing and soul-killing. Slavery has sucked the life out of many people. It has stripped them of their innocence and tainted their minds with cruelty and hatred. Slavery damaged many slaves, but has also ruined the lives of many slaveholders.…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays