...African American Women Under Slavery This paper discusses the experiences of African American Women under slavery during the Slave Trade, their exploitation, the secrecy, the variety of tasks and positions of slave women, slave and ex-slave narratives, and significant contributions to history. Also, this paper presents the hardships African American women faced and the challenges they overcame to become equal with men in today’s society. Slavery was a destructive experience for African Americans especially women. Black women suffered doubly during the slave era. Slave Trade For most women who endured it, the experience of the Slave Trade was one of being outnumbered by men. Roughly one African woman was carried across the Atlantic for every two men. The captains of slave ships were usually instructed to buy as high a proportion of men as they could, because men could be sold for more in the Americas. Women thus arrived in the American colonies as a minority. For some reason, women did not stay a minority. Slave records found that most plantations, even during the period of the slave trade, there were relatively equal numbers of men and women. Slaveholders showed little interest in women as mothers. Their willingness to pay more for men than women, despite the fact than children born to enslaved women would also be the slaveowners’ property and would thus increase their wealth. Women who did have children, therefore, always struggled with the impossible conflict...
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...University of Maryland Distinguished University Professor Ira Berlin suggests that the unique circumstances of American slavery continue to shape the nation even today. In his lecture, professor Ira Berlin discussed his book Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves, published by Harvard University Press. He traced the history of slavery from its 17th-century origins to its demise in the U.S. during the Civil War. According to Berlin, slavery has emerged as a central issue in contemporary American white. Also, without question slavery has a “greater” presence now than it has at any time since the end of American Civil War. One of the reason for this is simply because American history cannot be understood without slavery....
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...“America’s post civil war growing pains” In 1619, African-Americans were forced into slavery and roughly 244 years later, in 1863, as the nation approached its third year of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring that all persons held as slaves were to be freed (U.S. National Archives & Record Administration, 2013). Despite the vague verbiage of the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln, the proclamation was repressed in many ways and did not end slavery as implied, or intended (Freeman, J., 2011). In January of 1865, began the downfall of the Confederacy. In the U.S., post Civil War, Reconstruction began abolishing slavery (Freeman, J., 2011). The Union victory at War promised a new future for the South's 4,000,000 freed African-American men, women and children, who were once slaves (Freeman, J., 2011). After the Civil War ended in May 1865, freedom was to put forth new opportunities for the newly freed African-American slaves (Azpiroz, X., 2012). The year following the Civil War, congress passed the Civil Rights act of 1866 (Azpiroz, X., 2012). The civil Rights Act of 1866 declared that all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States; and such citizens, of every race and color, without regard to any previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime...
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...African American History Introduction In the essay “On the Evolution of Scholarship in Afro- American History” the eminent historian John Hope Franklin declared “Every generation has the opportunity to write its own history, and indeed it is obliged to do so.”1 The social and political revolutions of 1960s have made fulfilling such a responsibility less daunting than ever. Invaluable references, including Darlene Clark Hine, ed. Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004); Evelyn Brooks Higgingbotham, ed., Harvard Guide to African American History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001); Arvarh E. Strickland and Robert E. Weems, Jr., eds., The African American Experience: An Historiographical and Bibliographical Guide (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001); and Randall M. Miller and John David Smith, eds., Dictionary of Afro- American Slavery (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1988), provide informative narratives along with expansive bibliographies. General texts covering major historical events with attention to chronology include John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr., From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2000), considered a classic; along with Joe William Trotter, Jr., The African American 1  Experience (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001); and, Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold, The African American Odyssey...
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...Frederick, Frado, and Curses of Cast, there seems to be a difference between the voice of black female authors and their male counterpoints of this historic period. Male and female victims of slavery had different experiences, and of course each specific person who had to endure institutionalized slavery and racism had their own struggles to overcome. However, after reading some of the most well-known, and some less well known, books written by black writers in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, it becomes evident that the style and voice of books written by black female writers carry a different weight of importance and power within the scope of literature....
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... As we look throughout history, one would argue that we couldn’t find a more appalling and unjust act as that of slavery. Slavery played a major role of not only history but of an innumerable amount of American people. In David Walker’s appeal and Fredrick Douglass what to the slave is the fourth of July, men and women of African American descent struggle with the reality of slavery and the cruel results and affect it had on people like themselves. Fredrick Douglas was one of the most influential African Americans of his day, in spite of his inauspicious beginning, he was born into slavery on a plantation in Maryland where he was called Fredrick Augustus Washington Bailey. Douglas always suspected that his father was his mother’s white owner, Captain Aaron Anthony. He spent his early childhood in privation on the plantation then he was sent to work as a house slave for the auld family in Baltimore. There, he came in contact with printed literature and quickly realized the relationship between literacy and personal freedom. With help from Mrs. Auld, Douglas learned how to read and write. In 1833, the Aulds, sent him back to the plantation, where he soon acquired a reputation for the resistance and more submissive, Douglass owner sent him to Edward covey, a ‘slave breaker’ paid to discipline and train obedient slaves. Instead of cowing Douglas, the experience with covey only strengthened...
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...Elements of African American Identity The Pre slavery Era brought Africans from their homes and to the United States in 1619. The Africans were sold to white settlers in Virginia as servants who had the same legal status as white servants. Slavery took place over a span of 300 years, from the 16th century to the 19th century. Slavery practices varied by state or by region (Deep South versus border South). The experience of the slave may have differed depending on the plantation size, the number of slaves involved and the convictions of the individual slaveholder. Slavery in North America delivered the harshest form of social relations to ever exist. Slaves were considered property and not humans. The plight of the slave was doomed to extreme 12-15 hour working days and often deplorable living conditions. African American slaves were beaten, whipped and even murdered, but they kept the spirit to survive. History shows that slaves tried to revolt, always to the detriment of the participants. When the slaves saw that revolting would never work, they sought ways to escape. One such way of escape was the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad was an organized effort to assist slaves attempting to escape. The Railroad was believed to have been incorporated in 1804. The Railroad was operated in defiance to the Fugitive Slave Laws and white abolitionists assisted the slaves in their cause. By the middle of the 19th century, slavery had become a serious...
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...Equiano elaborates on how Christianity connected with the African descent and its culture, also he described the similarities between the Jews and the African from circumcision to offerings, from purifications to washings, and from believing in one Creator to live after death. The African American family was cherished within the African American community due to their history of slavery, the family had bonded in a strong culture. These origins have these families tested family bonds throughout African American history, changing the family makeup by causing these families to become more Americanized and less Africanized following slavery abolishment. Family reunions and events are highly cherished to help maintain the African American culture. Elderly of African American families are celebrated, as they are passing on the African American legacy in this country. The elders provided great perception and common sense into the family and cultural history, also giving good guidance to the younger member into their families. The popularity of family reunions has grown over the past several years. After the civil rights movement, several aspects of the society started to become approachable to African American and...
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...African American literature is surprising, captivating, and spirited. Once you start reading a story it is easy to get caught up in the tale being told. The descriptive nature of the works makes it easy to relate to them. Throughout my readings thus far in the class I have noticed some common themes that reoccur in many of the stories and poems. Of course slavery was a very common topic but there were others such as inequality between the races and sexes, injustice and resentment, the black identity, and a strong faith and religion. Even though the words can be separated in the end they all come back together. There were many narratives written by fugitive slaves before the Civil War and by former slaves in the postbellum era. These narratives document slave life from the perspective of first-hand experience. The stories they tell are dark and ugly. The authors like Douglas and Jacobs reveal the struggles, sorrows, aspirations, and triumphs of slaves in absorbingly personal story-telling. Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was the first autobiography by a formerly enslaved African American woman. In it she describes her experience of the sexual exploitation that made slavery especially oppressive for black women. She also recounts her life in slavery in the context of family relationships with her escape and her struggle to free her children. Fredrick Douglas who wrote Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas, an American Slave, Written by Himself...
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...Edmondson-Deigh University of Phoenix Week#5 Assignment Historical Report on Race: African Americans Letter to a Friend Hev Phoung Dear Winston, You have been a dear friend to me for over twenty years since we met in grade school, which is why I was surprised that you did not know much about the U.S. history of African Americans like me. Of all the years we have known each other; you have only recently started to ask me questions about my background and the history of my people. This is an interesting realization; considering the years of discrimination and suffering under the label of “different” that African Americans have endured in our history, the fact that I have been your friend for ten years and you never once considered me different enough from yourself, a White man, to ask questions about those differences is an amazing indicator of how times have changed for the better! The only explanation I have for these recent questions is that you must be taking an African Americans course in college that requires you to learn the history of African Americans. In any event, I would be happy to answer your questions. Your questions about the experience of African Americans throughout U.S. history have answers that could be found if researched properly, but since space in a letter is limited, I will try to keep it short. Your questions about the experience of African Americans throughout U.S. history have answers, but, since you have limited time frame I will keep the...
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...stating a new nation was created in 1776. “The Black experience in what came to be the United States began with them having something less than citizenship, but their experience was only slightly better than slavery” (Schaefer, 2015). The country was populated by immigrants. By 1790, the population was about four million per the 1790 census, which was also the first census. About one million was Native Americans and about 800,000 were African Americans, which consisted of slaves and free negroes. Whites were the dominant culture and the majority. American culture was focused mainly on by white middle class people who were Protestant and came from Britain. Any immigrants who had these characteristics were welcome. Immigrants who had a different religion or culture was a threat to American culture and standards....
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...The Impact of Slavery on American Society DeVry University Abstract The subject of slavery has been the focus of a variety of controversies, debates, and protests throughout American history. Besides the Civil War era there has not been another time in history when slavery has been such a volatile topic as it has become in the last half decade. Even in modern day America the subject of slavery evokes significant discussions and has influenced legislative decisions such as the recent removal of the Confederate flag from South Carolina’s State House grounds and other government and public locations throughout the South. This paper seeks to review the literature attaching the history of slavery and present examples of the ethnic and cultural contributions that aided in the growth and diversity of America. It will also introduce examples of today’s societal issues including educational, economic, and social variances; the right to support cultural heritage; and the significant role history plays in influencing decisions made in America today. Introduction American history is filled with heinous acts that many would like to forget happened; slavery is no exception. Although it was a necessity of the times, slavery is undoubtedly one of the most volatile topics of discussion today; not just because of the inhuman and discriminatory treatment that was inflicted on an entire race, but also because of the perceived continued existence of some of those same...
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...African Americans have been through many things during the history of the United States. Early in American History African Americans were involuntarily made to endure slavery. Although slavery began long before the United States was founded it had a devastating effect on the U.S. Slavery is defined as using people whom were required to serve as slaves by capturing and then sold at auctions. They were then forced to work on plantations as a slave labor which was a legal institution in North America. The bad experiences of African Americans continue and include the raping of an African slave, this was not only legal, but it was also a normal thing for owners to do to their slaves ("Scholastic", 2012). The severe treatment of slaves was not right by any means, no matter how people explained what they were doing. It is cruel and takes the rights of people away, and this is not the way to treat anyone or anything that is one of God’s creatures. In 1865, following the American Civil War, slavery was banned in the United States and slaves were emancipated or set free. African Americans were treated very poorly in ways other than slavery, between 1877 and the mid 1960’s they lived under the Jim Crow Laws. Jim Crow was not a person but a series of rigid anti-black laws. African Americans were downgraded to the social status of second class citizens. This law incorporated things like; black men were not allowed to shake hands with or offer a hand to a white man and were allowed...
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...Black Experience in America: Slavery to Emancipation AAAS 106 Professor Shawn Alexander KU 2011 Final Exam Study Guide Some important dates and events - Remember that this guide only gives you a chronology of important events. It is not sufficient for the exam - you must fill in the details from your lecture notes and readings. All the reading is compulsory, do not leave out any portion of the texts or articles. Slavery and the Slave Trade African Slave Trade: Conventional Dates – 1450 – 1867 Early controllers of the Trade: 1494 the Spanish turned to the Portuguese to supply slaves for their colonies. By the 17th C Northern European countries began to dominate the trade. 1621 Dutch West Indies Trading Company 1672 British Royal African Company (by the end of the 17th England dominated the trade.) The Scale of the Trade: Between 1492 and the end of the trade in 1867 Europeans transported a minimum of 10 million people in some 27,000 slaving expeditions – or some 170 slave ships per year. 50% mortality rate (rough estimate) About 95% of the captives were sent to the brutal tropical sugar growing regions of Brazil and the Caribbean. 40% Brazil 5-6% North America Before the trade picked up (1700) 2.2 million Africans had already been shipped to the Americas. The trade climaxed in the 1780s, when 80,000 Africans were shipped a year. 5/4 of all those shipped came in the 18th and 19th centuries. Three major areas in Africa supplied...
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...David Walker was an African-American abolitionist who was born in 1796 to a father that was a slave and a mother who was free, thus making Walker free as well. Walker grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina in a town where African-Americans were the majority in the region and their presence in the town was profound. Most labor--skilled or unskilled--was performed by “black slaves who were the foundation of the region's key industries: naval stores production, lumbering, rice cultivation, building construction, and shipping.” (Hinks) When he grew older he moved away from his hometown to Charleston, South Carolina because free African-Americans made up much of the population and had many more economic and social opportunities. Walker’s local church faced white oppression as they continuously tried to close the church down. In the early 1820s increased attacks on the church deeply angered its members, with some looking to rebel and fight against...
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