Do The American Population Know so Much About Slavery?

The majority of the diverse American population knows a little something about the topic, slavery. Whether they’ve learned about it from a chapter of a textbook or an educational film from their history class, or have heard stories of their ancestors passed down from generation to generation, we all have an idea of what slavery is. However, we do not know the basics. For example, when did slavery come into play? How did this manner of treating “uncivilized” people like property become accepted, and what made it suddenly turn into a looked down upon doing?

Slavery can be traced back to the original written records 11,000 years ago during the Neolithic Revolution. It grew through Europe’s Classic era, middle ages, and the modern era, spreading from the Norwegian coast to Portugal’s beaches. Then, it massively developed in Africa, marking its territory in the Ghana and Mali empires from the 13th to the 15th century. Lastly, slavery traveled across seas to the Americas, evolving in the Caribbean Islands, ultimately challenging the morals of the United States. Since the dawn of time, slavery has changed thousands of countries socially, economically and politically. Nonetheless, it wasn’t until 1839, when slavery finally came into question after the rebellion upon the ship, La Amistad in the Atlantic Ocean, off the shore of Long Island, New York. Although slavery was seen as a necessary evil in the 1840s in North America, The Amistad case helped give African slaves traveling from Cuba the a chance to fight for their freedom, which reflects deeply on Latin America, Anglo-America and Africa’s conflict over human rights and economic rights.

Although slavery was accepted in several countries across the globe, Spain, the United States and B...

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...ating and abolition was evolving strongly, but soon other factors were brought in to stop the highly debated instance.

This ruling angered pro-slavery rights campaigners, and the Spanish government the attorney, Holabird are representing Ruiz and Montez on the behalf of. With President Martin Van Buren re-election in the near future, he sided with the interest of the Spanish alongside the Spanish Prime Minister, Cavallero Pedro Alcantara Argaiz. Cavallero made, “caustic accusations against America’s judicial system and continued to condemn the abolitionist affront. […] He pressured Forsyth, Secretary of State to seek ways to throw out the case altogether” (Osagie pg.12) by citing the 1795 Pinckney treaty amid United States and Spain. Altogether, Holabird argues that the Amistad Case shouldn’t have taken place in United States since they didn’t have any authority.