Summary: The Definition Of Slavery

143 Words1 Page

Throughout history the definition of slavery has constantly changed, and although it is deemed illegal by the United Nations definitions of what it means varies by country. In 1922 the definition of Slavery was established by the League of Nations on an international level as: “the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised” (Bales, 2001). According to Kevin Bales he defines slavery as “The complete control of a person, for economic exploitation, by violence, or the threat of violence” (Bales, 2001).

Based on both definitions slavery can be understood as: when someone is able to force individual to carry out their will because of their ownership and power over them.

Show More
Related

  • Slavery: A Cycle of Victimization

    560 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slavery was cruelty at its best. Slavery is described as long work days, a lack of respect for a human being, and the inability for a man or a woman to have gainful employment. The slaves were victimized the most for obvious reasons. Next on the list would be the families of both the slave and slave owners. At the bottom of the list would be the slave owners. Slavery does in fact victimize slaves, slave owner and their families by repeating the same cycle every generation.

    Read More

  • Slavery In Colonial America Essay

    791 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slavery as it existed in America was a practice founded on the chattel principle. Slaves were treated as human chattel to be traded, sold, used, and ranked not among beings, but among things, as an article of property to the owner or possessor.

    Read More

  • Two Views of Slavery

    1012 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the time prior to the twentieth century our world accepted slavery as a normal part of life. Aphra Behn and Phillis Wheatley, both female authors born about 100 years apart, had their own views of slavery and wrote poems and stories about the subject. These women were physically different, Aphra was a Caucasian, and Phillis was an African American, and their lives were rather different as well. Aphra was a spy and playwright, who lived the middle class life and Phillis, was a slave who was taken from her homeland, brought to America, sold into slavery, then later freed. I believe that both writers’ views were difficult to figure out, especially by just reading their works.

    Read More

  • Evolution of Slavery

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    “A person who is the property of and wholly subject to another”; this is the definition of a “slave”. Over a span of 400 years 12 million Africans were captured, brought to the “New World” by approximately 40,000 ships and then enslaved. That’s 80 or more slaves per day. The perspective of white Southerners, Northerners and persons of color has evolved and are different.

    Read More

  • Slavery - A Cruel Institution

    1989 Words  | 4 Pages

    Slavery as a Cruel Institution Cruelty can be defined as an inhumane action done to an individual or group of people that causes either physical or mental harm. Slavery, at its very core, was a cruel and inhumane institution. From the idea behind it to the way that it was enforced, it degraded the lives of human beings and forbade the basic liberties that every man deserves under the Constitution of the United States. Three major areas where cruelty was especially prevalent were in the slaves working conditions, living conditions, and loss of fundamental freedoms. Working conditions for slaves were about as bad as can possibly be imagined. Slaves worked from dawn till dusk and sometimes even longer. Solomon Northrup describes his experience as a slave on his Louisiana plantation: The hands are required to be in the cotton field as soon as it is light in the morning and with the exception of ten or fifteen minutes, which is given them at noon to swallow their allowance of cold bacon, they are not permitted a moment idle until it is too dark to see, and when the moon is full, they often times labor till the middle of the night (Northrup 15). The slaves lived in constant fear of punishment while at work, and it was that fear that drove them to obey. Northrup continues to say that, "No matter how fatigued and weary he may be…a slave never approaches the gin-house with his basket of cotton but with fear.

    Read More

  • The History of Slave Music and its Impact on Modern Music

    2049 Words  | 5 Pages

    Slavery is a form of forced labor in which people are taken as property of others against their wishes and will. They are denied the right to leave or even receive wages. Evidence of slavery is seen from written records of ancient times from all cultures and continents. Some societies viewed it as a legal institution. In the United States, slavery was inevitable even after the end of American Revolution. Slavery in united states had its origins during the English colonization of north America in 1607 but the African slaves were sold in 1560s this was due to demand for cheap labor to exploit economic opportunities. Slaves engaged in composition of music in order to preserve the cultures they came with from Africa and for encouragement purposes..

    Read More

  • Human Trafficking in the United States

    939 Words  | 2 Pages

    Life and liberty, paired with the pursuit of happiness in the preamble to the constitution. Slavery emphasizes the idea of complete ownership and control by a master. This is exactly what these slave owners do. They take away an individual's alleged God-given rights as a human being. The legal definition of trafficking does not require elements of physical restraint, bodily harm, or physical force.

    Read More

  • Slavery In The United States

    1484 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout this course we learned about slavery and it's effects on our country and on African Americans. Slavery and racism is prevalent throughout the Americas before during and after Thomas Jefferson's presidency. Some people say that Jefferson did not really help stop any of the slavery in the United States. I feel very differently and I will explain why throughout this essay. Throughout this essay I will be explaining how views of race were changed in the United States after the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, and how the events of the Jeffersonian Era set the stage for race relations for the nineteenth century.

    Read More

  • Slavery by Another Name

    584 Words  | 2 Pages

    For most American’s especially African Americans, the abolition of slavery in 1865 was a significant point in history, but for African Americans, although slavery was abolished it gave root for a new form of slavery that showed to be equally as terrorizing for blacks. In the novel Slavery by Another Name, by Douglas Blackmon he examines the reconstruction era, which provided a form of coerced labor in a convict leasing system, where many African Americans were convicted on triumphed up charges for decades.

    Read More

  • Slavery By Another Name Essay

    1108 Words  | 3 Pages

    The film “Slavery by another name" is a one and a half hour documentary produced by Catherine Allan and directed by Sam Pollard, and it was first showcased by Sundance Film Festival in 2012. The film is based on Douglas Blackmonbook Slavery by Another Name, and the plot of the film revolves around the history and life of African Americans after Emancipation Proclamation; which was effected by President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, for the purpose of ending slavery of African Americans in the U.S. The film reveals very brutal stories of how slavery of African Americans persisted in through forced labor and cruelty; especially in the American south which continued until the beginning of World War II. The film brings to light one of my upbringing

    Read More

  • Slavery and the Anti-slavery Movement

    1030 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first definition that comes to mind when we hear this term, is the act of being a slave or a person who does not own their own labor. While, yes, this is a definition of slavery; it’s only one of many. For example, our textbook defines slavery as the most extreme form of forced labor (Ember). Another definition would include: the state of one bound in servitude as the property of slaveholder or household (“Definition”). All of these definitions are correct. Slavery is the act of holding/owning another person against their will; a state where one individual has complete control over another’s life, liberty, and fortune. Slavery not only occurred inside the United States, but throughout the entire world.

    Read More

  • Where I Marry Analysis

    576 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Slavery”, “Or being a slave to”? What is it exactly? What is the meaning of this term? It is not only a negative that we so often hear about in our history books and the way it is still talked about. It also means that one is toiling over the labor that they have to do. For example, the essay “Where I Belong” mentions the mother “slaving”

    Read More

  • Slavery and Abolition

    1581 Words  | 4 Pages

    The term slave is defined as a person held in servitude as the chattel of another, or one that is completely passive to a dominating influence. The most well known cases of slavery occurred during the settling of the United States of America. From 1619 until July 1st 1928 slavery was allowed within our country. Slavery abolitionists attempted to end slavery, which at some point; they were successful at doing so. This paper will take the reader a lot of different directions, it will look at slavery in a legal aspect along the lines of the constitution and the thirteenth amendment, and it will also discuss how abolitionists tried to end slavery. This paper will also discuss how slaves were being taken away from their families and how their lives were affected after.

    Read More

  • Modern Day Slavery Essay

    1371 Words  | 3 Pages

    Slavery has been a part of human practices for centuries and dates back to the world’s ancient civilizations. In order for us to recognize modern day slavery we must take a look and understand slavery in the American south before the 1860’s, also known as antebellum slavery. Bouvier’s Law Dictionary defines a slave as, “a man who is by law deprived of his liberty for life, and becomes the property of another” (B.J.R, pg. 479). In the period of antebellum slavery, African Americans were enslaved on small farms, large plantations, in cities and towns, homes, out on fields, industries and transportation. By law, slaves were the perso...

    Read More

  • Social Stratification Essay

    2269 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Slavery system is an extreme form of inequality to the point where some individuals are ‘owned’ by another individual which they class as their property. The person who ‘owns’ the slave has full control over everything they do and can end up using violence against the slave. L.T Hobhouse (1929) defined a slave “as a man who through law

    Read More

More about Summary: The Definition Of Slavery

Open Document