Slavery In American History

As slaves were legal property and a part of capital. They were bought, sold and sometimes killed, thus they became a means of production and were reduced to a commodity owned by slave owners (Ritzer; 2002:51/53). The relationship between slavery and capitalism can be seen in the context of the creation of the America’s. African and Afro-American slaves were vital for the development of the America’s. An example of this is after the American civil war, even though the North had fought to abolish slavery.

As slavery continued to develop, and many countries, such as the emerging United States in the late 18th century, had slaves as a major part of their economic model. Then, especially in slave ships and markets, there was a process of dehumanization that made the white sailors disengage themselves from the misery and brutality they were inflicting on people. It could be argued that violence was a necessity from Europeans’ perspectives, to try to keep enslaved people from revolting, and disrupting the flow of wealth they had obtained from the cruelty of slavery. Their wealth, was dependent on the continuation of slavery, which was why this system was so brutal by nature. The people in

The slaves were needed to work on plantations which helped the South prospered. During the 19th Century, the North worked hard on abolishing slavery, which they thought was a disgrace to the Union. The South relied strongly on the slave trade and when the North spoke of abolishing it, the South spoke of forming there own country. These slaves were very valuable to the slaveholding planter class. They were a huge investment to Southerners and if taken away, could mean massive losses to everyone.

Europeans filled this void through the use of free laborers—African slaves. Africans were viewed as inferior beings, mere property to be traded and used like a horse or a cow, which gave Europeans the notion that this practice was morally acceptable. At first, only wealthy Europeans could afford the goods produced by the African slave trade; however, the goods soon became affordable to the middle class and the demand for additional slaves grew rapidly. At the time of the American Revolution, slavery was the very basis for the American economy. Most of the country’s industries revolved around and depended upon the use of traded peoples.

The balance of power was beginning to shift as the antebellum South’s dependence on free labor economically tied their existence to the heinous practice of owning slaves. Slavery was in many ways a dream come true for southern culture in its ability to relieve the issue of finding labor and keeping costs low, but this inhumane practice became the downfall of the antebellum South in how its practice became so common in its culture that it became more of an economic addiction. Their entire economy was seemingly tied to this need for free labor under the impression that slavery was there to stay, shamefully allowing the gruesome, inhumane, nature of slavery to transcend societal values to the point of widespread acceptance. This accepting culture marked the downfall of the antebellum South.

It is important to note that slavery was present in African communities long before white traders sent African slaves to Europe and America. Slaves in Africa were those tribal people captured in confrontations between tribes and sold to Arab traders. The first traders to introduce slaves to the American colonies were the Portuguese who were later followed by the Spanish. Brought from Africa by way of different routes but in particular, the "Middle Passage" or directly from Africa to the Indies, slaves would travel in ships packed like sardines and under the most horrible conditions. Perhaps the most logical reason to try to explain the boom of slavery in America and anywhere is it was a very profitable business.

Following the invention of the cotton in 1793 that caused slavery growth in America particularly in the south because it was considered as an important driver of the economy. Some parties strongly criticized the whole idea of a painful route of canceling it causing the formation of myriad anti-slavery movement. Lack of quality in support of slavery leads to fugitives from slavery cause the formation of various fugitive slave acts. In this regard, this discussion intends to verify how fugitive slave acts caused the split between North and South America. Fugitive slave acts were only two federal laws that were aimed at capturing and returning runaway slaves to states and territories of United States “Courts of the United States shall from time to time enlarge the number of the commissioners, with a view to afford reasonable facilities to reclaim fugitives from labor”(Digital History, 2012).

African slave trading became the main problem dividing Americans, and could even of been a factor of many, which led to the American Civil War. Why did the South not abolish slavery altogether? It wasn't as simple as that; slavery was crucial for economical, political, social and even religious reasons; of which the greatest was economical. Slavery was vital to the Southern colony's continuation of economic profit, and therefore was chiefly economically based. The conditions of the Southern colonies were much suited to plantation agriculture, which provided the basis of the South's wealth.

As the slave population in the United States of America grew to 500,000 in 1176, documenting slavery as part of the American Revolution became increasingly important. America was rooted in slavery; and it contributed to the economy and social structure. The revolution forced citizens of the new nation to be conscious of slavery and its potential dismissal from every day life. Two articles that prove slavery only succeeded because of the false reality that slave owners created and the conformity to this reality by slaves are; George Fitzhugh who defends the proslavery argument and Frederick Douglass who supports a desire for freedom. The history of abolition directly relates to the many obstacles Americans faced when trying to change societies laws and ideas about slavery.

During this time, America's southern states were dominated by slavery, and the vast majority of plantations were essentially run by black slaves, imported from Africa. The slave trade was founded in 1444, by the Portuguese who, sensing the need for more slaves, ventured to use Africans. They realised that the sheer numbers of slaves needed to work in Europe and the European colonies an America could be easily acquired from the African tribes people who were already using slaves in their own communities. The Portuguese realised that the slaves could be used to make a profit, and during the early 16th century, the Spanish began to travel to Africa to get slaves. Shortly after this, English colonists and merchants also joined the now expansive slave trade.