Slavery

Did slavery break the black family' Slavery is a form of human forced labor. In this act, slaves are regarded as property; they are not free to decide for themselves in that they are subjected to the owner’s authority and they are forced to serve without question. Slave trade was founded by the Portuguese at around 1444 AD. After they sensed that there was need for more workers in the American plantations and in Europe, they decided to venture into Africa. The most profound form of slavery occurred in South America. Most of the plantations were run by Africans who had been bought in earlier as slaves. The South America region had a social system hat was unique in so many ways in terms of political, social and economic grounds. The main cause of slavery in the south is attributed to the capitalistic nature of the region. The economy here was considered to be more developed relative to the other regions in that class structure and cases of racial differences were very profound. This made it to be so much different from the rest of the regions like the Northern parts of America. Because of the capitalistic nature of the people in the South America regions, the capitalists themselves believed in acquiring items and property by force. Due to the high demand for workers, they resolved to get people by force to work for them, hence the rise of slavery (Parish28). In the first place, slavery was not so much pronounced as the ‘workers’ only served as servants and then leave and work on their own. With time, the capitalists in the Southern America were not contented with the workers living on their own. They soon wanted to establish what the workers were doing when left free. This therefore brought the idea of restricted freedom and forced labor - slavery. Slavery developed as an economic gain since the southern colonialists used slaves to work in their big farms. Those getting the slaves also had their rewards in that they made profits from the buying and selling of slaves. They were bought and sold and these became a very big business. The type of economic lifestyle exhibited by people from the South was of greed for material gains and rapid expansion (Parish 27). Slavery was used to measure power and influence. Masters were well known in terms of how good their plantations were. This could only be achieved through better and bigger number of slaves. In trying to get this type of satisfaction, slavery intensified since all the masters were yearning for power, authority and recognition. The business owners, the farmers and the shareholders made big and increased profits as a result of the free labour provided by the slaves. Apart from these, there are many other causes of slave trade accompanied by slavery. Africans themselves participated greatly in the slave trade. One African community or tribe could raid another tribe, capture the people there and sell them to anybody willing to buy them. The buyers would range from the Africans themselves, British, French, Muslim traders or the Americans. Initially groups like the British used to buy them from the Moslem slave traders; they later started buying them directly from Africans in order to cut down on the cost incurred as a result of having middle-men in the process. In American Society, there have been arguments whether slavery destroyed the black family or not. This question has been on debate for a very long time now. Very strong arguments have been put forward by those supporting and those against the idea that the black family was destroyed. It is clear from the onset of slavery that families were separated in terms of the contact they had with one another, whether from their destination or from their place of origin. When the African people were sold, either by the Arab traders or the Africans themselves, they lost touch with their parents, children and other relatives. In addition to this, they lost access to their land together with their culture. On selling slaves, one thing was eminent; they were not sold as bulk items but rather as individuals. This made it even worse for them to meet with their kin since they could be sold and transferred from one plantation to another. The procreation process among slaves was not at all conducive or even worth talking of. Many a times, men would be brought to women to ‘breed’ more slaves yet ideologically one is supposed to father a child (Parish 48). Children were snatched away from their mothers without even considering the emotional stress and torture that they would actually go through. The idea that knowledge is passed down from one generation to another lost meaning since no one had another person to call a family member or even their kinsmen. The slaves lacked companion from their family members. Nobody was to cheer them up or encourage them to relax with the then prevailing conditions (Douglas 142). The rates of sexual interference were high and families broken in full swing (Parish48). Most of the slaves were supposed to live in small plantations, and this is what exactly happened. Because of the small numbers in a plantation say fifty or a hundred of them, they remained in close contact with the slave authorities. The close contact with the slave masters and drivers increased the rates of sexual, physical, emotional and psychological abuse. To access food in the small plantations was also a very big problem. This gave rise to the issue of malnutrition since the masters were only concerned with the buying, selling and the services the slaves rendered. However, living in small plantations is said to have helped build a strong bond among the slaves themselves hence strengthen them as a black family. The slaves were constantly faced with many other challenges. This led to some people to advocate for the civil rights. These demands were set forth for quite some time. Some local governments and states were and have always been a hamper toward the achievements of these rights. But these efforts are futile as the expectations of the Negros are still very high. Hopes to get beyond civil rights are mushrooming. Because of the oppression that has for a long time been experienced, the Negro Americans are now expecting that is some time in the future equal opportunities and privileges for them will produce high results , hence fair treatment like the other communities. But to achieve this many advance and special efforts have to be made since the colonial masters are also not willing to let go of their grasp. The idea of racism has continued to be manifested for ages now. This aspect has for a long period now been detrimental to the black family. The black family has constantly been faced with prejudice and this is likely going to be experienced for other generations to come. The long time of mistreatment has taken its effect on the Negro people. The bitter fact is that as a known group, at the current time, there are no equal opportunities for the black family to win. Although as an individual, there are cases of blacks achieving very great positions in the society, but as a group this is not likely going to happen because of the race factor. Indeed the black family has faced this vice for a very long period now. The American religious, ethnic and regional groups still places the Negro to the worst strata in form of these groupings. The social gap between the Negro and other societies is still widening. Most of them earn meager wages and salaries if any. Standards of living are worsening and the education standards are getting even worse every night. The family structure is still deteriorating. The urban ghetto is coming under siege. The cycle of poverty has continued to take effect. The middle-class group has managed to survive, but for the poorly educated and unskilled urban dwellers, the situation has been getting out of hand day by day (The Moynihan Report 1965). Due to this bad treatment of the blacks by the whites, a revolution, popularly known as the Negro revolution emerged. The Negroes decided to adopt non violent tactics to get better treatment from their masters. This revolution happened at a time when most African countries were gaining their independence from their colonial masters and it was clear that the world was headed to people segregating according to their skin colour. The success or failure of the Negro revolution could determine the course of world’s events. The onset of the Negro revolution was marked by three major stages. First, there was an organization of Negroes which tuned into a mass movement that was disciplined and with good leadership structure. Secondly, the Kennedy-Johnson administrations brought equality by exerting pressure on the federal governments to implement it. Third, in the 1964 presidential election there was an opposition commitment to equality which was accepted by the president. This acted as a referendum on equality. There were three administrative events that preceded the Negro revolution. First, there was a redress of economic imbalances between the Negroes and the whites. This was achieved because the president was fully committed to equal employment opportunity and also on the enactment of Manpower Development and Training Act in 1962. Secondly there was the abolition of poverty following the enactment of Economic Opportunity Act in 1964. Third, the legal and formal discriminations on racial grounds were abolished by the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It became clear that the Negro revolution was a movement for equality and liberty, the ideals of American Democracy. Lincoln’s regime freed Negroes from slavery but they didn’t get equality, something they were fighting for, instead they got liberty (Franklin 31). In the debate about the destruction of the black family by slavery, some writers argue that since slavery was greatly “consolidated” in various parts including The Mid-Atlantic, The Chesapeake, North America, South regions and the Mississippi valleys among others, it was very wrong to sample out one region and then conclude that what happened in the sampled out region did occur in all other parts. The regions differed greatly in terms of culture, environment and work, so generalizations in terms of how slaves were treated was not at all a wise idea. In considering the level to which slavery affected the black family, only the South region was considered while the other parts which also participated in slavery were left out of question. The existence of different slave societies in different regions makes it absolutely impossible to generalize that all the black slaves had the same experience. The conditions through which the slaves went through were influenced by different conditions depending with the region. The conditions included the nationality of the colonizer, the type of economic production of the region, the geographical location the slaves were posted as well as the demographics of the colonies. The idea of the Atlantic world market in slavery also affected the general quantity, the place of getting the slaves as well as the sex ratio of the slaves themselves. Because of the big difference in the Africans brought to these new societies in form of religion, culture and language, it was not wise to make a generalization from a small group of slaves. It is obvious that they will not all have the same experience in these new lands. In some places like the lower south, slaves were not in much contact with the whites. They were almost left on their own. This therefore helped them maintain their African cultural autonomy. They therefore maintained the African values. At some point, Africans are remembered to have taught their masters how rice is grown. This led to massive importation of slaves and at some point the African population surpassed that of the whites. Africans lived in large plantations that they had control over. Slaves then were allowed to carry out their own farming activities and were also allowed to market their produce. They also built their houses the same style they used to do while in Africa. With these practices going on, African language, religion, and kinship patterns were passed on to the next generations. At the beginning of the 18th century the whites were following some black traditions. They had started believing in the works of magic and even sought some herbal medicines from the blacks (Dunway). Dunway continues to state that slavery did not destroy the black family since it is not a rational term to break up a family basing on economic terms. According to Fogel and Engerman, “the trade broke marriages … but it did not break the institution of marriages and split families” (Parish49). Genovese notes that although slavery separated families, some of them were reunited again since they were at times sold in form of family groups. He also points out that in some cases the sold slaves would still be bought by one owner hence the black family was not totally destroyed (Parish 50). The effects of slavery are very many and cannot just be ignored. Slavery brought a lot of devastations to the black American community. The transportation process of the slaves from the Africa to America was inhuman; many slaves died on the way. This led to continuous reduction of the African population in the African continent (Answers.com). For the slaves who were lucky enough to reach their destined places, they lost total touch with their family members. Communication was a blow to them since there was no common African language. Both linguistic and cultural ties were lost. As a means of survival, they had to learn to speak in the foreign language which was mostly English (Liverpool museums). Slavery drastically destroyed the structure of the black family. Members of a family were torn apart; children were snatched off their mothers and were in many accessions bred just like animals in order to make better and stronger slaves (Answers.com). The rate of severe emotional trauma escalated. Self-hatred was born since blacks were indoctrinated in believing that all the things that were black was seen to be bad while all that was white was considered very good. Some blacks started hating their color, the texture of their skin and their hair because they were made to believe that they were very ugly because they were not white. Such treatments made the Africans lose morale in life (Sinclair 253). Slavery made the black family vulnerable to gross violence. The rates of lynching were high, rape cases escalated, torture and murder became dominant and severe punishment with so much brutal treatments became part of life. Deaths were also pronounced during slavery. Those who did not comply were beaten to death or shot. The revolutions against slavery also lead to numerous deaths. These practically destroyed the black family (Sinclair 255). Africans were turned into work animals. Slaves were expected to work for very long hours under very sever working conditions. Africans were forced to work from morning to nightfall without meals and resting hours. Slavery bared blacks from being educated in large numbers. Slave owners feared that if Africans were allowed to access education they would learn of a way to organize them and rebel against them. Slavery is a business that is still going on to the present day. The modern societies are still involved in it in a number of ways. Today there is human trafficking, a process that involves people being promised jobs and higher wages in foreign countries only to end up finding themselves working as sex slaves for cartels without pay or very low wages if any. Again there exists the capturing of people, others are kidnapped and transported just as in the traditional way to other places of the world. This vice is spread across all boundaries regardless of how self-righteous the society might claim. The other forms of current day slavery include rich countries importing products cheaply from poor countries by dictating the prices of commodities they deal in. This is done albeit knowing very well that the products are produced by children or workers who are paid poorly or not paid at all. The intentional destruction of native or indigenous culture is also another form of slavery that is in the present society. This continues to spill the African society. The idea of kidnapping women, the disabled like the Albinos and children for ransom is also another form of slavery that is still destroying the society. Some nations are still maintaining paying their workers low wages and salaries despite the increase in the cost of living attributed to inflation. This is still a form of slavery that has continued to destroy Africa. The continuous target for the unemployed to provide cheap labor is another form of slavery that people seem to ignore. In the present society, the rich and the poor receive absolutely different treatment; this is still a form of slavery that is affecting the community natively. Works cited Douglas F., The complete Autobiographies of Fredrick Douglas An African American Heritage Book, Wilder Publications. 2008 Dunaway W.A., Did slavery destroy the black family' Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003 Franklin H.J., From Slavery to freedom: a history of Negro Americans, Knopf, 1974 Koger L., Black slave owners: Free Black slave masters in South Carolina, University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, South Carolina, 1986 Parish I.P., Slavery: The many faces of southern institution Bookcraft (Bath) Ltd, Preston, 1979 Sinclair W. A., Aftermath of slavery; A study of the condition of the American Negro. Arno Press, Inc.1969 http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_effect_did_slavery_have_on_the_Black_Americans#ixzz1LU0WWDkh http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/slavery/americas/