The American Slave

The American Slave

For a very long portion of our history, America and the American people relied heavily on slave labor. Slavery was a major part of the early way of life in this country. It was in practice here when America was still just the original British colonies. A slave is an individual entirely subjected to his or her owners' will. Slaves were treated like merchandise. They could be purchased and sold, traded for other items, lent out to, or mortgaged like a form of domestic animal. Slavery differentiates from many types of mistreatment ranging from serfdom, manual labor, or the ranking of women in patriarchal society. In early American history the conventional definition of slavery was legal and stated that “slaves were peoples' property and could be bought, sold, traded, leased, or mortgaged like a form of livestock.” Because slaves are under the private control and care of their owner they were often exposed to sexual abuse and cruel unusual punishment. In many cultures, especially the African American culture, slaves were representatively desecrated; for instance, many were branded, tattooed, or required to wear distinctive clothing that represented their status a slave. Also, regardless of the place and time period, societies had established certain common stereotypes on the qualification of a slave. They were seen as immoral, childish, lethargic, immature, dim-witted, and incapable of freedom.

Originally, the English colonists relied on indentured white servants until the late seventeenth century when a shortage of these servants occurred. In response to this, colonists progressively resorted to enslaved Africans, leaving the whites to freedom. Due to this there were three distinguishing systems of slavery that emerged in the American civilization. In Maryland and Virginia slavery was mostly used in harvesting the raise of tobacco and corn and worked under the "gang" system. In the South Carolina and Georgia, slaves raised rice and indigo, worked under the "task" system, and were able to reconstitute African social patterns and maintain a separate dialect. In the North, slavery was concentrated on Long Island and in southern Rhode Island and New Jersey, where most slaves were engaged in farming and stock raising or were household servants for the urban elite. By the early years of the nineteenth century, the vast majority of slaveholders and slaves were located in the southern region of the United States. Most of the slaves located in these areas were engaged in a work-gang system of farming on large cropping fields, especially dedicated to cotton and sugar cane. Larger numbers of slaves were thought to work more efficiently and produce more exports if controlled by a managerial class called overseers. The overseers were usually white men. Most slaves during these periods were predominately of the black race and were owned by whites, however, some Native