Slavery – The Lack Of Moral People Had Back In Time

What Is the definition of slave? Have we forgotten the lack of moral people had back in time? Slave, “a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them. ” The word “slave” came from Medieval Latin “Slavic” meaning captive, later adapted by Old French who twisted the word to “esclave” and finally coming to Middle English as, slave. Now days, slavery is not seen as something common and it is definitely not a rich business that you can become wealthy from, but during the seventeenth century slavery was very important, the slave business was not only a rapid growing business but it was also “justified” with various related with religious beliefs To give a bit of background with slavery lets go to the 1660’s when the colonial legislature started to go into a more detail with race-based slavery. The colonial legislature started with something called “slave codes” that was meant to regulate the movement of enslaved people, in a better detailed description, “slave codes” was a method used to control every aspect of the lives of slaves including their future children. Slaves had no say because any slave was considered “property”.

Although slaves were mostly demanded in the South for plantations such as tobacco, rice, and indigo they were also used in cities such as what we now know as New York. Slave owners were aware of the power slaves had when they united forces so in 1667 the Virginia legislature demanded that slaves could not be in groups more than three, could not serve on juries or travel without their “owners” permission. While “slave codes” took power from the slave, and it gave so much more power to the “owners of slaves” the codes gave permission to owners of cruel punishments such as cutting their noses, ankle cords and their insanity went so far that castrating men who were owned was allowed it wasn’t much of a surprise that killing of slaves wasn’t penalized severely. The first record of enslaved Africans brought to America was in 1619 they were unloaded at Jamestown and were referred to as “negars “. Not all slaves were brought from African there was Indian and mulattoes that were also sold or taken as slaves to work under the harsh weather in plantations. Slavery was really big for the “New World” slaves brought knowledge to the “New World “such as plantations skills, they knew how to keep a good fertile crop, but they also learned carpenter and artisans’ skills while woman slaves where dedicated to household duties for their “owners”. Slaves also helped build Americas economy.

The products that their hard work bought were good quality goods such as tobacco, indigo and rice to name a few, but their work wasn’t recognized as their own, the only ones seen as responsible for the incredible increase of the economy were of course, the “slave owners”. Everyone has a stopping point, a drop that tilts the cup over, and the slaves had had it. Slaves started causing rebellions, some even killed the people who had captured them, or as the Americans liked to refer as “owned” them. I believed they thought of this action as “biting the own hand that feeds you” but does the “hand that feeds you “have to whip you and treat you worse than an animal? I don’t believe so, but the idea of inferiority the Americans had of slaves was impossible to erase at this time, so after the Stono Rebellion the Americans started to fear the power the slaves were gaining so they passed down the “Negro Act of 1740“ that consisted of even more strict “oversight” of slaves activities and even, more severe and inhuman punishments for what the “owners” considered “rebellious behavior ” not only that, but the penalty for killing a slave was considered a “minor offense” and were completely banned from testifying in court. The views of slavery didn’t change for a good minute, but on the late 1800 century finally a stoke of light appeared and some Americans’ and Europeans began to question their morality towards this unjust action called “slavery.

There was many “justifications “for race-based slavery, or racism. Colonial Virginians convinced themselves that Africans were just naturally born lazy and with a low intelligence capacity. Other colonist related Africans “blackness” with evil and darkness, they thought they were being just by treating them poorly. Several believed that god created everyone’s “situation in life” and some were very unlucky to be born “negro” or “unholy”, they didn’t think slavery was inhuman, they thought it was “personal misfortune”. Unlike most Americans, Europeans were leaned more into religion and did not believe in enslaving their own religion or their own people like English settlers that enslaved Indian captives, but the demand for European goods started to increase rapidly, and so did slavery. Europeans did not enslave “Europeans who were captured in warfare” although Europeans were less harsh with slavery their morality was weak because nothing justifies taking someone else’s liberty. Colonist did not have a legitimate reason for slavery existence, commerce was growing their income was decent enough for the “owners“ to provide a salary for all the labor done.