African American history assessing the antebellum slavery Essay

African American history assessing the antebellum slavery - Essay Example The aristocrats were very wealthy and owned vast pieces of land which were developed by the slaves. One factor that had an effect on slave institution was need for labor to work in the white farms. Slave trade was viewed by slave masters as necessary evil because there was sparse population and therefore they needed labor to work in their farms. In order to get this labor they had to force the blacks to work in their farms. The effect of this on the slaves is that they were forced to leave their homes to go and provide the required labor. The greatest oppressor of antebellum slaves was lack of education. There were also limited opportunities to professionals. They were denied education because the masters wanted to ensure that accumulation of property was easy. Lack of education was also contributed to by the fact that the slaves no property that could help them subsidize for a good education. As per the nature of work done, slavery involved involuntary servitude. It involved securin g labor services by means of force and treating the slaves so acquired as property. Work was assigned according to one’s physical capability where a day’s hours of work ranged from 15-16 hours. Moreover work was not assigned according to sex differentiation. Therefore even pregnant women could find themselves doing hard tasks like hoeing. An accident of birth is what determined the status of the slaves. Human nature coupled with inequality in power is the greatest factor that influenced slavery. The slavery had negative effects on the slaves. Effect of the slave trade on slaves was that they were subjected to very little or no privacy at all. They were put in various concentration camps in very large numbers. As a result there was a lot of overcrowding such that there could be no longer private life for the slaves. There was also a lot of work for the slaves. Due to this they had no free time for them. They were always expected to be working all the time. There was als o no time for the family. This was mainly due to the amount of work that they were expected to do. Secondly, due to the manner in which different tasks were allocated to different slaves, it meant that there was little time for the family. They were not able to see each other occasionally. Their children were usually sold or given away by the slave masters therefore they could not be closely knit together as a family. Furthermore, the slaves were not allowed to marry. This was because the slave masters thought that if the slaves were allowed to form families, they could have other responsibilities and thus they could not be able to work as they were expected to. To avoid this, they prohibited them from marrying. Another negative effect of the slavery is that they were subjected to very many rapes. They were raped by other slaves as well as by the slave masters. Profitability of slave trade To the holding master Slave trade though considered as a vice, it brought with it a number of considerable benefits. There were different benefits that accrued to different people. Since this was controlled workforce, coupled with economies of scale, ensured that there was free labor. The greatest beneficiary of this system was the white master. The system ensured that they produced more than they could have if they worked on their own. Benefit of slavery to the slave masters was that they were able to amass great wealth owing to the fact that slaves made doing of work in the firms easier. To the slaves The benefits that accrued to the slaves were that they were able to access better housing, better food and better clothing. There was also increased freedom of movement as well as more