African Americans in colonial America

For African Americans in colonial America, life was brutal and unfair as whites gradually took advantage of these people and eventually enslaved a whole race of people.

Many people believe that slavery in America started all at once. This, however, is untrue. Slavery happened gradually- from one person to many, and an increase in oppressive laws, and the influence of slave colonies over others. In the beginning many blacks who came to America were treated as indentured servants. But, with the increase of number and the advantage that white landowners saw they were growing, slavery as America now knows it to have been came into existence. Slave trade led to a new economic system: one where the color of one's skin could determine whether he or she might live as a free citizen or be enslaved for life. (PBS)

 For most of the seventeenth century the lives of white indentured servants and enslaved blacks were similar. They worked together in the fields; they ate together and slept in the same part of a building (Shifflett). From the start of slavery, the slaves were at the mercy f their masters. Masters had the authority by law to punish them for anything and everything through abuse. Many masters provided slaves with the bare minimum of clothing and food which grew hatred toward the masters. (Shifflett)

Slaves being captured by a surrounding tribe.

As African presence continued to increase, so did the violence that the maters would use. Africans continued to be shipped because they would be captured in war, kidnapped, or even sold by other Africans and bought to traded from owner to owner. Once they got to America, southern masters expected their slaves to work from sunrise to sundown and sometimes into the night. Constant physical abuse was laid on slaves who messed up or were found taking a break during the work day. One thing that these slaves never lost hope in was God. They had a strong heritage in family ties and with worshiping their creator (Roark, 139,140). As Brian put it, “Even through the horrible torture the slaves endured, they never turned their backs on the God who created them."

Bibliography

PBS. "From Indentured Servitude to Racial Slavery." Africans in America. PBS, 1998. Web. 17 Feb. 2013.

Shifflett, Crandall. "Indentured Servants and the Pursuits of Happiness." Texts of Imagination and Empire. Virginia Tech, 2000. Web. 17 Feb. 2013.

Roark, James L. ., Michael P. Johnson, Patricia C. Cohen, Sarah Stage, and Susan M. Hartmann.  The American Promise. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2012. Print.