Slavery this is a system that was made to sell or buy people to holding them at the workplace through force in most places without paying, they were also used for sexual purposes and they don’t have a choice to do what they want or make any decisions because they were a property of slaveholders. There are different types of slave as Debt Bondage, this means that person who have loan that could not pay become a slave until he work off the loan but it’s almost impossible to pay off because the amount owed keep growing up over the time and could not be never payed, Contract Slavery means that worked making false contract with employment that not include things that employer wants and after employer become working without pay and could not cancel the contract, Sex Trafficking means slaveholder sell slave for commercial sex act. Slaves was forced to work on farms or factories or any other place where slaveholders forced. Slavery was known even before our era, the first place where it’s started was in Mesopotamia where after the war enemies are captured people and forced them to work.
In America Slaves begin in early 15th century when Spanish explorers bring Africans slaves. Slave in America was important for economy system, because without slaves farms and factories would not have enough people to function properly and slaves was a perfect choose, they could work all day everyday getting cent and if slave die slaveholder will troth them out. Slaves was not allow to do anything until the owner tell them, they would not allow to married even on white person but marriage between slave was exist. Some slaveholders forced to marry because slaveholders believe that man that is married have less motivation to run away. Slave marriage was also good for slaveholders because they could get new slave but if woman did not born child she could be sold, according to Annie L. Burton, man and women that trying to get marry will make a party with slaves, and one marriage ceremony that they have to do is jumping over a stick, but during a year if women did not born children she would get sold.
But some slave did not want to get marry because man or woman don’t want to see that hires groom or his bride get bite and they can’t do nothing, as Moses Grandy said “o colored man wishes to live at the house where his wife lives, for he has to endure the continual misery of seeing her flogged and abused without daring to say a word in her defence.’Moses Grandy was a slave in Camden County, North Carolina. He has at least eight of his brothers and sisters which was sold by his owner. But however he got married by his owner and one day slaveholder sold his wife and he never saw her again.Religion was an important part of slave system slaveholders try to make their slave to follow religion in most cases it was Christian. They use religion to control slave by saying “God watching you”, ‘if you work hard in this life you will be in heaven”, slaveholders use this to avoid escapes or any self-will.
During the time slave became illegally and all slaves became free people but freedom was not like how slave dreaming, they get their freedom by law but not all white people could accept that. For slaves it’s was hard to adapt because all their life owners were telling them what to do and now they have to make choosing what to do and where to go. but this was not only one problem like a said not all white people can’t accept that slaves are free and white people start to kill them or keep them against will. One of that group was KKK clan that kill black people on purpose and now to find slave in for an interview is hard because of not all of them alive but some people find slaves that can tell their story.
We going to take look at two interviews that were taken from the same woman. Those stories were retold by two different person and different time those stories may seem similar but they are different from each other. The first interview was taken by the white lady that was interviewing Susan Hamlin, Hamlin was 104 years old. She tells good things about her slaveholder that he cared about them. The second interview was taken by the black man and she was 101 years old and she was not positive. Does Susan Hamline lie? But it was no point to lie, she could they the world truth about slaves or She was saying only good things to the white woman because she was white? She maybe felt convenient with the back man and tell him more or she forgets not a good things?
Hamline was old how we know old people don’t remember a lot and may forget something that was happened in the past but scientist Michael Ramscar saying that brain in old people don’t work worse than in younger people because old people’s brain has so much information that to get something from there becomes hard. The brain doesn’t have unlimited space when you learn something new you may forget something old. Slavery was important history think but more important was people who tell the history without them we would not know a lot about past but it doesn’t meant that you can trust any sources because if you not know where’s that source coming from.
Outline
- New Slavery: A Reference Handbook by Kevin Bales, Second Edition, Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2004, pp. 55-68. https://www.freetheslaves.net/about-slavery/slavery-in-history/
- Annie L. Burton, Memories of Childhood’s Slavery Days (1909)http://spartacus educational.com/USASmarriage.htm
- Moses Grandy, Life of a Slave , Book(1843) http://spartacus-educational.com/USASgrandy.htm
- After-the-Fact-The-Art-of-Historical-Detection Sixth edition by James West Davidson, Mark Hamilton Lytle, page 184-188
- Michael Ramscar, The Myth of Cognitive Decline: Non-Linear Dynamics ofLifelong Learning, 2013 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/tops.12078
