THE EFFECTS OF SLAVERY IN AMERICA

TODAY
Kayla Benson
History 1700 TR 8:30
April 25, 2017
 The United States of America, a country that was founded upon living

free and for the hope that everyone could embark here to start a new life,

started a none other that a slave country. After being founded for almost a

hundred years, slavery was finally abolished. That was 1865, and we are still

living the effects of that one generation. Professor Glen Loury of Brown

University said, A terrible price had to be paid, in a tragic, calamitous civil

war, before the new democracy could be rid of that most undemocratic

institution. But for the black Americans the end of slavery was just the

beginning of our quest for democratic equality; another century would pass

before the nation came fully to embrace that goal (Loury, 1998). Even

today, is the black community really equal to the white community?

Slave life was extremely raw and grueling. Their days consisted of 15-

16 hours of work per day, 6 days a week and had no rest season. These

men, woman, and children were put through Hell everyday and punishment

from the plantation owners were never easy. They were not only physically

abused but they were mentally and a lot of the time sexually abused. Rape

from a black man to a white woman was only considered illegal if you didnt

own that slave. Often these went un reported as well. A lot of the times they

were abused for no apparent reason (Tangent, 2017) Slaves were taken

forcefully from their civilizations, ripped from their homes, and taken over

here to be a slave. This was really their only way to get over to the U.S.
 Enslaved Black People were denied a

secure family life. They were

ripped from their families and

taken by their owner. They could

not legally marry each other and

Figure 1 Slave Life They had no right to see their

children (Dawkins, 2013) They were seen nothing more than just property.

Their lives didnt matter, and the only reason to live was to work.

Plantation slaves that worked out in the fields lived in small shacks

with a dirt floor and little or no furniture had

food not even suitable for an animal to eat.

There were also domestic slaves, or what

they called house slaves, worked in the

house as butlers, maids, cooks, etc. A class

Figure 2 Slaves who worked in plantation
homes often saw better living quarters and
system was developed within the slave food (Ushistory.org)

community. Domestic slaves did not often associate themselves with the

plantation slaves. They often aspired to arrange courtships for their children

with other domestic slave (UShistory.org, 2017). They had to follow strict

rules and often those rules would bend or change with however the overseer

was feeling that day. It was a gamble everyday not knowing what kind of

mood the master was in. These men and woman would live day by day in

fear and never have a lot peace brought upon them.

 Even though slavery was abolished in 1865 it took nearly another

century to have our nations population to start and integrate these African

Americans. It was extremely ugly, scary, and down right cruel how these

people were treated throughout this grueling process. Martin Luther King Jr.

said, We have fought hard and long for integration, as I believe we should

have, and I know that we will win. But Ive come to believe were integrating

into a burning house. He was always a vision of hope and a people looked to

him to find comfort, confidence and the loving peace that he would plant in

these peoples hearts. But just like everybody else, he was scared. He was

afraid that through this process of integration, our nation wouldnt

understand the depth of the situation. As a nation in a whole we need to

give opportunity to the poor and underclass. At that time there was so much

violence and at a time where they were trying to be one with each other. The

more they allow that to happen, the more that we will stray away from the

Constitutions goal of a nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the

proposition that all men are created equal.

From 1867 onward, African-American participation in public life in the

South became one of the most radical aspects of Reconstruction, as blacks

won election to southern state governments and even to the U.S. Congress

(History.com Staff, 2009). At that time, there was the KKK that had broken

out among the country. These people would dress in all white to try to
preserve the white power structure, or white supremacy that had formed in

our country. They did not like change and they certainly didnt like someone

thinking that they are better or having their power in any way be disturbed.

These men dedicated their lives to protecting what they thought was right to

save our country from this awful, radical thing that was happening,

integration.

Through all of the negativity to have integration transpire, there were

major steps were taken to progress the work in 1954, starting with the case

of Brown V. Board of Education. The Supreme Court finally came to the

conclusion that separate but equal isnt really equal at all. On that day

Chief Justice Warren said, Segregation of white and colored children in

public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact

is greater when it has the sanction of the law, for the policy of separating the

race is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro group

Any language contrary to this finding is rejected. We conclude that in the

field of public education the doctrine of separate but equal has no place.

Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. To deny black

children of the inalienable right to go to school where they choose is against

the fourteenth Amendment. He went on to say, Education was perhaps the

most vital function of state and local governments, and racial segregation of
any kind deprived African Americans of equal protection under those

Amendments (Nation Museum of American History).

From the preservation of these men and woman integration was

possible. They fought hard for what they wanted and it came to pass. They

didnt back down when times got tough and they didnt squawk at the trial

set in front of them. Because of them, history was made and our country will

never be the same because of it.

Todays Race Problem

Have our practices of slavery really affected the way we see them

today? Absolutely. They have affected the way they are still treated, there is

still not equal opportunities, they are not equally represented, and it has left

a legacy of mental problems for the black community. Our society doesnt

fully appreciate it or really recognize it. They just think if we dont address it

then it is not there. But that is not the case. It has been a problem and

continue to be a problem if we dont do anything about it.

Going back to Professor Loury, he continues with saying,

Nevertheless, as, anyone even vaguely aware of the social conditions in

contemporary America knows, we still face a problem of the color line. The

dream that race might some day become an insignificant category in our

civic life now seems natively utopian. In cities across the country, and in
rural areas of the Old South, the situation of the black underclass and,

increasingly, of the black lower working classes is bad and getting worse

(Loury, 1998). Like he said, there I still a fine line between the two races

and we still need to make changes for that to become better. This is a

problem that wont get better over night but are we still working on this issue

to improve? Rare.US says, Were getting to a point where that recognition is

becoming less and less obvious, and the remnants of centuries of racism linger and

continue to affect millions of Americans (Blanks, 2014). We are a country of freedom

and of opportunity, so why are we STILL not offering that to everyone that comes here

and wants to see our country progress as much as we want it to?

The term, white privilege is still something that our population struggles with.

When applying for jobs, people expect to get treated equal. But in reality, if it isnt a

government funded job there is no one to really make sure there is no discrimination

happening, because they can say anything about how you didnt get that particular job.

A Yale University graduate commented, It does weigh on you in the search because

youre wondering how much is race playing a factor in whether Im even getting a first

call or whether Im even getting an in-person interview once they hear my voice and they

know Im probably African American (Miah, 2010). Working as an African American in

a white-collared job is often to be a lone. They are still the minority in these working
environments. When they go to work, they have to control emotions of anger and

frustrations especially when those conversations of race are brought up (Winfield, 2015)

She went on to say that people feel more comfortable to talk about class-based groups

instead of race-based groups. We assume that a lot of it comes from poverty and that

explains a lot of it. But in reality, that is not a lot of the time the case.

Being now in the 21st century Blacks are still not represented in the

way that they should be. We have made immense progress considering the

time frame. But we arent where we should be. In the last congress, there

were 44 African Americans. In the cabinet, 12% are black and there are no

black governors in office today, and there have only been four in U.S History

(Brown and Sara).

In the media and the movie business, Blacks started to show up in the

1950s. When that first started to begin, only 6% of the characters were

African-America. Even today, 90% of showrunners are white. This was pulled

from five broadcast in a total of 38 new series only 50 people are colored. in

the 2016-2017 In newsroom, still today there is an only 11% representation.

It has always been really tricky in history with African Americans in

media history. Early depictions of African American men and women were

confined to demeaning stereotypical images of people of color. During the

first decades of the 20th century, many films depicted a nostalgic and

idealized vision of life in the antebellum South. Memories of the Civil War
were still fresh, and these films served as a means for creating some

measure of reconciliation between the North and South by glorifying the

image of the Old South and its Lost Cause. African American characters, in

keeping with the dominant stereotypes, were portrayed as incompetent,

child-like, hyper-sexualized, and criminal (Duke Library). It is always tricky

to portray these characters in a way that the director wants them to be

portrayed.

Lastly, in government owned companies, 20% of them are black

compared to about 10% of private sector workers. SO when they government

goes through a shut down, they are hit the hardest. Back in 2008 when we

went through the great recession, 79% of those losses came from that class.

African Americans and women were embraced in the public sector market in

the mid-1960s, as government interventions and anti-discrimination policies

began to open these jobs up to marginalized groups. Government job

became a crucial route to the middle class for many people, but have also

left them highly vulnerable to shift in policy and budget lass for many people,

but also left them highly vulnerable to shifts in policy and budget cutbacks

(Lewis, 2016). This creates a big gap in that creates the struggles for black

Americans today. They, because of this, lost their homes, got higher rates

than the whites, and a wider overall gap in wealth inequality. This problem

just go to the point where we are sonly now starting to rebuild that what we

lost. We are very far to being where we were, meaning, there is still la lot of
black Americans out there that are out of a job. Compared to where we

were, it has taken its toll.

America, lastly, has been affected by slavery by the way it has left a

footprint in the minds of that community. There has been a rate of suicide od

black males doubled between 1980 and 1995. America has failed to see that

and decided to turn a cheek and not doing anything about it. Terrie M

Williamss a clinical social worker in New York. In her book, Black Pain: It Just

Looks Like Were Not Hurting, she uses powerful personal narratives of blacks

from all walks of life to illustrate the high toll of hiding the pain associated

with the black experience on mental health. Harvard Psychiatrist, Alvin

Poussaint wrote about the reasons for the increase of suicide. He says that

for African American young men may see the afterlife as a better place than

here (Carten, 2015)

One of the biggest causes for the legacy of slavery is racism. It has

corrupted the hearts of Americans and it is a learned behavior that has been

passed on from generation to generation. Slavery created this and its

continual damage it causes to the black community. America is in need of a

change and this is it. We need to live at one with each other and how we do

that is to see past color.

 Slavery effected not only the slaves back then, but it still affects them

today. It has effected their mental health through continuous racism, they

are not equally represented in America, and they are not equal opportunities

for the black community. We have made immense progress, but there is

always room for improvement. Anna Quindlen once said, Look back to

slavery, to suffrage, to integration and one thing is clear. Fashion bigotry

come and go. The right thing lasts. Slavery has forever burned a hole in the

crust of America and we are left to repair that.

Works Cited
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