Slavery in the United States of America

Is it fair in the struggle to reach higher economic incomes to go above

everything; including the God given right of free will? It appears to be so in the case of
slavery in the construction of the USA. At the beginning there were two colonies, the
northern and the southern one. While in the north slavery was frown upon, in the south
it was the machinery that worked the land and everything else. It all started when in
1619, 19 African slaves were brought to Jamestown. Almost 200 years later that
number went up around 644.000 slaves.

The northern land which was mainly formed by pilgrims held very strong
religious believes. Due to those believes they were against slavery and fought very hard
to have it abolished. Later on changes were made, starting with creating a constitution
that proclaimed a prohibition of importing slaves 20 years from that moment. It was a
much needed change in the grand scheme of things that somehow unchained a series of
events that helped Africans to gain their liberty.

In the meantime, slaves were treated as propriety and not human beings. They
were whipped, flogged, hanged and more often than not separated from their families
for the smallest mistake. Many slaves tried to escape from this cruel fate to the safeness
of the northern lands but the majority did not made it. Some of the minority that
managed to escape chose to tell their story, being Frederick Douglass one of them.
Frederick Douglass story is a prime example of the life of a slave in the United States of
America in the 1800.

One of the main reasons for the Civil war (1861-1865) was slavery, the northern
lands were called Union while the southern where the Confederate. It is of great
importance to mention the legal position of the government at that moment in regards of
slavery which was considered a state affair. This indicated that each stated decided if
they wanted to legalize slavery or not, but this changed at the end of the Civil war. In
1865 slavery became a federal issue, later on the 13th amendment was created and
ratified were slavery was finally abolished.

Nowadays the United States of America is one of the most influential and
developed country in the world, and it is necessary to question how much of this
success is due to slavery. There are a lot of things to be said about slavery and its
implications; not only in the USA but around the world but the most significant one is
the racial repercussion and struggle that many people had to and still goes trough since
gaining the precious gift of all, freedom.

Paola Melendez