Investigate the History of Slavery and Discuss the Ways in which this History Impacts Contemporary Society (Essay Sample)

History of slavery
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Introduction
Slavery can be defined as a scenario in which one or more individuals are under complete dominance and control of another individual who presumes ownership of the slaves as his property and hence can exact labor and or other services from them. Such predicaments often transpire within the confines of involuntary servitude. The historical timeline of slavery dates back to 1619 when the pioneer Negros slaves were brought to Virginia, North America by the Dutch. The aforementioned Negros were sourced from Africa and were transferred to North America as indentured servants to serve their masters within the confines of a seven-year contract.
The blacks were captured from their native states through the deployment of sheer force and were forbade from seeing their own families ever again. Within the confines of their new homes, it was a prerequisite to deliver labor force by performing heavy and cumbersome work for their masters who advertently imposed cruelty upon them since they were presumed to have no rights as slaves. According to Campbell & Campbell, (2015), slavery thrived not only in the United States but also in African states such as Egypt where slavery mushroomed as a form of punishment to individuals who executed unacceptable societal malpractices and hence the culprits were held as captives. In addition, according to Berlin (2003), part of individuals identified as peasants opted for slavery as an option to sell themselves so as to repay their debts.
According to Rodriguez, (1997), though Americans disliked the idea of enslaving individuals from the African continent, the venture turned as a highly profitable opportunity since Africans availed cheap and quality labor in both lowlands of the South American Mainland and the Caribbean islands and this spurred the advancement of slavery. The overall move of slavery imposed brutality on the involved victims. Despite this, the British sailors and ship owners saw that the slavery venture was remunerative and thus opted to pursue the business. In this regard, the British sailors took the responsibility to ship slaves from Africa to other global spheres in a movement referred to as the Triangular Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (Berlin, 2003).
The phases of slavery execution commenced with ships vacating the British ports furnished with merchandise goods processed in England. The merchandise goods mainly entailed weapons and tools that were deemed necessary in Africa. The British sailors under ownership of guns simply went ashore and apprehended any black individuals they encountered. Furthermore, the execution of slavery was advanced by key African rulers who facilitated the apprehension of the blacks. Once the mission of capturing the black slaves was complete, the sailing process commenced for a distance roughly three thousand miles via the Atlantic Ocean heading to United States of America.
According to Campbell & Campbell, (2015), the overall expedition took approximately seven to eleven weeks. Within the course of the voyage, desperation descended upon the African slaves as expected and they made several attempts to jump over owing to escape the ordeal that awaited them upon arrival to their destination. In addition, others attempted suicide by complete turndown of any meals that were availed to them. Often, the crew sailors attempted various mechanisms to salvage the starving slaves such as breaking their jaws and forcing meals in them. In this respect, the death of the slaves during the expedition was seen as a monetary loss to the sailors. Upon the completion of the expedition, the Africans were sold out to the masters as slave laborers.
Berlin (2003) posits that the rate of slave trade escalated in the 17th Century. In this regard, colonization was taking root in the North American continent, and the English Colonies were assembled along the coast. Both the Spanish and the Portuguese opted for the acquisition of the Southern America. In the midst of these operations, they all needed to utilize slaves in their colonies. The ships vacated the British port once in every two weeks during this colonization era, and hence this denotes that the average number of slaves being sold escalated. According to Rodriguez, (1997), roughly 20 million Africans were forcefully apprehended and sold out as slaves. In this regard, vast African slaves’ void of a precise figure perished in the slave venture. However, the brutal merchandize took a new turn after the parliamentary proceedings in 1807 sought to halt the British ships from participating in the slave trade. The action proved fruitful since the process of capturing and selling Africans as slaves took a break. However, Berlin (2003) posits that the slavery venture still mushroomed internally.
There are various theories that extrapolate that the emergence of the slave trade emanated from the American settlers. According to Campbell & Campbell, (2015), the American settlers needed slaves to work for them for long hours and avail cheap labor. Also, the invention of a machine that could facilitate rapid separation of cotton from its seeds painted cotton as an exorbitant cash crop in North America and hence the settlers needed to plant it, and this necessitated the presence of slaves to undertake these tasks. In addition, Berlin (2003) posits that Africans seemed to endure the high temperatures experienced in America and were also deemed inferior since they spoke in odd dialects other than English and hence this seemed as a right justification to treat them as slaves.
Slaves entailed both sexes though their roles differed. While men took part in farming in the plantations, the females took part in house chores such as cleaning and preparing meals. Young girls took charge of taking care of the older women while young lads took part in bailing and loading wagons used farming. According to Rodriguez, (1997), some slaves operated under brutal and inhumane masters who did not respect them. In this respect, their living standards nose-dived below subsistence level and consequently, this reduced their life expectancy to approximately 28-36 years. Also, this escalated their infant mortality. However, other slaves fell into humane masters who treated them with dignity and viewed them as ordinary laborers. Despite this, they were deprived of their rights since they had been apprehended from their homeland. The core objective of the slavery was to avail cheap labor for the plantation owners and hence the masters of these African slaves had complete dominance over them. Berlin (2003) posits that the slave masters often murdered the slaves against the rule of law though the courts had no voice regarding such malevolence.
Implications of slavery in the contemporary society
To begin with, prior to the slave trade inception, dialects from African states were of African descent. However, most African states have embraced Arabic or European dialects (such as English, Spanish, French and so forth). According to Muhammad, (2013), the aftermath of the European colonization coupled with the Arab invasion in most states in North Africa seems to be the core contributing factor of the sudden eclipse of the African dialects in the current African states. The aforementioned dialects were imposed on the blacks who are still battling to learn them to date. Furthermore, owing to substantiate themselves as superiors, the colonial masters deployed Machiavellian systems to smash the enslaved African individual mentalities. The implications of such actions have affected most Africans and African-Americans in the current world.
In addition, the historical timeline highlights that African economy thrived prior to the inception of the transatlantic slave trade. The genesis of slavery eroded the active labor force and the probable mushrooming labor force through the extensive sold outs of the strong and healthy men to white settlers. Further evidence asserts that the white settlers who ventur...