Industrial Revolution Literature & Language Essay Paper (Essay Sample)

The Commodification of Human Beings
Name
Institution
The Commodification of Human Beings
Commodification of humans started with the European colonization of nations in the 18th and 19th centuries (McInnis, 2013). Indigenous people were forced to provide their labor to be able to pay taxes that had been introduced by the colonialists. Commodification of humans became more pronounced when the Europeans started shipping Africans from their continent to America during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade (Postma, 2003). They were not viewed as humans with families but as objects that could be sold in the market. They could be advertised for sale and people would buy them. To a great extent, this commodification of slaves led to the rise of a market economy in America as discussed in this paper.
Although the sale of slaves in America is highly associated with the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, the sale of slaves continued domestically even after the abolishment of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in 1807 (Postma, 2003). When the Britons were defeated, America opened Westwards and the new land required slaves (Bailey, 2017). Wealth Americans thus had to buy slaves domestically to provide labor for their lands. With each new defeat of Europeans, America expanded and there was more land for Agriculture which required workers.