Slavery in the United States lasted as a legal institution until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865. It had its origins with the first English colonization of North America in Virginia in 1607, although African slaves were brought to Spanish Florida as early as the 1560s.[1] Most slaves were black and were held by whites, although some Native Americans and free blacks also held slaves; there was a small number of white slaves as well.[citation needed] Slaves were spread to the areas where there was good quality soil for large plantations of high value cash crops, such as cotton, sugar, and coffee. The majority of slaveholders were in the southern United States, where most slaves were engaged in an efficient machine-like gang system of agriculture, with farms of fifteen or more slaves proving to be far more productive than farms without slaves.[citation needed] Also, these large groups of slaves were thought to work more efficiently if guarded by a managerial class called overseers to ensure that the slaves did not waste a second of movement.
From 1654 until 1865, slavery for life was legal within the boundaries of much of the present United States.[2] Before the widespread establishment of chattel slavery (outright ownership of the slave), much labor was organized under a system of bonded labor known as indentured servitude. This typically lasted for several years for white and black alike, and it was a means of using labor to pay the costs of transporting people to the colonies.[3] By the 18th century, court rulings established the racial basis of the American incarnation of slavery to apply chiefly to Black Africans and people of African descent, and occasionally to Native Americans. In part because of the success of tobacco as a cash crop in the Southern colonies, its labor-intensive character caused planters to import more slaves for labor by the end of the 17th century than did the northern colonies. The South had a significantly high number and proportion of slaves in the population.[3]
Twelve million Africans were shipped to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th centuries.[4][5] Of these, an estimated 645,000 were brought to what is now the United States. The largest number were shipped to Brazil (see slavery in Brazil).[6] The slave population in the United States had grown to four million by the 1860 Census.[7]
Slavery was one of the principal issues leading to the American Civil War. After the Union prevailed in the war, slavery was abolished throughout the United States with the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[8]
giovanni belletti on 10 Mar 10The slaves carry and plant tobaco
Cesar Monterroso on 10 Mar 10They also collected cotton from the fields feeding there masters and carrying for any kids that there. The lived in small one room huts. The slept on hay beds along with maybe 7 more people squished together. The Master usually have 100's of slaves per farm.
Rafael Rivera on 11 Mar 10The Slaves were also sold for tabaco . Becuase tabaco was like money back then .
anibal hernandez on 11 Mar 10Slaves in the time of George Washington's time were treated with no respect. the slaves would get sold for tobacco and money.also even when the black people were free they would still have to respect all the white people because they weren't treated the same as other free citizens.like there was a woman named Francis and she was a free African American that wasn't treated the same as the whites she would go to court for thingts she would do and wipe her. then she went to court again and they made her become a slave for 10 years. then her owner told her if he dies she was free but that didn't happen to her. the slave owner died and she went back to court because they didn't believe her so the family of the died slave owner got the slave to work for them for the rest of there life.
christopher salinas on 12 Mar 10the slaves also harvested rice. they grew a lot of rice
Alexia Rivera on 12 Mar 10the slaves showed the british on how to make rice
nilsson Siguenza on 25 Apr 10some people were agianst slaves but still owned for example john adams and george washington.
America was one of the last to end slavery. It took 200 years to do this.
if they werent indentured slaves they had to work till they died indentured slaves were mostly white.
(this link is going to tell you everything about slaves .
Slaves were not people (metaphorically speaking). They were property. They were treated like animals. Their masters would often whip them as a lesson of discipline.
slaves had no rights at all basically they were property to the white people they could not even vouch for there selves in the court of law
