Slavery was key to the progression of America,and ingrained many long term problems into our society. It has shaped our society from the beginning of the colonization of America. Slavery and how the United States has overcome it was key to how our society has developed and progressed and why there are problems to this day in relation to racial inequality. It started as a widely accepted practice by white Europeans that put themselves above all other races. After America gained its independence, slavery started to divide America itself. It took years for America to even treat African Americans as equal citizens. However, throughout the fight, first against slavery and then for equality, America …show more content…
Not all white landowners owned slaves, but the reason that they were originally pro-slavery is that it gave the south more votes and power in the government. However, as the movement went on and more people got involved, the intention of the movement slowly changed. For example, “Abraham Lincoln did not target farming and cotton in his arguments against slavery; he used morality." This signaled the shift from previous beliefs by northerners whose main concern with stopping slavery was the feeling that that slave-owning southerners had more political and economic power. This signaled the movement from white people having selfish reasons for abolition to seeing slaves as people and that being reason enough to want …show more content…
The UN declared that, “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” This originally only applied to white men, but with the passing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights it enforced that it applies to everyone. After America outlawed slavery, the UN also stated, “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.” This officially abolished slavery by anyone who was a part of the UN. Even though this Declaration was after the US abolished slavery for itself, it made sure that the US and any other country would be held accountable for maintaining their law of no slavery. With the keyword “inhumane”, slavery could be influenced by the next article, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” People who were not white were not considered human, and therefore any treatment was considered justified to them. Another essential statement is that, “Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law,” which today the need to state that all people should be treated as human would seem ridiculous but it was a big step forward from when slavery was in practice and not everyone was actually considered human. Everywhere under the UN, including the US, considered