Race and Ethnicity have played an integral role in shaping the United States. Although many racial issues have presented themselves throughout America’s history, slavery in particular has had a dramatic effect on the shaping of the nation. Slavery is a particularly dark stain on the history of the U.S; African-Americans underwent enslavement until the 13th amendment was passed in 1864. African-Americans experienced a wide variety of prejudice and hardship during slavery; there were many different ways of coping with these hardships as well. Slavery lasted from 1619 to 1864, slavery spanned 245 years (check), through this period slavery was dynamic, constantly changing and growing. Native Americans also experienced …show more content…
Both cultures’ situations are examples of racial persecution, a phenomenon that was constantly applied throughout American history by the government as a way to bring about financial …show more content…
Eli Whitney was born in 1765, in Westborough, Massachusetts, before the cotton gin southern plantation owners had to have their slaves pick the seeds out by hand. This was a painstakingly long process which limited the potential of cotton, the cotton gin however allayed this problem; it automatically sorted the seeds from the cotton. All plantation owners had to do was have it picked and fed into the machine, as a result cotton became a booming industry as Britain had a growing need for textiles to feed their rapidly growing textile industry. However as supply and demand of cotton when up, as did that of slavery. The Slave Act of 1807 posed to stop the southerner’s immoral mistreatment and ownership of African Americans; the act did things such as fines of up to 20,000 for anyone attempting to build a ship for slavery, as well as the prohibition of any importing of Africans for sale. Southerners however found a devious and foul way of preventing this act from affecting their