Experience Of Slavery

Slavery in the United States lasted for nearly 300 years before it was finally abolished after the Civil war of 1861-1865. During this horrible period, humans were sold off like goods, and separated from friends and family, whipped constantly, overworked, starved, placed under the harshest of conditions which led to the untimely death of many of them (Critique of Slave Trade, 1987). Frederick Douglass also narrates his experiences in his book from when he was little and we see that they were very similar to the conditions of the slaves highlighted in texts on colonial labor. He was separated from his mother at a very young age and while he was just a little boy, he watched his aunt being beaten until she was covered in blood, he watched as a slave was shot dead just because he trespassed, he watched heads get slashed and people beaten beyond recognition (Douglass, 2-7). …show more content…
Some might even say “if they hated it that much, then why did they not come together to fight against it? Throughout history, we have heard of several cases in which many people, if they did not like their conditions, did something about it, but why did it take the African Americans 300 years to be free? I am going to analyze this issue using the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, as well as other colonial labor texts to show why it was so difficult for the African American slaves to obtain emancipation. The three main reasons I will discuss as to why it was hard for slaves to obtain freedom are that slave owners made it difficult physically, the owners created psychological barriers, and the slaves lacked material