Slavery in the USA
Copyright © March 1, 2021 by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.
All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
This article will very briefly look at the beginning and the end of slavery in the United States of America.
The Beginning of Slavery in the USA
Africans did not build their own ships and they did not sail to the "new world" in order to claim some of the territory for Africa.
Instead Africans were first brought to the "new world" as slaves. In the 1700s and 1800s slavery was common in many parts of the world. Black slaves were preferred by slave owners all over the world because slavery was widely practiced by blacks throughout Africa and slavery was part of their national heritage. For hundreds of years black slaves in Africa had been taught to simply obey the orders of their black owners. For example, in Africa the chiefs of some African tribes "owned" everyone in his tribe and he did whatever he pleased to his people (his slaves). In addition, when two African tribes went to war with one another, the winning tribe would make slaves of the survivors of the losing tribe, or they would sacrifice them to their gods, or they would eat them. (Note: Cannibalism was accepted as a normal way of life throughout most of Africa until the middle 1900s, and it was common to eat members of other tribes, and members of their own tribe, and even members of their own family because they believed that would allow some part of the person to continue to exist inside the people who ate them.)
In the 1700s and 1800s when the European slave trading ships landed at one of the ports in Africa they could visit a slave market that was near the dock. The slave market was owned and operated by a black African tribe. The majority of the slaves at those slave markets were the survivors of a tribal war, or they had been kidnapped from a neighboring tribe, or they were the social outcasts from their own tribe and their own tribe wanted to get rid of them. The slave traders made a significant financial investment in the slaves they purchased and they could not afford for too many of their slaves to die or become seriously ill during the sea voyage for two simple reasons: (1) a dead slave was worth nothing, and (2) the health and appearance of the slaves would determine their value when they were resold. The slaves were normally kept confined on the deck of the ship, or inside the ship in secure areas, in order to prevent hostilities among the slaves (warring tribes), and to minimize serious problems due to hysteria and panic when the ship encountered bad weather because the slaves had never been at sea before. Approximately 6% of the African slaves were transported to North America, and the other 94% were sold in Central America and South America where they were forced to work in the fields or in the mines.
In North America the slaves were usually purchased as an investment and they became part of a small farming operation that had three or fewer other slaves. Or they became part of a larger farming operation with many other slaves. Prior to the year 1863 in the United States some African slaves were allowed to work for their freedom, and some slaves were simply granted their freedom by their owners.
It should be mentioned that in the 1800s a few black slaves were horribly mistreated in the USA (and also in other parts of the world). But most black slaves were not brutalized. Unfortunately most fictional books about slavery were written to maximize the sales of that book, and most fictional movies about slavery were created in order to attract large audiences. These fictional books and fictional movies do not present a balanced perspective about slavery in the USA in the 1800s. Instead they create fictional characters and fictional situations where a kind gentle humble black slave is repeatedly brutalized by a wicked evil obnoxious white slave master. The truth is that black slaves were originally sold to the white slave traders by their black brothers in Africa. And most of the black slaves in the USA in the 1800s had better living conditions, better food, better healthcare (a dead slave was worth nothing), and longer life expectancies than most black slaves in Africa. In addition, the black slaves in the USA were never eaten by their white owners and they were never offered as human sacrifices to the "gods."
The American Civil War
Eleven southern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia) withdrew from the Union in 1861 and they formed the Confederate States of America. In the year 2021 a variety of different reasons are currently available for why these southern states seceded from the union. The "current politically correct reason" is that the southern states wanted to retain their right to own slaves. However, slavery did not become a significant issue until late in the year 1862 so it is difficult to support slavery as being the reason for the beginning of the Civil War.
Another possible reason for the Civil War was that in the year 1860 the Federal Government began to discuss the possibility of imposing a Federal Income Tax on all of its citizens. This idea was supported by the majority of the people in the Northern States but it was opposed by the majority of the people in the Southern States. On August 15, 1861 the Revenue Act of 1861 was passed by Congress and it gave the Federal Government the right to impose a fixed income tax of 3% on all of its citizens who earned $800 or more per year. The Revenue Act of 1862 changed the tax rate to 3% on people who earned at least $600 per year and 5% on people who earned $10,000 per year or more. In other words, the maximum tax rate was increased and the minimum income on which taxes could be collected was decreased.
The first battle of the Civil War occurred on April 12, 1861 when some confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina. This was about four months before the Federal Government officially passed the Revenue Act of 1861 on August 15, 1861.
The first step towards the end of the Civil War occurred on April 9, 1865 when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union General Ulysses S. Grant at the court house in Appomattox, Virginia. On April 26, 1865 Union General Sherman accepted the surrender of Confederate General Johnston at Durham Station, North Carolina and this second surrender effectively ended the Civil War and most of the fighting stopped.
The Emancipation Proclamation
The citizens in the northern states were not pleased with the Revenue Act of 1862 and the increase in the Federal Income Tax rates. Therefore President Lincoln needed to redirect their attention away from the Federal Income Tax.
On January 1, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and President Lincoln declared that all the slaves in 10 of the Confederate states were free and they could come to the North and join the Union Army as free men. However, slaves in the Union states of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri were not granted their freedom. Slaves in Tennessee and West Virginia were also not set free because Tennessee and West Virginia were not part of the Confederacy on January 1, 1863. Only the slaves in the 10 Confederate States were granted their freedom.
If slavery was the primary reason for the American Civil War then President Lincoln should have freed all the slaves in the northern states and in the southern states. However, President Lincoln did not do this. Instead he allowed six slave states that were part of the Union to retain their rights to own black slaves. President Lincoln only proclaimed freedom to the black slaves in the 10 southern slave states that were still part of the Confederacy.
Therefore the motivation for the Emancipation Proclamation was not based on human rights. Instead it was a strategic military attack on the Confederate military forces. Its original objective was to encourage slaves to defect from the Confederate Army and to join the Union Army so they could help the Union Army win their fight against the Confederate troops. In the year 2021 it is difficult to truthfully determine the extent to which the Emancipation Proclamation achieved its original objective. However, when I studied the Civil War in the public school system in the 1950s, the school history books at that time mentioned than only a small percentage of the southern slaves defected to the Union Army and the vast majority of the slaves remained loyal to the Confederate Army. Whether this is true or not cannot be determined in the year 2021 because history books are constantly being revised and they are usually written based on what is currently politically correct if they wish to have any hope of being used in the public school system.
The Thirteenth Amendment
The Thirteenth Amendment was initially passed in Congress on January 31, 1865 and it was ratified approximately ten months later on December 6, 1865. This was about seven months after the end of the Civil War.
The Thirteenth Amendment applied to everyone in every state in the USA.
The Thirteenth Amendment made two types of slavery illegal: chattel slavery and indentured servitude. However other forms of slavery, such as conscription, were not abolished.
If the American Civil War had been about slavery instead of the Federal Income Tax then the Thirteenth Amendment would have freed all slaves but it did not.
Conclusion
There have been many famous African Americans who have risked their reputations and their lives in the belief that all people are created equal. These courageous individuals firmly believed in the Declaration of Independence which contains the following statement:
"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness -"
Although it is not currently popular, it should be mentioned that whites have been the primary force worldwide for the elimination of slavery, and that blacks have been the primary opponents to the abolition of slavery in the nations that they controlled.
Until 1942 slavery continued to exist in Africa with blacks buying and selling one another. However by 1942 many of the African nations had gradually come under the influence of a variety of white European nations who insisted that slavery be abolished.
Unfortunately slavery was never completely 100% eradicated in Africa. In the year 2002 in Niger, Africa approximately 5% of the blacks were slaves to other blacks.
The information in this short article can be easily verified by doing an internet search on any of the topics that are mentioned in this article.
If a person wishes to be honest then that person should be careful about what he or she chooses to believe.
However, if a person has other objectives instead of personal integrity then that person can say and believe whatever they wish.
Respectfully,
Grandpappy.
Grandpappy's e-mail address is: RobertWayneAtkins@hotmail.com