Slavery in America Essay

Despite the efforts put forward by the union in a bid to free the more than four million slaves, the impact of slavery still influences the country's history right from the reconstruction period to the mobilization of the civil rights movements that emancipated a century later. The European settlers who had occupied North Africa turned to the Africans slaves as a source of cheap labor (“Slavery in America” 1). This was propelled by two factors; first, the African slaves were available in large number and so this led to these Europeans to use the readily available labor in the plantations. Secondly, the poorer Europeans who used to work in the plantations were thought to be indentured and therefore did not provide the required services while in the line of duty.

Although it may not be possible to provide the exact figure of the number of African slaves, it is estimated that around six to seven million black slaves were moved to the new world in the 18th century alone which deprived (Fields 95). Another important aspect of the American slavery is the classification of different groups of people into races. In the US for example, people are not allowed to identify themselves using certain racial lines unless for the purposes of the direct or indirect contrast with people with African roots. In fact, only the representation of language or geographical areas can be portrayed more directly rather than the biological inferences such as Hispanic or Asian (Paine 269). There is an assumption regarding the separation of a race from the American people.