The Beginning And End Of Slavery

Submitted By sanamalove
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The Beginning and End of Slavery Over the course of time, men have enslaved other men because of their color, but today we are all free and equal due to the efforts of many people, many fights, and many deaths. The success of the abolition of slavery was the combination of results from the Revolutionary war, the ship that sailed for Sierra Leon in 1808, William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, and the founding fathers of America.
To begin, it is significant to recognize how Negroes landed in Britain and America. Africans were brought to the Caribbean to work on sugar plantations. Furthermore, the North Atlantic Seaboard colonies began to arise and develop thus, a need for labor became necessary.(Smith) Eventually, Africans came to Britain and the colonies as indentured servants who had signed the indentured contract for passage to work a certain amount of years to make up for their many debts back home. However, sadly for these indentured servants it was difficult to afford going back home, thus the pattern of temporary servants becoming lifetime and then at last hereditary indentured servants became the norm. (Smith) Furthermore, the Africans became truly helpful to both the British and the Americans when the Revolutionary war began. As the fight for freedom began both sides desired to combat one another, more soldiers were needed. “However the blacks made their greatest bid for freedom by taking up arms. They took up arms fighting for the British early in the Revolution.” (Colorado College) Significantly, the Africans were offered freedom in return for fighting; however they were not fighting for the British but instead for their own freedom. (Colorado College) Later, when the Americans became more desperate for soldiers they too offered the Africans freedom to fight for them. Interestingly, at the end of all of this the American promises to the slaves were not completely fulfilled. The Americans had not given in to the idea. It did cause some people to understand the concept of freedom amongst all people however; they were outnumbered by many others who still believed otherwise. “This white majority was able to justify these contradictions by maintaining that blacks were not a part of the socio-political community and therefore had no right to enjoy the freedom and equality gained in the War.” Significantly, although the Revolutionary War did not bring freedom to Negroes it did ignite the pursuit of freedom for them. In addition, the British kept their promise quite a bit better by freeing most of the slaves who fought. Consequently, ideas and arguments were flaming up in Britain regarding the freed slaves. An idea came about for creating a land back in Africa where slaves could be free and be allotted their own piece of property to begin a new better life, soon known as Sierra Leon. However, “One of the ironies of the American Revolution and the transport of freed British slaves from the Nova Scotia to Sierra Leon was that both the U.S. and the British continued the slave trade.” (Smith) That same year, 1792, the ship that set sail for Sierra Leon was significantly interesting because it was the year the most slaves were traded than any other year in the last century. (Smith) An important figure who also set sail with the freed slaves to Sierra Leon was John Clarkson. He was the helpful founder of Freetown, Sierra Leon’s capital city, and was also one of the hugest advocates for ending slavery. Importantly, it should be recognized that there was justifications for the slave trade in addition to reasons why it should have been abolished. For instance, in Britain, slaves were the main source of labor, without them the entire economy would have crumbled. (abolition.e2bn.org) Another, significant argument used in the speech to parliament in 1777 was that even if the British stopped slave trading the French and Dutch would continue it for them. Thus, the Africans would be in amore awful situation with the French and Dutch.