Slavery In The 17th And 18th Century

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Once there was a time when blacks were beaten, poorly educated, and frowned upon by the world. Once? Is this “once” talking about when slavery existed in the 17th and 18th century, or in the 1970’s where a burning Bronx led to many colored people being poor and homeless, or in the 1960’s when a city named Compton became predominantly black and handicapped by the California government . These occasions are known for being very sad, but they are very valuable in American history because the literature sparked from the events are the greatest revolutionary works that America has been able to produce. Newton's’ third law of motion captures the way that literature works accidentally but perfectly it states, “for every action there is a equal and …show more content…
At this time in American history slavery existed and thrived in the southern colonies of America. Slavery was a system, a system of taking people from Africa and selling them to work for free. This system doesn’t sound like it could be effective but the tactics used to keep them from revolting was devious. To keep slaves from revolting slave owners and traders would use the power of taking away their opportunity for literature as much as possible. Slave owners were strategic, they would do things like get slaves from different parts of Africa so that they can never communicate. Importantly the slave owners would read the bible to the slaves, so slaves would never learn to read handicapping them as an individual. "The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) this is very evident from what is seen with slavery. The power of literature was taken from a whole community of individuals and what happened is they were forced to work for another person for free with serious consequences for their"Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, soul, and spirit. “My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me; and behold a man transformed into a brute!" (Douglass, Pg 49) the words of Frederick Douglass show exactly what happened to slaves at the time. The slaves were broken to a point where had no choice but to do what they’re