Essay on Slavery: Slavery and Plantation Owners

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Slavery Slavery was one of the biggest mistakes the world ever made. It took the lives of millions and ruined the lives of many. Slavery became a major institution in Colonial America because it was cheap and the economy was based on agriculture. It also had devastating effects on the African slaves that were brought there. The first reason slavery became a major institution in Colonial America was because of its cost. It was very cheap. Many came to just make more money. As a result, slavery was born. People soon saw that they needed cheaper labor to make more money. With this in mind they didn’t pay the slaves a dime and spent next to nothing on them. To cut down even more expenses they fed the slaves less than enough to survive and often kept them malnourished. This was so they were weak and that physical torture would keep them working. This brought the plantation owners great wealth
The second reason slavery became such a big institution in Colonial America was because its economy was based on agriculture. With Colonial America being such an agricultural based economy, they needed labor to work all the large plantations. America first experimented slavery on the Native Americans. This cut down on shipping costs because they were local. But they were not able to sustain themselves under such conditions for very long. That’s where the Africans came in. They were strong enough, could be transported in large quantities via the Portuguese, and even though they needed to be shipped, they ended up working more, this way the cruel plantation owners got more bang for their buck.
Slavery had devastating effects on the Africans who were brought there. To start, when they were captured to be enslaved, they would be taken villages at a time. The weak, babies, elderly, and pregnant women were often slayed right on the spot. They would then be crammed in the bottom of a boat all chained together and packed extra tight. With no room between people, the slaves did their stuff right there, often standing up. Disease spread wild and many would die. Also, because they were packed so tight, many people died from suffocation whether it was because of the little space, limited air flow, or the rising concentration of methane to oxygen. Every slave would also drown if the ship went down because they were chained together. When they reached America they would often die of a plethora of things. Such as torture for sport, starvation or malnutrition, whipping, beaten to death, or shot for trying to run away. Most families were also split up. If one slave married another or had children, they would often sell the children for more money or split the family up out of cruelty.
Slavery became a major institution in Colonial America because it was inexpensive and the economy was based on farming and agriculture. It also had devastating effects on the African slaves that were brought there. It was cheap so that more profit could be made of it, shipped in large quantities for the plantations, killed many Africans, and split up tons of families.

Lives of women
Women’s lives in the 17th century were still very limited. Their work was mainly domestic such as raising children, marriage, and household chores. They still had very limited that kept them tied to men. Women had very little direct political and economic influence, were still tied with a husband, and were kept from being as
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