Essay Slavery: Slavery in the United States and Slave Codes

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Slavery

The definition of a slave is a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey their master. Fewer than 4 out of 400 people live to be 60. The African American slaves were brought over mostly by the Europeans on ship where they had hardly any room; they were cramped together for many days and weeks in the hot and cold climate. Some of the slaves would die because of the diseases; they would have to sit in their own waste and others while they rode on the ships. The life of a slave was pretty harsh. The housing of it was terrible; the slaves had to live with cramped furniture and beds made from the straw of old rags. They ate only what their masters gave them, which were mostly only the fatty meats off the animal and cornbread. It was bad for the slaves also because they were only allowed one pair of shoes, and 3 items of underwear a year and most of the time they would have to get the clothes that their masters didn’t wasn’t anymore and was deciding to throw away. African Americans only had Sundays to have their free time and maybe sometime they would let the slaves have time off for church, and church was something important to the slaves because that was something that they only could really believe in. Slave codes are one’s who could not to do business with a slave without the owner’s permission. Slaves could be awarded as raffle prizes, wagered in gambling, offered as security for loans, and transferred as gifts. The master could basically do anything he wanted to his slave. A slave could not own a gun, and if so they penalty would be at least 39 lashes and forfeiture of the fun. Slaves could not assemble without a white person present. Blacks were held incompetent as witness in legal causes involving whites, education of slaves were prohibited. If the slave was to be taught an education, the educator would be fined $500and up to 6 months in jail. There is limited protection of slaves, one is the crime to murder a slave, and another is that a slave could defend their lives if threatened by a master. The crime of the slaves that was recorded was arson, rape of a white woman even if she wanted to have sex, conspiracy to rebel. The penalty for these crimes was death. However, since the slave woman was chattel, a white man who raped her was guilty on of a trespass on the master’s property. Other crimes a slave could commit was disrespect to a white person, trespassing on another whites property, marrying free blacks, running away, producing forged papers, gambling, selling alcohol, setting fires to woods, and
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