Period 3
December 11, 2016
Do you know that in the book Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson that slaves were treated was in a very cruel and harsh way? None of the slaves were treated like actual people. To any non African American person, they were the people they could boss around and do whatever. Also, slavery caused many incidents in our history. For example, people having slaves is what triggered the Civil War. In addition, the Revolutionary War was the first war to try to put a stop at slavery.
Slaves were treated as items to buy. They were auctioned off at markets. Many husbands, wives, and children were frequently sold away from one another. Punishment by whipping was not unusual. After they were sold they would …show more content…
They got ill-fitted clothes and they lived in small stick houses with dirt floors. The slaves were treated harshly even though they did all of the hard labor jobs that needed to be completed. The slaves that worked in the fields worked from sunrise until sunset every day. Even young children and the elderly were not excused from these long work hours and long days. Slaves were generally allowed a day off on Sunday, and on holidays such as Christmas or the Fourth of July. Sometimes men would even have to go to war and fight. “After 1774, a white person who murdered a slave would receive only 12 months in prison if it was their first offense. However, according to the 1774 law, if the slave was killed while the white person was using “moderate correction” to punish him or her, there would be no criminal charge.”(DIGITAL HISTORY) This shows that the ways that slaves were treated was very harsh. The consequences were not as bad. If a slave did that to their master, they would be killed. In fact, before 1774 it was not a crime in North Carolina to assault or even kill a slave. Being a slave in the 1770’s was very life threatening. Your master could do anything to you and they would get away with it. “In spite of these discouragements, many free and enslaved African Americans in New England were willing to take up arms against the British. As soon states found it increasingly difficult to fill their enlistment quotas, they began to turn to this untapped pool of manpower.”(History is fun) This quote shows that and slave would do anything to try and get away from the harsh punishments on these long and hot