Slavery in the United States was a form of unfree labor which existed as a legal institution in North America for more than a century before the founding of the United States in 1776, and continued mostly in the South until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865.
The Atlantic slave trade, from its beginnings in the 1500’s to its end in the 1800’s was in itself the largest forced migration in human history. Slavery was not a new concept to the Atlantic coastal regions of Africa, but the Europeans were able to take hold of an age old tradition and blow it out of proportion.
Fredrick Douglass essay Escaping from slavery in 1838 had to be a treacherous experience; escaping slavery at any time would be! Most slaves couldn’t read or write, but one slave, Fredrick Douglass, broke that barrier and many more. In this particular writing he uses a wide-open state of mind to clearly get his thoughts across.
Slavery is a word that brings about a great deal of negative images to most people. Slavery drums up visions of wealthy white plantation owners ruling over their black slaves with an iron fist. The concept of slavery that most people think of, whites owning blacks, is not the only form of slavery found in history.
The history of sexual slavery in the United States is the history of slavery for the purpose of sexual exploitation as it exists in the United States. African-American slaves were systematically raped or forced to breed with other slaves. Early American colonists were largely male, and some men resorted to force to procure wives.