Answer:
Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, people were kidnapped from the continent of Africa, forced into slavery in the American colonies, and exploited to work in the production of crops such as tobacco and cotton. By the mid-19th century, America’s westward expansion and the abolition movement provoked a great debate over slavery that would tear the nation apart in the bloody Civil War. Though the Union victory freed the nation’s four million enslaved people, the legacy of slavery continued to influence American history, from the Reconstruction to the civil rights movement that emerged a century after emancipation and beyond.
When did slavery start? Hundreds of thousands of Africans, both free and enslaved, aided the establishment and survival of colonies in the Americas and the New World. However, many consider a significant starting point to slavery in America to be 1619, when the privateer The White Lion brought 20 enslaved Africans ashore in the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia. The crew had seized the Africans from the Portuguese slave ship Sao Jao Bautista. Throughout the 17th century, European settlers in North America turned to enslaved Africans as a cheaper, more plentiful labor source than indentured servants, who were mostly poor Europeans. Though it is impossible to give accurate figures, some historians have estimated that 6 to 7 million enslaved people were imported to the New World during the 18th century alone, depriving the African continent of some of its healthiest and ablest men and women.
What do you want to learn about slavery in the United States?
Slavery is the practice of forced labor and restricted liberty. It is also a regime where one class of people - the slave owners - could force another - the slaves - to work and limit their liberty. Throughout history, some forms of slavery existed as punishment for committing crimes or to pay off debts. Young students want to create a more just and fair society. Teaching about slavery in elementary school, done properly, can build on children's instincts and help students apply them to their classrooms, communities, and study of the United States. Slavery is a fundamental part of United States history.
What were the main reasons for slavery? Ivory, gold, and other trade resources attracted Europeans to West Africa. As demand for cheap labor to work on plantations in the Americas grew, people enslaved in West Africa became the most valuable 'commodity' for European traders. Slavery existed in Africa before Europeans arrived. It is because of the 400 years of slavery that the African diaspora have been and continue to be treated as if their inalienable human rights do not matter. International Slavery Remembrance Day is at the forefront of demonstrating the consequences of treating any people without equal rights.