Obtaining Civil Rights. How have African-Americans worked to end Essay

Obtaining Civil Rights. How have African-Americans worked to end segregation, discrimination, and isolation to attain equality and civil rights - Essay Example Establishment of slavery in America: The early 17th century marks the start of slavery in the US. During the era of 17th century humungous numbers of slaves were brought into US from different areas of Africa. The life expectancy rate during that time period in the Brazilian regions was quite low so these slaves were brought to US where the level of life expectancy was better. Many historians claim that nearly 6 million highly competent slaves were brought from abroad especially from Africa to America in the 18th century (Griffin, 2009, 605). During the 18th century, most of the black slaves worked on the tobacco and rice plants, located near the southern coast. Many colonists claim that after the American Revolution, the black slaves in America were overpowered by the British in order to abolish slavery in the nation because they expected that this would end up in resulting in adverse effects. However, as the war ended, the new American constitution counted every slave in the country as three-fifths of a person with the intention of taxation and ensuring the right to seize ‘any person who is acquired for labor or other services’. Role of cotton gin: The number of slaves in America began to reduce in the late 18th century due to shortage of lands required for growth of tobacco. Due to this terrible exhaustion of tobacco plants, an economic crisis hit the South. During this period, textile industries were rapidly growing in the Britain and the demand for cotton reached its zenith. The textile industries in the Britain demanded the American cotton for speedy growth of these industries. Unfortunately, growth of American cotton was restricted in America due to difficulty of elimination of seeds from raw fibers of cotton by hand. This problem was sorted out in 1700s by a young school teacher, Eli Whitney, who invented a machine known as cotton gin for easy removal of seeds (Griffin, 2009, 598). This device brought a revolution not only in America, but in South Asia too as a rapid transition from production of tobacco to production of cotton was witnessed. A great number of businessmen benefitted by investing on cotton plants and this investment aided them in earning high levels of wealth. Almost all northern states put an end to slavery between the years 1700s to 1800s and the US Congress excluded the African slave trade from the benefit of the law, but these actions never really affected the growth of slaves in America. The population of slaves in the United States of America grew so rapidly that it had tripled over the next 45 years. By the year 1860, the population of slaves rose to 5,97,000 individuals, with most of the slaves dwelling in the cotton-producing southern states. Brutal behavior of slaveholders and the slave revolts: One-third of the southern population comprised of slaves in the Antebellum South. A good number of these slaves subsisted on either huge farms or plantations with most of the masters owning only less than 50 slaves. A strict method of restrictive codes regulated the lives of these slaves as the slave owners wanted the slaves to be entirely dependent upon their masters. The slaves we re strictly interdicted by their masters from educating themselves. The behavior as well as the movement of the slaves were also governed by the slave owners and were restricted. Slave owners took sexual privileges with slave