Paper Example: Slavery in North America

Slavery is a state by which someone is forced to work for another person. Slave narratives are expressions that articulate the experience of people during their slavery lives. The people affected by slave are immigrants and the less privileged in the society. In most parts of the world, like America, black people were oppressed through slavery (Acharya, Blackwell, & Sen, 2016).

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Slavery in America started in 1619. It was started by the White Lion who had purchased 20 Africans in the British colony. During the 17th and i8th century, people in Africa were being kidnapped and forced to work as servants and labourers in tobacco and cotton plantations. In North America, slave narrative shows daily life experience of slaves, their physical suffering, mental suffering, memories that they underwent in such of freedom. One of the black people who suffered this experience was John Quincy Adams (Acharya, Blackwell, & Sen, 2016).

John Quincy Slavery Narrative

John Adams, in his slavery life, went through experiences like oppression, violation of human dignity, race segregation and physical violence (Andrews, 2011). John Adams was born in 1845 in Virginia in a family of twenty-five children. His father and mother were both slaves, but now they are enjoying good freedom, and they are in good health condition as every citizen. John's parents used to encourage him that one day they will be free from slavery. John had an interest in knowing how to read and write, but he never had the chance to learn. These were because the white did not want any black people to learn about reading and writing. Whenever John could hear someone read, he would go near to listen. Through this slavery that John underwent, he viewed the world from a different perspective compared to the first-generation slave perspective.

First-Generation Slavery Perspectives Compared to John Adams's perspective.

After slavery life, John Adams became educated (Andrews, 2011). He started to fight for the rights of slaves, where he defended the kidnapped slaves in a court. John stated that the abducted slaves had the right to rebel as they had the right to be free just as the Americans would. John formed anti-slavery rebellions that would assist the blacks in future to fight for their rights and freedom.

Contrary to this, the Americans never supported this anti-slavery movement (Acharya, Blackwell, & Sen, 2016). They viewed that the black people knowing of their rights would make them lack servants and labour people to work in their tobacco farms. As a way of restricting the blacks, the Americans had banned the Africans following their cultures and traditions. After the formation of the rebel groups, which resulted in civil wars, the blacks started to follow their lifestyles. These contributed significantly in the fight for their freedom which they enjoy up to date.

Conclusion

Slavery narratives gathered from experience faced by specific individuals like John Adams. John Adams narrative brought out the rights and slaves that individual possessed against slavery. Oppression of the less privileged in America was mainly for immigrants like black Africans. Some parts of the world still face the slavery issue but not as rampant as in the past. The question of slavery in these few places should be controlled entirely and abolished.

References

Acharya, A., Blackwell, M., & Sen, M. (2016). The political legacy of American slavery. The Journal of Politics, 78(3), 621-641.

Andrews, W. L. (Ed.). (2011). Slave narratives after slavery. Oxford University Press.