could someone tell me the real story about slavery?

Answer 1

Sure. As human beings began to enter organized and 'civilized' societies, they realized that some, indeed many, of the people around them were less 'civilized' than themselves. This discovery led them to turn on the people in their near vicinity and enslave them with threats of killing and beatings etc. As time progressed, societies continued to get more 'civilized.' They realized that if they went to a distant area and uprooted people and dragged them somewhere completely unfamiliar, they would be helpless if they escaped. So, they started carrying people away from their homelands and enslaving them abroad to help coax them into working better and continued to beat and threaten to kill, etc. to encourage their slaves. With the accumulated wealth from more efficient slavery, societies continued to grow even more 'civilized.' They soon discovered that religion and/or superstitions and promises of eternal torture etc. were even more effective means of enslaving people, and what worked even better was convincing them that they were free; they also discovered that this could effectively do everything that uprooting slaves had done without the cost of transportation; however, they maintained their other means of 'encouraging' slaves... so the term slave went obsolete in the most 'civilized' parts of the world and was replaced with words like vassal and surfs. As the world continued becoming more 'civilized,' many of the lowest slaves began thinking about posterity and not necessarily wanting them to be slaves of this nature, so the 'luxuries' afforded to the highest slaves in the past (concubines) also began to be afforded to the lower slaves, as well, and state-sponsored rape became comon-place. As time went on and people continued getting more 'civilized' they started looking around and noticed that the slaves were very little different from their masters and were, in fact, often blood-relatives. However, luckily for 'civilization's' sake, this was around the time that people began exploring the broader world, and wha-la... low and behold, they found people who appeared a lot different and less civilized (who also lacked sophisticated weapontry), so they started uprooting them and affording to them the same 'luxuries' and 'encouragement' that they had been giving to the people they had called vassals and surfs, etc. As a special bonus, they didn't want to dissolution these people with words that might conote even a slight amount of freedom, so they started calling them slaves again. As time wore on, they found new and more creative forms of 'encouragement' that included more creative turtores and scientific proofs done in the presence of slaves of their own drastic inferiorty. In an endeavor to disprove science, slaves had the audacity to form close-knit communities and verbal tradition and lore as well as music that proved that they could be as cultured, if not as 'civilized,' as their masters. Grossly insulted, science set out to prove that slaves did not posess the full range of emotion, etc. that was endowed to their masters. These new discoveries enlightened the masters to a new form of population control whereby they continually broke up communities by selling and trading slaves numerous times in their lives. Eventually, a few very cultured but not necessary 'civilized' people began to develope habits of getting exiled from their native countries by daring to commit the intellectual heresy of asserting the possibility that slaves were being abused and that they were very little different from other people. Appalled and outraged, the 'civilized' world began pointing out the numerous advancements and profits that would be utterly impossible without slavery... extending the life of this 'civilized' institution for perhaps another hundred years. Ultimately, however, the few people who had been getting exiled used their travel-visas to their advantage and were able to become the majority of the people in many 'civilized' countries. As several wars and rebellions had become popular ways of major movements to express themselves, many governments in Europe started sympothizing with these growing movements and with the people who were enslaved. The Western world began abolishing slavery throughout itself and its colonies. Somehow, the southern United States didn't get the memo. As it began to realize that it's policy was weakening, the minority of Americans decided to implement a policy that had a tendacy to work for majorities were voting wasn't quite state-sanctioned--rebellion (not revolution because they sought to prevent change, not cause it; the North was more revolutionary [i.e. progressive]) Somehow, this strategy didn't quite work when the numbers were against them, either and the last strong-hold of slavery eventually collapsed. However, time continued to tick, and people continued to grow more 'civilized.' They continued to look for more and more ingenious ways to escape work. Many people found it in machines, but some realized that even machines were not as capable as human beings and continued looking for entire groups of people to exploit. They have found it in children and in much of the world today, child-slaves are subject to the exact sorts of treatment that the slaves before them have endured; but generally endure the worst at a younger age, even before they are capable of manual labor, many children become sex-slaves. The real story is that slavery isn't history; it has always been a systematic destruction of human lives that targets whoever has the least ability to protect him/herself, and it still continues.

Answer 2

Slavery goes way back to the beginning of civilization and was, perhaps, most notable in Ancient Egypt. However, it widely existed in the Indian Empire, the Persian Empire, the Greek city-states, the Roman Empire, on down the line until today, where it still exists. Unfortunately, I don't know NEAR enough about all the history to tell you about it, nor do I have the space, so I will simply tell you this: slavery is not an American phenomenon and should be looked at objectively when researching it.

Answer 3

Your question is very hard to answer due to the vast amounts of slavery that have occurred in known history. Slavery has roots in the conquering of nations where the losers were used as providers to the victors. All the way up to snatch and grab type slavery that was simply cheap, indentured workforce of a perceived lesser person (due to race, religion, social standing, etc) without having to invade a country.

Answer 4

Massachusetts outlawed slavery in 1755.

Saudi Arabia outlawed slavery in 1965.

The real story about slavery is that slavery is just an unfortunate reality of the human condition.

Slavery existed all over the world at every historical epoch in every civilization and culture.

In the U.S. the Cherokee Indians owned black Africans as slaves. In Africa, black Africans captured black Africans and sold them to the Arab and Portugeese for hundreds of years.

Answer 5

It's shameful what my country (the U.S.) has done to certain groups of people, including Native Americans (Trail of Tears), to advance the principles of "liberty and justice for all". But let's not forget that slavery has been around for hundreds of years and has been (and still is) an insidious form of servitude used throughout the world. Even today in the 21st Century, clothing, shoes, and other items that we buy in the fancy department stores are made in a number of third world countries where slave labor is a hideous fact of life.

Answer 6

It is not just a black/ white issue or America/Africa issue.There were slaves in ancient history, slavery is mentioned in the Bible often. The Greeks and Romans had slaves, so did the ancient Chinese...I could go on and on.
It is about one civilization overpowering another and enslaving the loosing side.

Answer 7

mac1hull gets it right

the first poster has some of it right......add to her list:

at the very top:
As far as the African slave trade goes, it starts with Africans capturing Africans and selling them to European slave traders.

( NO European country ever conquored ANY African country during the slave trade days. 100% of the slaves were caught and sold by other Africans).

In the middle: 80% of the Africans transported went to Brazil and the Caribbean Islands, not the US.

Both the US and England outlawed the slave trade a generation before the American Civil War and their navies caught and hung a lot of slavers from 1840 on...........

Answer 8

Europeans went toAfrica and took africans and put them on a boat.
Usually too many africans to a boat.
they were whipped and beaten.
they were chained to wood next to eachother.
they were given very little food and the food that they did get, they ended up throwing it up.
African were never on boats before and they got seasick.
They went to the bathroom where they were so the stench was awful.
they got washed with salt water which burned their whip slits.
many died.
when they got to america or wherever they were going.
they were bought and sold.
they were horribly mistreated.
masters were allowed to do anything they wanted to their slave.
until the civil war.
1863- The Emancipation Proclomation set them free.
it wasnt until the 1960's did African Americans get full rights.

Watch Roots. It tells the whole story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery
^more info

Answer 9

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe - best selling novel of the 19th century.

Answer 10

Not in the limited space provided here. Go to the library and check out some books.