How bad was slavery?

Question

What is your opinion... Slavery wasn't that bad was it? or Slavery was as bad as you could possibly imagine.

Points for the best argument.

Answer 1

Depends on the context.

The winner's view of history has made slavery as a whole to be something that it was not.

False "facts" about slavery: slavery was all about racism, masters owned slaves so they wouldn't have to work, all masters abused their slaves, all slaves wanted to be freed.

With all of those things being put forward as "facts" about slavery, it sure looks bad. The thing is that those were and are myths.
Did those things occur, yes, in all cases, no, far from it.
Many of the answers that will be provided here will be using those thoughts as facts, and that will cause people to make wrong conclusions.

Slavery started, and continued (and may continue to this day) not as a racial action, but an economic action. Many slaves were put in that position by debt to someone. They would be the slaves until their debt was paid. That occurred before the creation of "indentured service."
The VAST majority of slaves in the South, prior to the Civil War, were the only slave owned by a family and would work, eat, sleep, and live with their owners.
Most masters did not abuse their slaves. Slaves were property, it made no sense for a person to cripple or hurt their own property. Some did it, yes, but not most.
Not all slaves wanted freedom. Many slaves chose, of their own will, to fight to the death to defend their master's land when Union troops arrived.

Answer 2

Some aspects of slavery would not be considered too bad today, while other aspects are just about unimaginable. Slave owners, if they were smart, protected their investment by providing total health care. Many taught their slaves how to read and add and subtract. They could then contribute more to the plantation's commercial ventures. Whipping was not as common a practice as some would have us believe. However, families were separated at auctions, slaves had no rights per se, were probably overworked during harvest, and field hands were not generally educated. Mostly, the only religion they got was whatever the master provided, which was a sermon by his minister once or twice a year. Slavery has been a traditional way of getting rid of prisoners of war for thousands of years. Every tribe; black, white, red, yellow has gone through it at some point.

Answer 3

My two points:

1. Slavery in America's 19th Century was not unlike it is as it exists today in Sudan. You have no rights, no recourse, no tools to effect change.... Life and love can be taken from you at will. A horrific thought to say the least....

2. The great debate on slavery in the US is really this: Was slavery caused by racism? Or, was racism caused by slavery? The answer to that question will guide your understanding of the topic as a whole. The fact that slavery and racism are intertwined is purely American. It did not happen in other slave societies like it did here.

Answer 4

It was as bad then as it still is today.
Worse than you could possibly imagine.

If you are talking about the african slave trade of 200,and 100 years ago.
It has happened since about 2000 b.c. possibly before.
Basically ever since commerce required cheap labour to do tasks others thought were beneath them.
Now it occurs in the U.K. and Europe. Slave immigrants are kept in appalling conditions, work 16hour days and then have to give their wages to the landlord. If their lucky, they might only have to stay in a container on a ship for a week before they arrive. Then their passports are confiscated and they are put in squats. Often 4 or 5 to a room. No kitchen( so they have to pay more of their wage to eat).
Many of the women are 'sold' into prostitution, where pimps will bid to 'own' them. All the money they make again goes to the slave traders.
It is unfortunately very common, and seems to occur with any group of people who are so desperate to leave their country for a better life can be exploited by cruel means.
Fear prevents the victims from reporting their abuse to the authorities and Government does not win votes by being nice to illegal immigrants.
So the problem continues.

Answer 5

No, I don't think that slavery was a bad thing, in fact I think it put all of the people that went through it in a better place. Let's see, you've been stolen, by force, from the only home that you have ever known, stacked 400 deep in the hull of a ship and sailed to a land that you have never even imagined existed. You can't speak to the captors to even beg for your life. And then you are sold, your children are sold, not with you, because they are harder to train that way. You no longer have a name, you are called boy or girl. How liberating that must have been, No kids, no name, no worries. Wow I guess now that I think about how we just got the right to vote in 1964, and the right to own land in 1968, and the freedom to go to the same school as white people around the same time, we haven't been oppressed that long. And to think a black man has now got the nerve to run for President, uppity boy, someone better stop him before he halts all the good progress coloreds have made over the years. And just think, If my Great-Great Grandmother had not sunk and read those books, how much better off we would be. But maybe I'm thinking to much and should try going back to that slave mentality that white people are always talking about.

Answer 6

At one point in US history Irishmen were considered less valuable than blacks.
A slave was an investment, you didnt want to risk their life. Irishmen were cheap and expendable. They did the highly dangerous work at virtually no pay.

Economically you were in a similar situation.
Socially you were about the same-everyone looked down on both groups.
That said, being Irish in the time still would have been better; at least you had your freedom. You couldnt be sold and forced to leave your family.
You were allowed to practice whatever religion you wanted, legally at least-whether you would be persecuted is a different matter, but at least it wasnt legal.
You were also allowed to form a family that was recognized by the gov't.

Even a good master couldnt make slavery any good. Id rather live in the streets fighting for my food and survival than live in a mansion but only at the whim of another.
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FYI: Loren is rather anti-south based on his other answers. He fails to acknowledge that slavery was just as rampant in the north, as was racism. It ended earlier for economics, not human rights.

Answer 7

There were slaves who were content with their lives. There might even have been slaves who believed it was right. All these things are true and possible - HOWEVER, the overwhelming majority of slaves hated every moment of iot, and even those that were "treated well" hated it. Some were beaten and killed, seperated from their family, threatened with harm for the most minor infraction, humiliated in every conceivable way. But even those who didn't know those indignities would risk death to be free.

How BAD? It was a matter of degrees, but it was all a degree of bad.

Picture yourself as a slave for two minutes, then imagine your whole life that way.

Answer 8

Slavery was EXCRUTIATINGLY BAD!
I can't imagine what they went through..
Can you imagine being a woman at that time your children are sold off..and then you the mother are repeatedly raped..and if your dark skinned african woman you worked way more (in the plantations, all the cotton picking, lifting, laundry..ect) because you're considered "ugly" or "monster-like". If you were a light skinned african woman you did work around the house. All these africans whether light, dark, medium or woman, child or man were prohibited from learning (no reading, writing or good speaking). They always ate the greasy, very fattening scraps>> that's why soulfood is quite fattening but otherwise soo delicious.
They also don't even know what their origins are! All they know for sure is that they are "American" but where do they come from truly..? Jamaica..Brazil..RDC...Congo...Cameroon...Mozambique??
Also most of the africans deported in America have NEVER recovered from slavery! Even though the US of A was built on the backs, hands, sweat, tears and suffereing of these africans...what do they really have of their own?
Also when slavery was over did it really get any better??
they were "free"...yea they couldn't get decent jobs, they were outcasts, ostracised, told where to sit, where to pee, where to eat...etc>> so they were treated as second class citizens..even less than animals in my opinion!
If it wasn't for courageous black children, men and women that risked their lives, their "liberty" and well-being..the situation would've never gotten better!
Even now racism is more prevalent on black men, women and children... it's truly sad and heart wrenching..it seems sometimes that they will never escape the caucasian domination..
I hope one day I can see African Americans rise up just like the North Africans and the Asians and and some Central American and South American countries..they TRULY deserve it.

Answer 9

Slavery operated on the concepts that 1) you could own another human being 2) you could treat that human being as you wished, as an animal, as livestock and 3) that human being wasn't as good as you or had the same rights as you.

Slavery was quite bad.

Answer 10

The thing that always makes me think was a picture of a slave auction in my history book. A mother was being sold separately from her children.

I cannot imagine what that would be like- and can't think of much worse- for that alone it would get my "incredibly bad, horrible" vote.

I still don't understand how this could have possibly happened! Who would ever think that enslaving people would be the right thing to do?