Slavery

    Over time I have been taught in the past that slavery was a bad thing that was wrong in every way. I was taught that no matter how you looked at slavery it was a bad thing. I wasn't taught the other side of slavery, about how it was a major role in the south. What I recently learned is that slavery used to be thought of as as way of life. It was the way things had to be in order to thrive with an agricultural society. This is why it was defended so avidly by the confederate states. I learned that it was tied in with the wealth of the south. It was at such large amounts of influence that the southern states would be almost worthless without slavery. Even with the fact that only one percent of whites owned large amounts of slaves. From the other point of view, slavery was awful. Slaves were forced to work against their will. They could be raped and beaten by their masters without question. They were transported across the Atlantic Ocean in the most obscene ways just so they could make more money. They had no rights and no say in anything that effected the way they lived. They were separated from their families and sold without question. I can not imagine how it must have felt to be taken away from your family members and not seeing them again. These reasons are why slavery was seen as unethical and sick in many ways.