Introduction
Slavery is an infamous system that used to be a part of the history of many countries, and the US is not an exception. The current project aims at investigating the history of slavery and its influence on modern social relations. Slavery was abolished many decades ago, but in the minds of many people, unjustified biases still exist. The thesis of the paper is, “Although slavery has been abolished, its corrupt premises continue to influence the contemporary society in a variety of ways.”
The History of Slavery
Historically, slavery can be traced back to the earliest civilizations, where it was based on social hierarchy and racial differences between people. In ancient societies, slavery served an integral role (Walvin, 2014). In ancient Greece, Egypt, and Roman Empire, slave force was used for various purposes, with male slaves predominantly used for heavy work and female slaves for household chores. Slaves were bought and sold like objects, and they’re even were slave markets for such a purpose. What is curious, however, is that the rise of slavery enabled ancient civilizations to develop democracy (Walvin, 2014). Slaves gave citizens an opportunity to engage in civic duties. Further, slavery expanded overseas, and the Atlantic crossing started.
Atlantic slavery changed the history of Africa, the Americas, and even Europe. Slaves were used on ships that had a variety of destinations. Out of twelve million of those people, only ten and a half managed to survive the crossing (Walvin, 2014). Despite the fact that slaves were treated with no respect, slavers did not like losing any of their “human objects” because that would mean losing profit. Thus, even though slaves were deprived of freedom, their lives were valued at least because their owners counted on earning money by selling them. Even with the abolishment of slavery, some peculiarities of white people’s attitude towards African Americans continue to undermine equality and peacefulness in the world.
The Impact of Slavery on the Contemporary Society
One of the most common effects of slavery in the modern world is skin color prejudice. This issue originates from ancient times when people with white skin decided that they could dominate individuals with dark skin. Such discrimination impacts millions of African Americans and Latinos due to the psychological pressure they experience (Chavez-Dueñas, Adames, & Organista, 2014). Racist ideologies, which appeared back in the 14th century during the conquest of Conquistadors, gave way to what is presently known as “colorism” (Chavez-Dueñas et al., 2014, p. 3). The outcome of such a biased attitude is that African Americans experience feelings of shame, anger, or even guilt (Chavez-Dueñas et al., 2014). Since such social inequality leads to serious psychological outcomes, it is crucial to draw the public’s and government’s attention to the problem and find ways of eliminating the adverse impact of slavery.
Conclusion
The proposed project aims at analyzing the aftermath of slavery in modern society. It is argued that despite having been abolished, this destructive system still affects interracial communication and undermines the dignity of people of African American descent. The investigation of the history of slavery allows concluding that some rules set in ancient times are falsely considered true by many people living in the modern world. In order to minimize the adverse impact of slavery on individuals, it is necessary to pay more attention to the spread of information about the roots of this immoral system.
References
Chavez-Dueñas, N. Y., Adames, H. Y., & Organista, K. C. (2014). Skin-color prejudice and within-group racial discrimination: Historical and current impact on Latino/a populations. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 36(1), 3-26.
Walvin, J. (2014). Atlas of slavery. New York, NY: Routledge.