Slavery refers to the condition in which individuals are owned by others who control where they live and what they do. Simply put, to be a slave is to be owned by another person who is known as your master. A slave is a human being classified as property and forced to work for nothing. Slavery had existed throughout history in many places and at many times. The ancient Greeks, Romans, Incas, and Aztecs all owned slaves.
Slavery in the United States of America began during the colonial period in 1619, when Dutch traders brought 19 black Africans to the North American colony, Jamestown, Virginia, as laborers to work primarily in the production of tobacco crops and, later, cotton. Slavery was practiced in the American colonies throughout the 17th and 18th centuries and prevailed for nearly 250 years.
According to historians David Brion Davis and Eugene Genovese, the treatment of slaves in America was harsh and inhumane during the play and out of it. The slaves suffered physical abuse and the striking thing is that the government allowed it. Although the treatment of slaves varied according to time and place; but overall it was brutal and degrading. Most masters viewed their slaves as objects like their land, something to “spend, not improve.”
Slaves were assigned in the plantation area to live in quarters. On some plantations the owners provided housing for the slaves, while on others the slaves had to build their own houses. They lived crowded together in crude cabins. One recalled: “We stayed in log cabins, and wooden floors on the bare ground were an unknown luxury. In one room we were herded like cattle, ten or a dozen people, men, women, and children… no We had no beds, no furniture of any kind, and our beds were a collection of straws and old rags.”
Slaves wore clothing made of coarse material and often did not fit well. In addition, slaves were punished with whipping, shackles, beatings, mutilation, and imprisonment. Punishment was often meted out in response to disobedience, but teachers sometimes abused them or falsely punished them to assert their dominance. The ill-treatment did not end here; it also included rape, sexual abuse of women, beating of pregnant women, and such cruelties were more prominent in the southern states than in the northern ones.
Teaching slaves to read was discouraged. However, in the 18th century, the abolitionist movement began in the north, and the country began to divide between north and south. In 1820, the “Missouri Compromise” outlawed slavery in all new western territories, which the southern states saw as a threat to the institution of slavery itself. In 1857, the Supreme Court decision known as the “Dred Scott Decision” said that blacks were not citizens and had no right to citizenship; therefore, slaves who escaped to free states were not free but remained the property of their owner and must be returned to them. The election of Abraham Lincoln, a member of the anti-slavery Republican Party, to the presidency in 1860 convinced many Southerners that slavery would never be allowed to spread and therefore should be abolished. Some southern states reacted against it and this led to the Civil War. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued his famous “emancipation proclamation” freeing slaves in all areas of the country that were in rebellion at the time. Ultimately, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution officially freed American slaves.
African-American literature is literature written by, about, and sometimes specifically for African-Americans. The craze began during the 18th and 19th centuries with writers such as the poet Philis Wheatley and the orator Frederick Douglass reaching an early high point with the Harlem Renaissance and continues today with authors such as Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou being among the best writers. from United States. African-American literature tends to focus on topics of interest to blacks, such as the role of African-Americans within American society in general, and topics such as African-American culture, racism, religion, slavery, freedom, and equality. The approach began with early African-American writing, such as the slave narrative, a type of literary work that is made up of written accounts by enslaved Africans. The slave narrative contains a detailed account of the aforementioned conditions of the slaves.
The first prominent African-American author, the poet Philis Wheatley, published her book “Poems on Various Subjects” in 1773, three years before American independence. Born in Senegal, Africa, Wheatley was captured and sold into slavery at the age of 7. She brought to America, she was owned by a Boston merchant. Although she initially did not speak English, by the time she was 16, she was fluent in the language. Her poetry was praised by many of the leading figures of the American Revolution.
Despite this, many white people found it hard to believe that a black woman could be smart enough to write poetry. As a result, Wheatley had to defend herself in court by proving that she actually wrote the poetry for her.
To present the true reality of slavery, several former slaves such as Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass wrote slave narratives. After the end of slavery, various African authors continued to write non-fiction works about the conditions of African Americans in the country. Among the featured strangers is WEB Du Bois. Another prominent author of this period is Booker Taliaferro Washington (1856-1915), who in many ways represented views opposed to those of Du Bois. He belonged to the last generation of slave-born black African leaders and became a leading voice for former slaves and their descendants. He is known for his “Atlanta Commitment” speech. He called for the advancement of blacks through education and entrepreneurship, rather than trying to directly challenge the segregation and disenfranchisement of black voters in the South.
Unlike Du Bois, who took a more confrontational approach to ending racial strife in the United States, Washington believed that blacks should first stand up and show they are equal to whites before calling for an end to racism. His autobiography “The Story of My Life and Work” was published in 1900 for a largely African-American audience. Meanwhile, during the years 1900-1901, Washington began publishing “Up From Slavery,” a serialized account of his life in the popular ‘Outlook’ magazine. “Up From Slavery” charts his journey from slave to educator. The book begins with the hardships of Washington’s childhood, beginning with his life as a slave on a Virginia plantation, where the lack of a last name and a story that gave identity to his existence was painful and difficult to understand. . He mentions the fidelity and loyalty of the slaves to the master, but emphasizes the brutality of the institution: the lack of refinement in life, poor food, bad clothing and ignorance were the lot of the slaves. The struggle for literacy is the focus of the immediate chapters. In the final chapter of “Up From Slavery,” Washington describes his career as a public speaker and civil rights activist. He was an educator and founder of the Tuskgee Institute, a black university in Alabama. Among his other published works are “The Fortune of American Negro” (1899), “Tuskgee and its People” (1905) and “My Larger Educ” (1911).
Lorraine Vivian Hansberry was the first black woman to write a play on Broadway. Her best-known work, “A Raisin in the Sun,” highlights the lives of black Americans living under racial segregation in Chicago. Hansberry’s family fought segregation, challenging a restrictive covenant and eventually sparking the Supreme Court case Hansberry v. Lee.
In New York City, Hansberry works at the pan-Africanist newspaper ‘Freedom’, where he deals with intellectuals like Du Bois. Much of his work during this time concerned the African liberation struggle and its impact on the world. Hansberry has been identified as a lesbian, and sexual freedom is a major theme in several of her works.
His play “A Raisin in the Sun” was translated into 35 languages and performed all over the world. “A Raisin in the Sun” is riddled with conflicts: generational conflicts, gender conflicts, ideological conflicts, and perhaps most importantly, dream conflicts that are at the center of the play. The dream is one of the characteristic themes of the work. Each character in the play has a very specific dream. Walter dreams of success, Mama dreams of a proper home for her family to prosper, Beneatha dreams of becoming a doctor. These dreams stimulate the characters and frustrate them, as with each passing day a plan to achieve these dreams is not achieved.
African Americans, who suffered greatly physically and mentally, produced fantastic literary works that won honor not only in the United States but also throughout the world. His works mostly reflect his suffering and struggle to achieve an identity in white society. They did an immense service to English literature and continue to do the same.
