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Africans' impact on the building of America's economy Date published: 2/28/2009
IT HAS BEEN well-documented that the first slaves arrived at the settlement located at Jamestown in 1619. American slavery lasted for an astonishing 246 years until the Emancipation Proclamation was written into law by President Abraham Lincoln. For three centuries African slaves were transported throughout the Colonies in record numbers. Documentation of slaves as cargo on slave ships and the economic gains from their laborious serfdom didn't begin until 1700, so there is an 81-year gap in statistical data for the number of Africans brought through the Middle Passage. Initially, American Indians and indentured servants from England and Ireland were to supply the source of arduous labor for yielding a prodigious tobacco crop, but this experiment was short-lived. As their brethren in the Caribbean did, colonists decided to turn their eyes Over the aforementioned years they amassed an immeasurable fortune on the backs of West African slaves. Slaves were arriving by the thousands while their owners were enjoying obscene amounts of income. The South in particular became a formidable agricultural society through the expansion of tobacco, rice and indigo plantations and later cotton. The profits made from the sale of these goods in Europe were used to purchase more slaves. Here in Fredericksburg, the slave auction block is still located at the corner of William and Charles streets. The exact role of the stone itself has been debated over the years, with some saying it might have supported the feet of auctioneers rather than of the human beings they sold. Blacks aided development According to "A Different Story: The American Revolution brought forth a new set of challenges. Tobacco exportation to Europe took a sizable hit here in Virginia and Maryland. The North abolished slavery in most of its territories, shifting their focus to an industrial foundation. The South was left to wonder where it would find its next cash crop.
Date published: 2/28/2009
This article is full of incorrect historical information and uses superlatives inappropriately. It is laced with unsubstantiated opinions and is not up to the quality of articles normally found in this section of the FLS. Obscene profit indeed. Ben Franklin as a slave owner. LOL. The article would be acceptable in a seventh grade class but not in a newspaper of this caliber. If we want to assess blame for slavery we can't do so without including Africans who sold their brothers and sisters into slavery.
A mostly believable article but some folks can probably take issue with parts of it. For example I do believe immigration to the new world was not limited to black slaves. One opinion is blacks have their history in this country and what they accomplished is probably not any more or less than everyone else did in the development of the United States. What seems to get loss these days is the 1+ million white males that died in keeping this homeland safe for all of us.
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