Slavery wasn't Treated Equally

The main discrimination that set the world apart from slaves was that slave owners saw their slaves as inferior.

The slave owner felt superior.

Because many of the slaves that came to America came from a background of criminals or homelessness or indebtedness.

Many came with contracts that owed a debt for their passageways to America. 

And many African tribes sold slaves for indebtedness.

Some slaves came from emperors.

They came indentured with a jagged-edged contract to America.

There was an understanding with many of them if their passageways to the New America were paid, they would be indebted to their slave owner for a certain number of years.

They were torn apart from family and peers.

They signed an agreement to work until their debts were paid in full.

Some worked in the hot tobacco fields and some worked to pick cotton for wool.

Some of them were sent to factories for the manufacturing of weapons for war.

Some of them were indentured for 3 to 11 years. Some worked longer years scared of starvation. Never reaching the year to emancipation.

There were many trials for the new slaves to face, from being overworked to catching sickness and diseases and wild American Indians. Not to mention, the rough waters to get to America. A lot of slaves died on hot overcrowded ships filled with diseases never reaching the shores to America.

There were some black Nigerians and white slaves killed or taken and bred with American Indians.

There were some Christian slave owners that looked at it with a gentlemen's agreement and taught their slaves and treated them as an equal heir by giving them a piece of land. Not every slave owner treated their slaves the same. Just like some parents don't treat their children the same.

There were some brutal slave owners. Sir Thomas Smythe controlled Virginia from England. He set white slavery in motion. The Quaker William Penn in Pennsylvania helped make white slavery widespread. Mary of Modena sold white prisoners as slaves to the colonies. Queen Anne from London would convince Germans to come to America and she would sell their children behind their backs. The children would come to America meeting a new villain to be left to pick cotton or flax. Many children died never reaching adulthood, never having a childhood. Children became the biggest commodity because they could work the most years. But it was the blacks that could weather the hot years.

P. Kelley