The Atlantic slave trade
Throughout the fifteenth century, all the way until
the mid 19th century, slaves were being shipped to the Americas by
way of the middle passage. It has been estimated that over eleven million
slaves were shipped during this time period. I have always been strongly
against slavery and everything that it stood for, but lets take a second and
ask ourselves, has slavery helped our current society? I believe the answer is
yes, it has helped our current society. My reasoning on saying this is strictly
my own opinion. I believe that in today’s world, in America, we have the most
diverse society in the world. I do not believe that we would be even as close
to diverse as we are now if we never would have had eleven million slaves come
over on boats.
When I make my argument, by no means am I arguing
that slavery is a good thing. Obviously, there are way more negatives that came
with slavery than the lone positive of eventually making us a very diverse
nation. I would love to see the later effects of how diverse we would currently
be if eleven million people were not brought over and treated as slaves, but as
a regular working man or woman. If
that were to be the case, then there would be more than eleven million. It has
been estimated that millions of slaves were killed or died in the process of
being shipped to America. Most died due to infection or being mal nourished due
to the conditions in which they were shipped, often in the bottom cellars of
the ships.
Some scholars will say that the development of racism
began because of slavery. It has been said that because the slaves were black,
and the people in America were European, this sparked racism. I do not believe that
this is true, I believe the Europeans felt that they had a sense of entitlement
because the Africans came here by way of slavery.
By no means in this post is my point to prove or even say that slavery was a good thing.
I believe that the act of slavery, and forcing people into our country by way of boat is a terrible act. My point
is that now, that all men are equal in America, it helped make us who we are
today as one of the most diverse countries in the world.
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