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Essay: Differing Effects of Brazilian & American Slavery: History & Research

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  • Published: 19 February 2023*
  • Last Modified: 22 July 2024
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  • Words: 1,865 (approx)
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  • Tags: Slavery essays

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Slavery is when people who are known as slaves are considered property and people own them.  The owners control everything such as where they live and what the slaves do for the owners.   Slaves were forced to do their work for their owners with receiving no earnings.  Slavery was not only known to be in South and North America it also occurred with the ancient Greeks, the Romans, Incas and Aztecs. There were many differences between slavery in Brazil and America and there is research that shows slaves in the United States were often better treated than slaves in other countries such as in Brazil.

In 1498, when the Portuguese arrived, the Native Indians were infected with smallpox as the Portuguese had tried to enslave their homes. However that had failed as that’s was due because they were not used to having slave masters during this time.  Pedro Alvarez Cabal, a Portuguese explorer first explored Brazil in 1500.  During the Mid 16th century the Portuguese were bringing a significant amount of African Slaves for labor overseas to a sugar colony that was very complex. These slaves were transported through boat being isolated by gender. Prior to when the North American slave trade had gotten underway, there were more slaves imported to Brazil which was ongoing for the next 200 years.  Unfortunately, people of color who were slaves experienced a lot of violent acts by the white people.  These slave’s life on plantations and during the slave trade were cruel and unfair as the slave masters would sexually assault the women slaves, that lead to the master’s wife punishing the women slaves for that. “There they were believed to survive better than on the slave deck, but they were also accessible for sexual abuse without requiring the crew to offend their sense or to risk assault by the males by venturing below” (Module 1, Reading 2, Joseph C. Miller). A lot of times slaves had married each other too, however if they couldn’t marry they had still bonded with each other and had ‘families’. In 1888 slavery in Brazil had finally ended because of Princess Isabel had freed the slaves with the golden rule (also known as a letter) and there, no more slavery. However, there were still people who were racists and discriminated against the Africans even almost a century after Princess Isabel had freed the slaves with the golden rule. There was a lot of racial democracy that still had occurred after the golden rule.

The History of American Slavery and how and when it first started was in 1619, a Dutch ship had brought many African Slaves to shore in Virginia. During the seventeenth century, the European settlers had used slaves as a cheaper way for their labor to get done aside from using poor Europeans as their servants. It has been estimated that about 6 to 7 million healthy black slaves were taken away from Africa because they wanted the strongest and best to be slaves so that they were good workers. When it came to the late 17th/ early 18th century, tobacco, rice and plantations from Maryland, Virginia to Georgia is where many of the black slaves were working. A lot of colonists in the Northern part of America had called for the abolition of slavery after they were reminded of how the British treated them before by slavery that resulted to them realizing how bad slavery actually was. That is when all of the northern States of America had decided to abolish slavery from the years of 1774-1804, although slavery was still going on in the southern region. In 1808, the U.S congress had prohibited African slave trade causing the number of slaves to increase in the next 50 years to about 4 million with majority of them living in the cotton producing southern states. The owners of the slaves had trained them to make them rely on their owners as they were not allowed to learn how to read or write and other restrictions as well that did not allow them to be on their own. “Slave owners sought to make their slaves completely dependent on them, and a system of restrictive codes governed life among slaves” (History.com, August 27, 2018).  Finally, by the mid 1800s the movement to abolish slavery was in progress gaining advantage to finally end led by Frederick Douglass. After that had come the Missouri Compromise, Kansas-Nebraska Act, John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry to the Civil war. After President Abraham Lincoln had released the emancipation proclamation on September 22, 1862  he stated that every slave in each state should be held free which lead to 3 million black slaves free. However, it did take time to abolish all of slavery as the emancipation didn’t end all of it. Though three years later, on December 18, 1865 is the official day that slavery was abolished known as the 13th amendment leading to slaves being granted the rights to their own citizenship. However, over 10 years later is when racist organizations known as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) had prevailed in the south. Even centuries later the racism and discrimination that had started in the beginning of the slavery period had led to the civil rights movement in 1960 that would hope to gain rights for those of color to rebuild their culture, themselves and family.

The difference between Brazilian and American slavery is the USA slave trade had become abolished earlier than in Brazil. It was proven that the United States slaves were in much better condition/care (health wise) as slave birthrates were higher. However, Slavery in America were known to be the better slave system in all of history compared to the other countries. Although of course no slavery should have been allowed in the first place.  It has been documented that the American slave population has increased naturally that a little before the emancipation proclamation around half of the slaves were of young age such as 16. Compared to the West Indies, Central America and South America it appeared it was better to be a Slave in North America. “New coming slaves in Brazil were cut off from their roots quite harshly once they arrived; use of their mother tongues was forbidden, and they couldn’t practice religions other than Catholicism; even though in both fronts some levels of syncretism and heterodoxy were tolerated” (How did slavery in America and Brazil Differ?, John Dewar Gleissner, 2018). Though it was never an enjoyment to be a slave, the reason to why it was better to be a slave in North America was because their owners typically lived on slave plantations. Owners of slaves had acknowledged what the slaves’ needs were as, what to keep them happy, as well as even worshipping them. Therefore, the American slave owners had treated their servants much better than the owners overseas. Overseas in the West Indies and Brazil it was known to be more cruel and lethal. A vast amount of slaves were increasing in South America and West Indies and not in the U.S. Compared to the people in the West Indies, in the North American settlements, white and black people lived longer because of the differences of health between the two climates. It was encouraged by the slave owners that slaves in the U.S had kids but of course in South America they demoralized it because if slaves in the West Indies had children abortion would take place. Diseases that were revolving in countries other than the U.S had caused death to white people as well. The slaves in Latin America sex ratios were off as males outnumbered female slaves. Slaves were seen to be more valuable in the United states aside from the other countries they were seen as worthless. Many people saw slave owners to not care about their own slaves as they are just there for labor however when it came to the North American Slave holders they were fascinated to see their servants grow into adults as well as their children growing up as well. What makes this difference from the Brazilian colonial slaves is that they did have their own legal rights as that was undisclosed about the American Slaves. Overall, it was seen that if you were a slave and lived in North America you had gotten better “treated” by your slave owner aside from living in Brazil or the West indies.

It is obvious that slavery was wrong  for reasons as it is considered unethical or just morally wrong. Slavery is known to have violated human rights as it also increased their unhappiness, exploiting and degrading themselves as well as the way the slave owners had treated their servants for their own means. Force or threat on these servants were used leaving them a lifetime of disadvantage and discrimination. Some think that the benefits for the slave owners of having slaves was cheap labor however a matter of fact there was a lot of money going towards these slaves in the process of purchasing them such as costs of getting these slaves and slaves that needed to be replaced due to passing away or escaping. “Slave labor was not always an obvious choice; its particular value came when labor was hard to get, and war or traders were offering slaves at a price that made sense” (Ethics and Slavery, 2014). As well as having to pay for guards to make sure no slaves escape was pricey. Slave labor was convenient to those when labor was hard to do as well as those trading were offering the slaves as negotiable prices. Once slavery was abolished it did harm to some industries since slavery kept prices economical that the global prices could have shot up having done damage to human rights. Overall, we know that slaves were not an ethical or morally right act but slavery had occurred in a numerous amount of places during the ancient times.

If I were to be a slave and choose where I would want to be located in I would choose North America. Well of course no one chose to be a slave or would want to but after comparing slavery between Brazil and America it is easy to tell that slaves in the U.S were treated with more respect than in Brazil. It amazes me that back then it was ‘normal’ for people to have slaves and treat them cruel with no care at all. Some things that the Americans did better than the Brazilians were the type of plantations their slave owners lived on, the owners had treat their servants with more respect and the lives of the slaves had lasted longer due to their health and not violence. With slavery being one individual having possession over the other, controlling what they do and where they live it, that just shows how harsh it was to live in times like that back in the day and to be thankful that we as citizens have grown in a better era where slavery was eventually abolished. Though there are still racist people and have miscegenation and racial democracy we must realize that slavery results in physical and mentally harm to an innocent human beings.

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