Reflection #3

Destiny DeSilva

ENG 1121 – D420

Reflection 

 

      After All, Didn’t America Invent Slavery?

 

Throughout the years school has taught us that slavery existed hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Black people being mistreated, white people being slave owners, black people did not know how to read or write and a few would try to escape the darkness of being enslaved but failed to do so. Black women would get raped by their own, as they say “slave masters”. Stories after stories were told generations after generations about slavery and how colored people were mistreated. Books, movies, and media would create things for us to see and believe that slavery existed. However, would you thunk that slavery was only an American thing? People only recognized slavery that happened in America but never realized that it also happened in other countries as well. For example, in the article it states that in 1619 “is the date of the arrival of the first slaves to the land that would a century-and-a-half later be called the United States.” This shows that majority of the people know that in America slavery was the foundation. Not knowing that slavery did not only took place in American but also in ancient times also.

During the ancient times slavery was much worse than slavery in American. Their punishments would be actual death, decapitating peoples heads, cutting of their body parts, etc. Slavery wasn’t easy during ancients times. In the article it states that “in the 1700s B.C., the Egyptian pharaohs enslaved the Israelites, as is discussed in Exodus Chapter 12. Later, the pagan Greeks participated in slavery, for ancient Sparta as well as Athens relied fully on the slave labor of captives.” Slavery was all over the not just in one place. The Egyptians pharaohs did not play when it insisted on their slaves and they would do anything in their power to have work for hours and hours. Slavery spread throughout the ancient times before it arrived to America. The Romans, Egyptians, Greeks, etc. Slavery existed century after century and generations after generations even. “By the year 1000 A.D., slavery had become common in England’s rural, agricultural economy.” Even in the most uncommon countries slavery occurred as well. History does not only take place in one setting, it takes place in  multiple places and different destinations. Our resources only show that history took place in one setting which is America, however it doesn’t show that slavery also happened during the ancient. In some resources it does include it but not as often for our people to be educated. In my opinion I also believed that slavery only happened in America. However, after being educated and reading different resources I now know it did not only happen in America.