Essay/Term paper: African and native american slavery

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Racism and Discrimination

African and Native American Slavery


Scot Ferguson
11-12-96
period 2

The 1500's, a time of discovery, was when the Europeans came to dominate
most of the New World. The Europeans traveled to Africa and captured Africans
to help develop their land and satisfy their need for power. I feel that the
treatment of the Indians and Africans by the Europeans was completely
unjustifiable. While the Indians and Africans were less technologically
advanced and the Europeans were uneducated, in this particular field, nothing
can compensate for the actions of the Europeans.
As Europeans began to settle new lands they began their exploration of
the foreign worlds. What they found was the opposite of what they expected.
They found what they thought was a new breed of humans. In reality they were
just Native Americans. These Indians were less technologically advanced than
the Europeans. They also worshipped different and multiple gods and ate
different foods. Europeans saw this as barbaric, so they treated them as
barbarians.
In the beginning Native Americans hadn't the faintest idea of what the
Europeans had in mind when they said trade. They figured that when the White
Man came and showed all that hospitality they meant it. Of course, they didn't,
the Europeans captured the Indians to be used as slaves. They were also
slaughtered and raped because of resistance to leave their land. If any Indians
refused to leave their land they would be killed. The women were raped for sick
and disgusting reasons. Europeans didn't feel that the women, or men for that
matter, were worth anything as humans so they were beat and raped without any
thought about what they might be doing.
As we watched the movie Roots, I noticed a part in the movie where they
were on a ship and a man brings in a black woman, who was a slave. The man
offered her to the ship's captain and referred to her as a belly warmer. That
got me to thinking what could be going on in that man's head as he said that.
When I heard that I was shocked that a man could treat someone like that.
People have feelings and cannot be treated as objects. Maybe the Europeans didn'
t realize that these people were, in fact people, and that drove them to this
awful conclusion that they could treat people this way.
As Europeans settled their land and began to build houses, farms and
plantations, they realized that they needed servants to assist them in their
farming. So people would travel to Africa capture blacks and then sell them to
merchants and plantation owners. They would then beat them and put them to long,
grueling work. They would treat them as they did the Indians, and for much the
same reason. They figured that since the blacks were black and appeared to be
less advanced then they must be less significant.
People of the next generation whose parents owned slaves and grew up
thinking slaves were okay is understandable. I just don't feel that anything
could justify treating the slaves they way they did. they had absolutely no
respect for them. They would savagely beat them to get them to work harder than
humanly possible and they would rape the women. I don't think that I will ever
know how any one could do such a thing.
I conclusion I strongly feel that the way Europeans treated people that
were less technologically advanced is completely and utterly wrong. It is
difficult to contemplate what was going on in their heads as they were capturing
them, killing them and even raping them. I can not believe how they could think
that the color of someone's ones skin or religious beliefs could make them less
human. I am glad I live in a country based on the belief that all men are
created equal.