Interpretations of Slavery Essay -- Slavery Essays

Interpretations of SlaveryINTRODUCTIONSlavery is known to turn in existed as early as the 18th century B.C. during the Shang Dynasty of China. Slavery was wide practiced in umpteen other countries, including, Korea, India, Greece, Mexico and Africa. (Britannica 288-89). When most people pass on slaveholding, however, they think of Western slavery in North America because it is come up documented and it was such a horrible cornerstone. Even though in that respect is no one definition of slavery, the people who study it (historians, anthropologists and sociologists) agree that authentic characteristics are present in all forms of slavery. Slaves were property and objects, not subjects of the law. Slaves had few rights, always fewer than their owners. Slave were also limited to few amic sufficient activities and were not allowed to participate in political decisions. Finally, any earnings aquired by slaves by law belonged to their master. Also, slaves were prevented from making their own choices regarding physical reproduction. Western slavery took each of these slave characteristics to a new level and as a result there are many authors who wrote about the evil institution of slavery in the Colonies. American literature is full of authors who describe, condone or oppose slavery, the most informative and influential of whom were Black writers because many were able to give a personal perspective on slavery. These Black writers had to battle to be accepted as literary writers before they could get their contentedness across. The tradition of black writing in the United States is, in many ways, a history of attempts at literary liberation from racism-attempts to articulate in a specifically black context the characteristic American themes of granting immunity and self-determ... ...d by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Penguin crowd Publishing, New York, 1987. Costanzo, Angelo. Surprizing account, Olaudah Equiano and the Beginnings of the Black Autobiography, New York Greenwood Press, 1987.Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Penguin Group Publishing, New York, 1987.Equiano, Olaudah. The provoke Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Penguin Group Publishing, New York, 1987.Hughes, Langston, Milton Meltzon. A Pictorial History of the Negro and America, New York Crown, 1968.ONeale Sondra. Olaudah Equiano, lexicon of Literary Biography, American Writers of the Early Republic, ed. Emory Elliot. Vol 37. Princeton Bruccoli, Clark and Layman Book, 1985. Slavery. The New Encyclopedia Britannica. 1995 ed.