The 1600s until the end of 1800 were devastating for the African slaves who were shipped to America. We could not say precisely how many lives were destroyed, but we can estimate that 10 to 15 million slaves were forcibly transported across the Atlantic Ocean. Only a few made it out alive.
Slavery in America began in 1619 when the first slave traders brought African slaves by ships to the North American colony of Jamestown in Virginia. Once on shipboard, slaves were chained together and crammed into spaces sometimes less than one and a half meter high. One observer said that slaves were packed together 'like books upon a shelf, so close that the shelf would not easily contain one more.' Conditions within the slave ships were unspeakably awful. Inside the hold there were urine, vomit, mucous, and other horrific odors, many got sick and died on the journey. The ones who sold slaves got very rich and was called slave trader. A slave trader only cared about money, and not how the slaves were doing. Almost every slave had lost almost everything because of this, for example in the book “12 Years a Slave” we see Solomon get separated from his family. His family was everything he had left, but he keeps on trying to get back to them.
The slaves in the US were supposed to build the economic foundation of the new nation. Most slaves worked as house servants but many also did farm labor, such as plant and harvesting cotton or tobacco. It was true that the slaves were capable of working very hard compared to whites, but it was also something that they had to do, to not get punished or die. This was a matter of discrimination and race problems were present, especially in the bigger slave states in Southern USA like Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Virginia, Mississippi, and Alabama.
In conclusion, slavery never did any good to any human being. It must have been horrible to be a slave and lose everything. I felt sad when I read the book “12 Years a Slave” and saw how the slaves struggled to stay alive. I felt that I was very lucky to live in one of the best countries in the whole world.
Sources:
https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/series/america-on-the-world-stage/origins-american-slavery
https://www.toppr.com/guides/essays/slavery-essay/