Millions of Black people born in the U.S. Slavery became permanent and hereditary, defined by race-based ideologies that insisted on racial subordination of Black people for decades after the formal abolition of slavery. Legal and political systems were created to codify racial hierarchy and ensure white supremacy. From New England to Texas, Black people were dehumanized and abused while they were enslaved and denied basic freedoms. In the “colonies” that became the United States, slavery took on uniquely appalling features. The Americas became a place where race and color created a caste system defined by inequality and abuse. The African continent was left destabilized and vulnerable to conquest and violence for centuries. Nearly two million people died during the barbaric Middle Passage across the ocean. The Transatlantic Slave Trade represents one of the most violent, traumatizing, and horrific eras in world history. Disease, famine, and conflict killed millions of Native people within a relatively short period of time.ĭetermined to extract wealth from these distant lands, European powers sought labor from Africa, launching a tragic era of kidnapping, abduction, and trafficking that resulted in the enslavement of millions of African people.īetween 15, nearly 13 million African people were kidnapped, forced onto European and American ships, and trafficked across the Atlantic Ocean to be enslaved, abused, and forever separated from their homes, families, ancestors, and cultures. In territories we now call “the Americas,” gold, sugar, tobacco, and extraordinary natural resources were viewed as opportunities to gain power and influence for Portugal, Spain, Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, and Scandinavian nations.Įuropeans first sought to enslave the Indigenous people who occupied these lands to create wealth for foreign powers, resulting in a catastrophic genocide. The abduction, abuse, and enslavement of Africans by Europeans for nearly five centuries dramatically altered the global landscape and created a legacy of suffering and bigotry that can still be seen today.Īfter discovering lands that had been occupied by Indigenous people for centuries, European powers sent ships and armed militia to exploit these new lands for wealth and profit starting in the 1400s. But in the 15th century, an expanded and terrifying new era of enslavement emerged that has had a profound and devastating impact on human history. Many societies tolerated and condoned human slavery for centuries. Denying a person freedom, autonomy, and life represents the worst kind of abuse of human rights. The enslavement of human beings occupies a painful and tragic space in world history.
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