Colonial Slave Labor: Issues and Implications - Essay Sample

Introduction

In colonial America, labor that was required in the colonies was not easily available. As a result of this, there the colonialists wanted to have some good supply of labor to carry out certain activities within their territories. What came along with this need by the colonialists was the introduction of slave labor. This later brought about a lot of issues from the slave labor, as discussed in the scope of this paper.

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Discussion

To suit the demand for labor in the colonial territories, they started getting people and forcing them to work for them without any pay or wages. The people who would provide the labor were slaves, and they would be caught forcefully and confined within the colonial empires to always work tirelessly and do all the work. There are so many things that came along with the change of using slaves for the provision of work in colonial America (Allen, 2012). One of the things brought about by the development of the usage of slaves for labor is the existence of the slave trade. The chiefs began selling their people and especially the young youths who were strong to the colonialists who would take them to work for them.

This, in return, led to the increased risks and problems in the areas and rivalry increased as the slaves were being sought for. Some of the communities from which the slaves were being sought from also began to resist the slaves being gotten from their people, and this brought about wars within these communities and the people who were taking part in the slave trade. There were so many changes that were brought about by the practice of slave labor in colonial America. The changes and the problems were the likes of the interference of the peaceful situation in the areas of these slaves. This is because they did not want to give in to the situation and allow these colonialists to misuse their people into slavery (Phillips, 2013). The fights continued to intensify every time. A lot of people lost their lives in the fights to resist slavery, and as a result, the people began forming resistance groups and other groups that called for reforms to reduce the impact of the slavery and slave trade within the confines of America.

Even though slavery and the slave trade had adverse effects on the people, there are other unintended consequences that it brought about. These consequences were both positive and negative ones. For example, the positive consequences attached to this slavery were that there were a lot of interactions of the people and as a result, there was the opening up of more legitimate trades within the areas, and this assisted the people in earning a living for themselves (Foner, 2013). On the other hand, disruption of the peace of the people and the wars caused other serious issues like increased crime among the people and the death of so many innocent citizens.

Conclusion

In conclusion, slavery in colonial America affected the lives of the people in very many negative ways. However, the interventions by different individuals and groups of people brought slave labor and slave trade to a drastic end. This was when groups of different kinds were formed to resist this kind of vice in the American community. This has seen the creation of a peaceful and free America in the present days.

References

Allen, R. C., Murphy, T. E., & Schneider, E. B. (2012). The colonial origins of the divergence in the Americas: a labor market approach. The Journal of Economic History, 72(4), 863-894.

Foner, E. (2013). Give Me Liberty! An American History: Seagull Fourth Edition (Vol. 1). WW Norton & Company.

Phillips, U. B. (2013). American Negro Slavery-A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime. Read Books Ltd.