Essay about A Respectable Trade and Amistad - 3967 Words

A Respectable Trade and Amistad An unfortunate part of history and labor involves European, American, and African slave traders engaging in the lucrative trade in humans. The movies, A Respectable Trade and Amistad show two slightly different slants to the same evil side of the concept of slavery. They point to an all too realistically gruesome picture of this despicable economic system. Although slavery contains some similarities to capitalism, it contains in it many differences as well, making it a distinct system from others that have existed. Slavery. The term and all that it embodies inspires revulsion, anger, and sadness. The history of this nation is intertwined with slavery-as many things are the result of†¦show more content†¦The lords interference with the serf over marriage and reproduction to form a family was much less than the owners (masters) interference with the slave. Furthermore, serfs often had to pay taxes, serve in the army, etc†¦ whereas slaves were usually exempt from such things since they were considered to be chattel. An indentured servant was a person who borrowed money and thus usually voluntarily agreed to work off the debt during a specific time period. While working off the debt they essentially became a servant, to those from whom they had borrowed money, for a specific period of time. Although contracts varied, sometimes they specified that the servants, when set free, were to be set free with some money, or a plot of land, or even a spouse. In contrast, if slaves were set free they simply had to hope for the generosity of their owners to prevail in any shape or form-which it often did not. Peons were another group of laborers. They were people that were either forced to work off debts or they were people who were criminals. They did not have any prespecified length of time to work. Instead they simply had to work until their debts had been paid off. (Encyclopedia Britannica) Seeing what slavery is not, one must then ask, what is slavery? A Basic definition is one which states that, a slave was chattel-an article of property that could be bought, punished, sold, loaned, used as collateral, orShow MoreRelatedThe Broken Promise of Reconstruction the Need for Restitution5574 Words   |  23 Pagesbut there are many more: INTRODUCTION The introduction of African Slavery to these shores was an unplanned event although the Spanish and the Portuguese had been involved with this trade for almost 100 years in this hemisphere before it appeared here. These are some of the highlights of that practice here: The first African slaves were 19 people, who in 1619 were captured by Dutch sailors from Spanish slave traders. Subsequently