The HIstory of Slavery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The HIstory of Slavery - Essay Example From this paper it is clear that its legacy continues to be a matter of dispute among scholars and the basis for contemporary debates about public policy. This is because slavery is considered the classic expression of American racism, and its effects are still perceived as the roots of the problems faced by blacks in the United States. Slavery seems to be the wound that never healed that has become the moral core of the oppression story so fundamental to the identity of blacks today. It is not surprising that the bitterness generated by recollections of slavery has turned a generation of black scholars and activists against the nation's Founding which in turn is against identification with America itself.This study discusses that  in America, although there were many among them who shared prevailing prejudices against blacks, the abolitionist movement contained the first antiracists. Prominent abolitionists agreed that blacks were civilizationally inferior and incapable of ruling themselves. But they agreed that black inferiority is no justification for slavery; rather, it is the product of slavery itself. Some abolitionists propagated the idea of helping blacks to resettle in Africa, but those who recognized the implausibility of such schemes opined that blacks were capable of living as free people.  In order to directly rebut the Southern argument that blacks were better off being ruled by a â€Å"superior† race, abolitionists began an inconspicuous quest for intelligent blacks. who would be standing refutations of theories of intrinsic inferiority. Although the issue of diminishing manpower arose along with anti-slavery campaigns, yet at one point, some 400,000 Britons were refusing to eat slave-grown sugar. There were antislavery committees in practically every town in the British Isles. In 1792, 390,000 people signed protest petitions to Parliament on the subject. And the House of Commons unanimously voted to abolish the slave trade. Unfortunately, The House of Lords refused, and British slave ships continued to cross the Atlantic. Nevertheless, a great movement was under way, and ultimately with the powerful help of huge slave rebellions in the West Indies, slavery came to a stop in the British Empire a full quarter century before it did in the United States. The British antislavery movement not only initiated with astounding suddenness, it pioneered virtually every major technique of political organization used even to this date like consumer boycott, answer a direct mail appeal, put up a political poster, paste the logo of an environmental group on transport vehicles, or join a national lobbying