What effect did slavery have on the Black Americans-?

Answer 1

Some Effects of American Slavery

Slavery completely devastated Black Americans.

First of all, the numbers of blacks who didn't even survive the journey by ship from the African coast to America is staggering. Many millions died on the way over from disease, malnutrition, and suffocation.

For those who made it over, slavery destroyed most ties to their native African countries, decimating linguistic and cultural links to Africa. For survival, these Africans had to learn to speak English. Remember: the enslavers took Africans from all over the West Coast of Africa. These Africans were from different tribes, which had their own languages and customs. Just because these people were all Africans didn't mean that they spoke the same languages. English became a common language between these different groups of people who had no other choice.

Slavery completely disrupted the notion of the black family because family members could be sold away from one another at any time. Mothers could be torn away from their infants; husbands could be sold away from their wives without warning.

Slavery made blacks into work animals, or beasts of burden, who were expected to work from sun up to sundown without stopping, and who were sometimes actually bred like cattle or horses to make better, stronger slaves.

Slavery also made black men, women and children extremely vulnerable to brutal violence, the likes of which we cannot even imagine today: rape, murder, torture, lynchings, tar and feathering, whipping, etc.

Slavery also caused severe emotional and psychological trauma, which resulted in oftentimes in self-hatred because blacks were taught that everything black was bad and everything white was good. Some blacks learned to hate the color of their skin, their physical features, and the texture of their hair because they were told over and over that they were ugly because they weren't European.

Slavery kept blacks from being educated in large numbers because it was illegal for slaves to learn to read and write. Slaveowners were afraid that educated slaves would find a way to organize themseves and begin a revolution that would end slavery.

Answer 2

Some Effects of American Slavery

Slavery completely devastated Black Americans.

First of all, the numbers of blacks who didn't even survive the journey by ship from the African coast to America is staggering. Many millions died on the way over from disease, malnutrition, and suffocation.

For those who made it over, slavery destroyed most ties to their native African countries, decimating linguistic and cultural links to Africa. For survival, these Africans had to learn to speak English. Remember: the enslavers took Africans from all over the West Coast of Africa. These Africans were from different tribes, which had their own languages and customs. Just because these people were all Africans didn't mean that they spoke the same languages. English became a common language between these different groups of people who had no other choice.

Slavery completely disrupted the notion of the black family because family members could be sold away from one another at any time. Mothers could be torn away from their infants; husbands could be sold away from their wives without warning.

Slavery made blacks into work animals, or beasts of burden, who were expected to work from sun up to sundown without stopping, and who were sometimes actually bred like cattle or horses to make better, stronger slaves.

Slavery also made black men, women and children extremely vulnerable to brutal violence, the likes of which we cannot even imagine today: rape, murder, torture, lynchings, tar and feathering, whipping, etc.

Slavery also caused severe emotional and psychological trauma, which resulted in oftentimes in self-hatred because blacks were taught that everything black was bad and everything white was good. Some blacks learned to hate the color of their skin, their physical features, and the texture of their hair because they were told over and over that they were ugly because they weren't European.

Slavery kept blacks from being educated in large numbers because it was illegal for slaves to learn to read and write. Slaveowners were afraid that educated slaves would find a way to organize themseves and begin a revolution that would end slavery.