Zinn Chapter 2

The main point of this article was to inform the reader on how the beginning of slavery took place.

The new colonists were deperate for extra labor as they were trying to grow enough food to provide for their families and keep them alive. The colonists knew that they could not overtake the Native Americans who had been living there for who knows how long so they decided they would have to find someone else to do all of their work for them besides the Native Americans. They finally realized that the black people from Africa were the answer to all of their problems that they had. Slavery was also going on in Europe but nothing like what was about to go on in the United States. The slaves in Europe actually had rights and were allowed to be somewhat free compared to those in the United States. What made in the worst in the new colonies was the fact that there was a mad frenzy by all citizens for a so called "limitless" profit. Also in the United States slaves were counted as something less than a human being. They were looked down upon by everyone and everything. Many of the African Americans shipped here died on their way here on the ships and also some of them died in Africa on the long treks it took to getto the slave ships that would take them to America. Even though all of these people kept dying before they were even put into slavery they kept it going because they were still making a huge profit off of it. Millions of people died from slavery; Africa lost 50 million people from their population due to slavery. As most would guess the African American slaves were treated mush harsher and more severe than the white slaves no matter what the offense. The biggest fear of the slave and plantation owners was that the African American and the white slaves would join together and try to overthrow the system that was put into place.

Where did racism begin at and why?

Do you think that racism is coming to an end or where there always be some no matter what?

I thought the reading was very factual and true. It brought up many different points which just further prove the terrible ways we have treated African Americans. These African Americans were just kidnapped from their homes and their lives just to serve us and that is completely wrong.