A brief account on Slavery.

        The European Americans did not just see slaves as workers on their farms. They were property, like livestock or an article of clothing. They were unacceptable as members of the ruling society, as sexual partners, as friends, or family. An example is legislation from Virginia in the mid 1600's that included A man being whipped for sleeping with a black woman, Owners of slaves being allowed to punish their slaves however they saw fit. Blacks were not allowed to own any kind of weapon and slaves were not able to leave their owner's property without written permission. These types of laws prove that even those in government, who were usually the most educated people, believed in the inferiority of Africans.

        Of course, slavery has affected the racial attitudes in the U.S. today. The belief that Africans are inferior led Europeans to enslave them. If slavery had never happened would the civil rights movement be what it is today? Most likely not; It is likely Africans would have never come to America. Slavery forced the African-American issue to the front of peoples' minds in America. The moral dilemma regarding slavery made people discuss the reasons for it. When slavery was formally abolished the idea of black inferiority was changed too. Even Abraham Lincoln, the emancipator of the slaves, did not believe that blacks and whites were equal.

        Slowly over time the black population was able to "prove" itself to the white population. Americans realized how ignorant ideas of the past were, Jefferson said it best when he proclaimed, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" (although he owned slaves). The blacks were men, and like whites, upon their birth they were all endowed with certain unalienable rights.

        All men are created equal and none is inferior to another. The inability to grasp this concept is the greatest reason for racial attitudes in America today. Undoubtedly slavery played a role in such attitudes, but there was a more fundamental issue than just enslavement in the minds of American people. If this concept had been grasped sooner these early Americans may have been able to avoid an undesirable period in our nation's history and we would not still be working to eliminate racism from American society today.