Slavery

= Slavery = = = =**Hiya :) If you haven't already noticed, this page is about slavery! **= = = ===**Let's start out on how they got here in the first place. Americans invaded the villages and homes in Africa, capturing able-bodied people and killing people who were either too young or too old to survive the journey. The slaves were led through the forests to the coast, where the slave ship was waiting. They were pushed aboard the ship, shackled, and forced to pack together in crowded rooms. They were fed very little and were always getting sick from the rocking of the boat and the stench. They never got any doctor care, and about 1/3-1/2 of the slaves died. **===

===**When the sailors spotted land, which would be a few days before they actually hit the shore, they would hose the slaves down and feed them a lot of food to improve their appearance. The ship got to America, and the slaves were taken from the ship and stored in a small cabin until the auction started, which was usually a few days after the slaves arrived. The slaves were fed mostly bread and water, and sometimes were whipped and branded to mark them. Then the slaves were auctioned off, and their life as slaves began. **===

===**The slaves lives were terrible. They were usually beaten on a daily basis, and weren't fed a lot or paid. Except a few owners who paid their slaves a tiny amount for their hard work. They were housed in small cabins, usually with several families all packed into one. Women usually worked in the main house, cooking and cleaning for their masters. Men worked out in the fields from sun up to sun down. Eventually, some slaves rebelled and ran away from their plantations to the North, where they were considered free and were paid to work. Those slaves traveled on what was known as the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman, a slave, was the most famous "conductor" of the Underground Railroad. She helped over 300 slaves escape, and made 19 full trips from the South to the North. She would carry a gun with her so if a slave tried to go back, she would kill them so they couldn't tell about the Underground Railroad. She also used the gun as a weapon, so if a slave catcher found them she would shoot him so the slaves could escape. **=== media type="custom" key="8734660"
 * The Northern states disagreed with the South about slavery. They wanted to stop slavery, and the South wanted to continue it. When the Union got California, the South became mad. So the Union states gave them the Fugitive Slave Law; a law that said that slave owners could go anywhere they liked in the North to find their slaves. When Abraham Lincoln won the election, the South seceded from the Union and made themselves the "Confederate States of America." On September 22, 1862, Lincoln threatened to release all slaves from slavery in the rebelling states if they didn't rejoin the Union, but the Confederates didn't listen. So on January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation (that stated that all slaves in the Confederate states were freed) was issued. The Civil War ended soon after that, and segregation began. **