Example research essay topic: Slavery In American Literature - 894 words

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Slavery in American Literature. At the end of the 14 th century Europeans started taking people from Africa against their will. Slavery is one the most gloomy pages in the history of mankind. There are some versions of what were the starting points, the reasons of the slavery. The most commonly accepted theory was that white European missionaries took black Africans in order to teach them Christianity. When Spanish and Portuguese sea captains explored Africa they took black servants.

Yet there is another version of the origin of the slavery. Africa was the traditional place of the war conflicts on the tribal basis. Normally the winners of these conflicts captured the people from the tribes they were fighting with. Then they made foreigners coming to Africa take the captives either for small fee, or just for nothing.

Anyway slavery was a tragedy in the history of mankind and it was reflected in the literature and other historic documents. The idea of Christian mission is expressed in the poem "On Being Brought from Africa to America" by Phyliss Wheatley: 'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. Some view our sable race with scornful eye, "Their colour is a diabolic die. " Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, May be region'd, and join th " angelic train. 1 The author writes with the bitter irony of being brought to get taught the God, Savior, but the main thing is. remember, Christians (actually they divide people according to the principles white, means Christian and black means pagan) Negros, black as Cain, May be region'd, and join th " angelic train. So what is more here, a religious difference or a racial one?

So, maybe the religious missionary purpose is to hide the racial reason? We may speculate on the origin of the slavery, but if we turn to the problem, it is interesting to find out how could slavery be combined with the Christianity, and what is more, how could Christianity become in this or that way a reason, though a purely formal one, of the slavery? What made people get engaged into slavery business? If we take the The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African 1 we can see all the cruelty of the slavery. Sometimes slaves were bought, sometimes they were just kidnapped. When I was carried on board I was immediately handled, and tossed up, to see if I were sound, by some of the crew; and I was now persuaded that I was got into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me. (2) We may only imagine the feelings of the small boy being kidnapped and taken to the ship with unknown white people.

Which religious principle is worth of this brutality? And the same time the author proves the point that the slavery was not introduced by the white people first, it had been known before in Africa: ... I would have freely parted with them all to have exchanged my condition with that of the meanest slave in my own country. (3) Was it correct to apply the brutality as a feature regarding the attitude of the whites towards blacks only? I had never seen among any people such instances of brutal cruelty; and this not only shewn (this is in the original text) towards us blacks, but also to some of the whites themselves 3 So, maybe brutality was the peculiar feature of the whites, or it is better to say of the white sailors dealing with this criminal business disregarding the race. Slavery from the point of view of human moral principles is, no doubt, the shame of the whole mankind and not only of the American society.

But the most important feature, to my mind is that it is American society which on the basis of the Christian principles and democratic origin of America stopped it. America was formed in the aspiration for the freedom and the slavery could not exist in America according to the principles of the formation of the country. If America did not stop it then it would have to relinquish the right to be the country of freedom, the main principle of which is stated in the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness (4) Bibliography: "On Being Brought from Africa to America" by Phyliss Wheatley, available at web The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African available at web The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies in Congress, July, 1776, available at web Citation 1 "On Being Brought from Africa to America" by Phyliss Wheatley 2. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African, Boarding a Slave-Ship 3. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African, Boarding a Slave-Ship 3. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African, Boarding a Slave-Ship 4.

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies

Research essay sample on Slavery In American Literature