READING 3 Slavery—An American Paradox

SLAVERY—

An American Paradox1

Read the following article. Pay special attention to the words in bold. 9.4

A slave family picking cotton near Savannah, Georgia

Even though most immigrants have come to the United States with great hopes and dreams, one group of people came unwillingly. They were brought as slaves from Africa. Almost half a million Africans were brought to work in the agricultural South. African families were torn apart as slaves were treated like property to be bought and sold.

In 1776, when the thirteen American colonies declared their independence from England, Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States, wrote, “All men are created equal” and that every person has a right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” In spite of these great words, Jefferson owned 200 slaves. The newly formed U.S. Constitution considered each slave to be three-fifths of a person. In order to keep slaves divided from each other and dependent on their masters, they were prohibited from learning to read and write.

Since the main southern crop, tobacco, was exhausting the land at the end of the 18th century, it seemed that the need for slavery would come to an end. However, there was suddenly a big demand for cotton. Previously, the production of cotton had been very slow because it was very time-consuming to remove the seeds. But a new invention made the production of cotton much faster. Suddenly, southern farmers found a new area of wealth—and a new reason to keep slaves. Even though the African slave trade ended in 1808, domestic slave trade continued. The slave population continued to grow as children were born to slave mothers. By 1860, there were four million slaves in the United States.

The country became divided over the issue of slavery, and the Civil War, between the North and the South, was fought from 1861 to 1865. In spite of the fact that the North won and African Americans were freed, it took another hundred years for Congress to pass a law prohibiting discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Although many new arrivals see the United States as the land of opportunity for everyone, there are still many challenges and a lot of work to be done.

1 paradox: a situation that has contradictory aspects