Answer:When captive Africans first set foot in North America, they found themselves in the ... During most of the 17th and 18th centuries, slavery was the law in every one of the 13 ... They then faced the challenge of surviving in a society that had declared ... When captive Africans first set foot in North America, they found themselves in the midst of a thriving slave society. During most of the 17th and 18th centuries, slavery was the law in every one of the 13 colonies, North and South alike, and was employed by its most prominent citizens, including many of the founders of the new United States. The importation of slaves was provided for in the U.S. Constitution, and continued to take place on a large scale even after it was made illegal in 1808. The slave system was one of the principal engines of the new nation's financial independence, and it grew steadily up to the moment it was abolished by war. In 1790 there were fewer that 700,000 slaves in the United States; in 1830 there were more than 2 million; on the eve of the Civil War, nearly 4 million.
advertisement, Negroes for sale, 1842
Negroes for sale, 1842
The Sale
The Sale
On arrival, most of the new captives were moved into holding pens, separated from their shipmates, and put up for auction. They then faced the challenge of surviving in a society that had declared each of them to be private property and that was organized to maintain their subservient status. In the eyes of the law and of most non-African Americans, they had no authority to make decisions about their own lives and could be bought, sold, tortured, rewarded, educated, or killed at a slaveholder's will. All the most crucial things in the lives of the enslaved African American-from the dignity of their daily labor to the valor of their resistance, from the comforts of family to the pursuit of art, music, and worship-all had to be accomplished in the face of slave society's attempt to deny their humanity.
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