The African American - From Slavery To The Boardroom

According to world history, with the fast development of the New World, slavery served as the perfect solution to the labor crisis. Lands were expanding quickly and economies of that time were based on trade. Land owners needed vast amounts of labor for crops such as sugar cane, tobacco, indigo, rice and cotton. So ideally they sought the cheapest labor they could find. Slavery, around the world as in America was a booming industry. The Africans along the West coast of Africa were known for their strength and ability to work assiduously under harsh weather conditions. Thus slaves were exported from these areas of Africa.

Europeans would visit slave auctions, and often even kidnap Africans for slave trade. In exchange for these laborers they accepted glass, whiskey, ivory and guns as payment. The first Africans in America arrived as Indentured Servants via Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. As the world economies strengthened and the demand for crop produce became greater, African American slaves soon outnumbered the existing ‘white’ population. In order to keep the slaves suppressed, the slave masters would ill treat them by means of starvation, floggings and sometimes even by killing them. However these African American slaves had much mettle in them and could not remain subdued forever, thus they took to different methods of revolting.

Many African American slaves fled into the hills to escape the brutality they were treated with. These became known as Maroons, who lived like nomads and fed off what nature would provide them. However, the nation was groaning for liberty for these inhumanely treated slaves. Freedom, liberty and democracy became the mantra of African American slaves who had vigorously started to fight the system for their rights.

The word spread quickly and little by little the slave rebellions began. Attempts by great men such as Gabriel Prosser of Virginia, Denmark Vesey of South Carolina, and Nat Turner also of Virginia to fight for freedom of his fellow brothers and shake the shackles of enslavement forever are still remembered today. It was due to men such as these that African Americans can now live with their heads held high, practicing their own culture and religion. The struggle for freedom was indeed a long and bitter one. In fact many people have speculated that historians have deliberately failed to note the struggle that African American slaves faced.

Today, America prides itself on being a free nation…. A nation that accepts different races, religions and creeds, one that is free and democratic in all forms. African Americans are now allowed to enjoy the freedoms their forefathers didn’t; such as that of an education, the dream of being a business owner, or even a house owner. Many African Americans have excelled in academia and continue to help lead the nation from strength to strength today in various boardrooms across this great nation.