The United States is the globe’s self-proclaimed blueprint for freedom. But the rise of the Transatlantic Slave Trade would change the fate of this country forever.
In 1808, Congress banned the importation of enslaved people, but the damage was already done. A flourishing domestic slave trade market had already surfaced, making the need for newly enslaved people unnecessary.
Slavery required all hands on deck. Everyone, women, and children included, was subjected to this mass dehumanization effort, all in the name of big agricultural profits for America’s white elite.
While not the first to embrace a global economy, the U.S. quickly became the second biggest industrial power in the world, due to the financial boost that the southern slave economy brought in. America would then eventually use us for unfair labor within this new era, too.
Slavery will always be remembered as America’s first big business. The position and profit attitudes associated with Black bodies leave behind a trail of systemic issues that inhabit the shadows of this country today.