Social Problems Essays

Slavery, the practice of being possessed by someone as a labor force or for his personal needs, was a ubiquitous workforce in nearly every part of the world. Slaves served as the propelling engine behind the Southern labor force for a long time. These African-Americans first arrived in ships from …

John W. Blassingame was born in Covington, Georgia, in 1940. Blassingame joined the faculty of Yale University in 1970, where he taught in the African American Studies, History and African departments. He chaired African American Studies for most of the 1980’s. He is the author of New Perspectives on Black …

Peter Kolchin is a history professor at the University of Delaware. In 1970, Kolchin received a degree from John Hopkins University. He now specializes in nineteenth-century U.S. history, the South, slavery and emancipation, and comparative history. In his career he has written many books on slavery including Unfree Labor: American …

The Civil War was the greatest and most important war ever to be fought on American soil. Though the events leading to the civil war had been ongoing for some time, the Civil War was never inevitable; it was the result of prejudices and extremism and failures in leadership on …

For many of us it is hard to imagine what it would be like growing up, having to work from the age of five and not being able to go to school. ‘Child Labour’ is defined by the United States Department of Labour (DOL) as ‘the employment of boys and …

After reading a copy of Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years A Slave, I was overwhelmed with his experience. He was born a free man in New York in 1808. In 1841 he was tricked, captured, and sold into slavery in Washington, D.C. Throughout his book, Solomon goes into details describing his …

In the United States in 1860, the county and people mainly depended on farming rather than industrializing like other nations such as Great Britain. Not only did they depend of farming but since there were not many cities, most people lived in small towns. It took the U.S. a lot …

Throughout the years before the Civil War, people from the North and South argued about the institution of slavery. Blacks wanted to be recognized as humans and wanted to have the rights that were given to the whites. Others saw slavery as a way of life and thought that slaves …

A People’s History of the United States is a book written by Howard Zinn, whose purpose is not to introduce someone to American History. He assumes his readers already know the basics. Of course, many people do not. It is not a history of the United States but it is …

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave, his fetters fall…freedom and slavery are mental states.” This simple quote symbolizes the lives of Frederick Douglass and Olaudah Equiano. Both of which were slaves who tried to free themselves. Both Douglass and …