【美国精神】第60期

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Explanation:

  When Europeans began to live in the United States, they had a lot of work to do. They needed to make farms so that people would have enough to eat, build towns and cities, and build roads so that people could go between the towns and cities. There was too much work to do and not enough people to do it. So Europeans began to use slaves (or people who are forced to work without pay and are owned by other people). Most of the slaves were black people from Africa who were taken to America and sold to wealthy (or rich) people.

  Africans were treated very poorly on the slave ships, which were large boats that brought slaves from Africa, and many of them died before getting to America. Historians¹ (or people who study history) estimate (or guess) that about 645,000 Africans were brought to the United States. By 1860, the number of Africans had grown to around 4 million slaves. Most of these slaves lived and worked in the Southern United States, where cotton fields (or areas where something is grown for food or clothing) needed a lot of labor² (or hard work). Many of them worked on large plantations³, which were very large farms.

  Slavery was legal (or allowed by law) from 1654 to 1865. During this time, most slaves were treated very badly by their owners. Slaves were often whipped (or hit with a long piece of leather to cut a person’s back) and beaten (or hit badly). Female slaves were often raped⁴ (or forced to have sex) by their owners. Black families were often separated (or forced to leave each other) when children were sold separately from their parents. For all these reasons, over time people began to think that slavery was wrong. Eventually slavery was made illegal (or against the law) when the 13th Constitutional Amendment⁵ was passed (or made into law) in 1865.

 

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