The Institution of Slavery Katherine Do Rm.212 7-3 The institution of slavery has been tolerated by many countries in the past. Some countries/places that have had slavery are Greece, Rome, the United States, China, and Egypt. Slavery was allowed because it provided free labor for people who wanted to become rich, needed workers for their business, and for people who didn’t want to do any hard work. In the United States, many slaves were used in southern states to perform tasks on farms and workshops where products or services would be provided to the public. The crops slaves helped farmed were used to sell to the public for food. Other products were sold to the public to help slave owners become rich. Slavery helped the economy in the United States. Since slavery was used by many people, it was an important business to personal investors. Personal investors bought shares of slave ships to try to get richer through the slavery business. The way getting rich off of shares from slave ships works is that the personal investor would get a share of the profit made from selling slaves. Many investors became rich after buying more shares each time they wanted to invest in a slave ship. African kings made a large profit by selling slaves to the United States. Slavery played a large role in helping the economy in Africa and the United States. After some time, many people fought against slavery because they thought that it was unjust to enslave people to force them to work. They also thought that it was unfair to make others have less rights because of their level of class. Slaves were at the lowest class level at the time. They didn’t have many rights because of their class and skin color. Most of the people who fought against slavery were from the northern states. The southern states wanted to have slavery since much of the land in the south was suitable for farming, which caused plantation and farm owners buy a large amount of slaves so that work would get done faster. Since there were many people who wanted to get rich off of farming, slavery was an advantage to them since they wouldn’t need to spend a large amount of time in the fields. Also, with slavery, plantation and farm owners didn’t need to give workers a salary. People with different beliefs about slavery came into conflict.. Some believed it was fair and others believed it was unfair. The northern states formed and joined the Union to help fight against slavery in the Civil War. They wanted to get slaves and people of color more civil rights. They also wanted to abolish slavery. The southern states formed and joined the Confederacy, which supported slavery. As a result of the Civil War, slavery was abolished and African Americans had more rights, even though they were segregated. Slavery was instituted in many countries because it brought in many benefits to people. Slave owners liked the idea that they could force slaves to do practically anything. A large amount of people thought that African Americans deserved to be slaves because of their skin color. The benefits of slavery were workers working without a salary, getting much work done without having to break a sweat, getting rich off of slave work, and slavery contributing to the economy. Because of these benefits, people allowed slavery to be legal for decades. African Americans still weren’t treated equally after slavery was abolished. Segregation then took place. When African Americans were segregated, they were separated from whites. Once again, people fought against that. Just like the fight against slavery, the fight against segregation ended in success. People in America used to determine the class someone else was in by their skin color, but not anymore. We can only hope that other countries will do the same. Citations: "Benefits of Slavery: A Pro Slavery Essay from a Southern Plantation Owner's Point of View in the Time of the Civil War." Writework.com. Gradua Networks, n.d. Web. 31 May 2013. . Helped provide information about the benefits of slavery. Nosotro, Rit. "The Institution of Slavery in the American Civil War." Hyperhistory.net. Www.hyperhistory.net, n.d. Web. 31 May 2013. . Provided information about the institution of slavery during the Civil War.