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Slavery has been around for many years. There is still slavery going on in different countries. For example I've heard that Africa still has slavery going on. There are still a lot of people that think that slavery is still going on in the U.S. Even back in the day when slavery was really enforced there were just a few African Americans that really didn't have to pick cotton or anything like that. All they had to do was make sure that the other slaves were doing what they were supposed to be doing. There are a lot of movies about slavery. For example there is this movie called Roots. It really tells you about slavery. The movie pretty much states that if you tries to run away or if you didn't do what you were supposed to do that you would either get a beating or you would lose a foot. The slaves would have to do all of the work for the masters. If a slave had a child, the child would also have to work either work in the master home or work in the cotton field.
Eli Whitney was born on December 8,1765 in Westborough, Massachusetts and he was an American manufacturer. Eli Whitney received patent for the first cotton gin on March 4,1794 and he was validated in 1807. Farmers were charged expensively to do the ginning for them and two-fifths of the profits were paid in cotton. His ideas reproduced so easily that his concepts and designs were duplicated by others. His company went out of business in 1797. In 1798 Eli Whitney received a contract to deliver ten to fifteen thousand muskets in 1800. After 1801 Eli promoted the idea of interchangeability.
Nat Turner was an American slave in 1800—1831. He was also a leader of the Southampton Insurrection. Very religious from childhood, Turner was a natural preacher and possessed some influence among local slaves. Apparently believing himself divinely appointed to lead fellow slaves to freedom, he plotted a revolt with a band of approximately 60 followers. After killing the family of Turner's owner, the band ravaged the neighborhood, in two days killing a total of 55 white people, mostly women and children. The revolt was soon crushed, however, and 13 slaves and three free blacks were hanged immediately. Turner himself escaped to the woods, but was captured six weeks later and hanged. Dozens more blacks were also killed in retaliation. The abortive uprising, by far the bloodiest and most serious in the history of slavery in the United States, led to more stringent slave laws in the South and to an end of the organized abolition movement there. Over the years, Turner became a figure of controversy, seen by some as a vicious fanatic and by others as a hero of black resistence.
