I have been wondering about why it was thought to be the right thing to own African American slaves or

even support African American slavery. I never liked it and I still do not. How did it even start? Who
supported African American slavery? Who was against it? Who ended African American slavery or how
did it end in the first place? I would like to give you a little background information on where and how I
learned about African American slavery itself. I learned about slavery when I was in 4th Grade in Homeschool. I was terrified, thinking to myself, I never want this to happen again, and I do not want to deal
with it. I have noticed, though, that, as I get older, I am taking part in the history of African American
slavery and am pressing forward to learn more about it.
African American slavery first came into the world during the 1600s. The first ship carrying the first
African American slaves arrived in the English colony, Virginia, in America in 1619. Surprisingly, the first
man to be a legal slave owner was an African American! His name was Anthony Johnson, who came to
America as an indentured servant, arriving in 1620 in the colony of Virginia. He was not willing, but
agreed to become an indentured servant in exchange for passage to the New World. Johnson was
captured in Angola by neighboring tribesmen, being sold to a merchant who took him to Virginia, where
he was sold again to be a tobacco farmer. Johnson was not actually a slave, though. He was required to
serve the farmer for a while in exchange for a room and board. Although indentured slaves were not the
same thing as African American slaves were, indentured slaves could still be sold or lent to other people,
and those people were allowed to treat them how they thought was fit. Johnson was freed from the
tobacco fields after 14 years of working, and was allowed to start his own farm. That is where being the
first legal slave owner comes in.
Now that we know when African American slavery started, let us focus on who was on the side that
supported slavery. The 11 states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana,
Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, & North Carolina) broke off of the United States because the
Northerners were against slavery and kept trying to persuade the Southerners to have African American
slavery abolished in their area, too. The Southerners did not want to destroy the life that they had by
giving away their slaves. So they broke off of the United States and formed the Confederate States. The
President of the Confederate States was Jefferson Davis. The Vice President was Alexander Stephens.
On the other hand, the Northerners had the total opposite opinion about African American slavery.
They believed that African American slavery was WRONG. They tried to open schools for African
American slaves that had been set free and taught them as much as they could. African Americans were
extremely poor, which meant that they had to spend most of their time working to earn money to survive.
This caused many, many families to not have enough time to be able to go to schools or have the money
for schools such as High-school and College.
The fight for independence and slavery being abolished in all states started in 1861. Approximately
620,000 soldiers died by combat, accident, and disease. When the Civil War ended in 1865, it left the
once beautiful states of the South were left in ruins. Many were left with nothing.
To stop African American slavery, it took many lives, but those lives have paid dearly, and I thank them
for it.

Sources: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/08/the-first-legal-slave-owner-in-what-wouldbecome-the-united-states-was-a-black-man/
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/faq/
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/civil-war-overview/overview.html