400th Anniversary of Slavery in the U.S.

In August 1619, an English pirate ship named the White Lion landed in Point Comfort, Virginia.

Onboard the ship, alongside its crew of sailors, were 20 African slaves captured from a Portuguese slave ship.

These poor souls were the very first slaves in the land that later became the United States of America.

August 2019 marked the 400th anniversary of that terrible event.

While 400 years may seem like a long time ago, the transatlantic slave trade began 100 years earlier with the Portuguese.

At one of the first nations to establish colonies in the New World, the Kingdom of Portugal needed cheap labor to develop those territories.

Their search drove them to Africa, where slaves were known to be bought and sold.

Over the next 250 years, the slave trade would expand enormously as European nations competed for land beyond Europe.

These colonies would bring unimaginable wealth to the continent, at the cost of great suffering to enslaved Africans and their descendants.

In British North America, the first slaves were classified as contract workers.

But by the 1650s, a racial caste system had settled in, and their legal status was changed to that of property.

As property, African Americans could be bought and sold at markets, and even their children were born slaves.

Moreover,because they didn't have legal rights, slaves were treated in the most inhumane ways imaginable.

Not only were they forced to do backbreaking work, such as picking cotton without pay, but they were also brutally beaten and whipped for minor reasons.

Slavery would eventually be abolished in 1865 with the defeat of the Confederate states.

But although African Americans are recognized as citizens today, the legacy of these past injustices continues to impact their lives.

 

• Slavery  ˈsleɪvəri  노예 (상태·신분) ,  노예제도 (↔freedom)

• pirate  ˈpaɪrət   (특히 과거의) 해적 /  저작권을 침해하다, 불법 복제하다

• alongside  ə|lɔːŋ│saɪd    …옆에, 나란히 ,  …와 함께, …와 동시에

• sailor  ˈseɪlə(r)  선원, 뱃사람

• mark  mɑːrk   표기호 등으로) 표시하다  (외관을 망치는) 자국[흔적]

• transatlantic  ˌtrænzətˈlæntɪk   대서양 횡단의 ,  대서양 건너편의[건너편으로부터의]

• colony  |kɑːləni  식민지 

• territory  |terətɔːri   (한 국가·통치자가 다스리는) 지역, 영토

• unimaginable  ˌʌnɪˈmædʒɪnəbl  상상[생각]도 할 수 없는 (↔imaginable)

• continent  |kɑːntɪnənt   대륙

• enslave  ɪnˈsleɪv   (사람을) 노예로 만들다

• descendant  dɪˈsendənt    자손, 후손, 후예

• classify  ˈklæsɪfaɪ  분류[구분]하다   ~을 ~으로 분류하다

• caste  kæst  카스트[계급] ,  (사회적) 계급 제도

• backbreaking   (체력을) 소모시키는, 매우 힘든. (또는 báck-brèaking[-bùsting])

• brutally    야만스럽게, 난폭하게, 짐승처럼, 잔인하게.   brutal  ˈbruːtl  잔혹한, 악랄한

• whip  wɪp  채찍 ,  채찍질하다

• legacy  ˈleɡəsi  (죽은 사람이 남긴) 유산 (=inheritance)  과거의) 유산

• impact  ˈɪmpækt   (강력한) 영향, 충격 ,   영향[충격]을 주다 (=affect)