When it comes to history, slavery is one of the most pervasive societal issues and it continues to be relevant even today. It is due to slavery that the African people were identified as a race and subsequently stigmatized as inferior. The reasoning behind slavery gave way to race as a social concept and racism, which is a trace of slavery rather than something innate in white people.
The growth of racism, which stems from slavery, led Europeans to identify as white and classify everyone else as “nonwhite.” To this day, slavery influences the way people think, how much wealth they have, where they choose to live, and even what kind of models are shown on our billboards.
As such, slavery is as relevant as ever and it’s not a bad idea to explore the topic in an essay. We can learn a lot about our society by studying slavery, however uncomfortable the topic may be. Discussing slavery gives way to powerful ideas about the impact it has had not just in our past but also our present.
Now, there are many ways to explore slavery in an essay. For example, you can focus on what were the lives of slaves like and how society responded to the rise of slavery. Alternatively, you can talk about how slavery affected foreign policy in the United States.
You can also focus on slave revolts in the US and other parts of the world, and the effect they had. Another way to explore slavery is to discuss how it was the primary catalyst for the American Civil War and how it influenced the conflict. Not to mention you can discuss the Civil War itself and how it changed the country.
Whatever you decide to focus on for your essay on slavery, make sure to do preliminary research, even if you feel like you’re already intimately familiar with the topic. However, don’t rely only on outside sources. Leverage your own knowledge and thoughts, comment on the citations you choose, and bring something new to the conversation so your essay is more engaging.
And if you are still struggling with your assignment, the examples on this page can push you to create the essay outline and start writing.