Slavery and Contemporary Society

Introduction

The first act of slavery can be traced as early as 1860 BC. It was carried out by the Mesopotamian Code of Hammurabi. There were additional terms that could be used to refer to slavery, and these include Sumer. The name was commonly used in 3500 BC. The primary cause of slavery was brought by the increase in wars between nations. For example, the Byzantine against the Ottoman in Europe resulted in sourcing of additional personnel that would help them put up a good fight. The low population in Europe resulted in sourcing of additional personnel in Africa. Thats how slavery set its foot in the world. The discussion below analyzes the effects of slavery on the contemporary society.

Influence of slavery on music

Slavery influenced the development of music. As they carried out their different roles, slavery that shared a traditional background would sing some of their traditional songs (King, 2016). Singing these songs was a perfect way to help them pass the time and make them forget the harsh reality that they were undergoing. Additionally, the slave masters would at times organize social gatherings where slaves would compete on singing. Therefore, the slaves with time identified types of songs that they would sing in different occasions. These songs would be sung during death, happy times, when harvesting, among other occasions. It is through the music that slaves engaged in that brought about the various genres that exist in the modern society (Freund, 2016).

The influence on development and spread of religion

Slaves underwent so many tribulations as they carried out their work. They would work for long hours with little or no meal. Due to the hardships that they were undergoing, the slaves kept looking for a place they could turn to because of their pain (Freund, 2016). During that time, some Britons started condemning slavery because it was wrong according to Christianity. Awareness was carried resulting in the reasonable number of people becoming missionaries and vowing to spread the gospel as much as they could. Initially, the masters of these slaves would not hear any of it, but they later agreed to allow the missionaries spread the word of God. Since there was a language barrier, the missionaries tried their level best to learn the language of the people as to preach to them. Due to such efforts, the bible became to be translated into various local languages (Arnold, 2014). That way, slavery made it possible for the missionaries to translate the Gospel to all people and in their language.

Advent of education

During the early times, the whites had power over the slaves because they were a little civilized through education which made them take advantage of the not learned. Therefore, slaves became to know that they lacked education that their masters had (Freund, 2016). As a result, they developed a strong desire to as well have an education. The high number of inventions that the white man was made also made the slaves to desire to have an education. For that reason, the slaves developed systems where they would expose their children to what they were doing. What brought the significant change was the schools that were established by the masters to inculcate knowledge in the slaves children. The slaves children that were taught became aware of what was happening to them. For that reason, they led their counterparts to resist the ways of the white man. That way, slavery came to an end as it was thought that the Africans were as well capable (King, 2016).

References

• Arnold, M. (2014). Coming to terms with the past? The controversial issue of slavery in contemporary Mauritian fiction. Journal of Romance Studies, 14(2), 5-19.
• Freund, B. (2016). The making of contemporary Africa: the development of African society since 1800. Palgrave Macmillan.
• King, W. (2016). African American childhoods: historical perspectives from slavery to civil rights. Springer. 

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