by Remy Gr

Created on: July 09, 2009

Old pirates, yes, they rob I
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
Cause all I ever have
Redemption songs
Redemption songs.

Not only does Bob Marley's Redemption Song reflect the wickedness of slavery, but it stands as an example of the effect of slavery on black people as well. The disrupted lives of blacks under slavery did not end with emancipation. Although the people endured, they did so without the benefits of a civilized society. All the traditions, habits, laws, and loyalties of a civilized society were removed from black people when they arrived as slaves in the New World. They were forced to survive at the most elementary level. This was the biggest violence of human rights. This era ended up with some spots in our society that we are still not able to wipe off.

People's experiences are articulated in their culture in different ways, and the experience of slavery has cast its shadow on every aspect of black culture. Slavery was a long-lived and thorny phase of our society. Slaves were still treated as sub-humans even after the emancipation. The aftermath of the slavery was ruling people's mind as some kind of monster whose will is to break the society into fragments.

Slavery had its main impact on the black economy. As slaves were the main workers and laborers, the whole economy of that time was based on the system of slavery. Building the Underground Railroad, evolution of southern cotton factories, and overall industrialization benefited from the system of slavery. After being free, the blacks did not have sufficient education and skills to establish their economy. They had nothing as their property, and no other privileges on which they could depend. This condition did not provide sufficient constraints to create their economic status competitive in the fastest growing economy. Hence, they remained backward economically for a long period. They still had to fight for equality, but the narrow thinking of people at that time always kept them under discrimination, and they remained unprivileged.

Slavery had its effects on the chance of getting education and intellectual development of people. The children of former slaves could not go to school because they had to work. Even if they were given a chance to go to school, they were not treated equally. This means the most of the black population remained uneducated, or insufficiently educated (in the cases

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