Lewis. Levine & Lucinda S. Hughey

Black and white. In the United States these two colors have been the source of racial conflict since the early 1600s. It was at that time that the first black people were kidnappedin Africa and sold into slavery to sea captains eager to make a profit in the human trademarket. Those slaves who survived the long and difficult voyage across the ocean were then resold in America to wealthy landowners. These white landowners possessed large amounts of farmland and were in need of cheap labor to help them raise their crops. Of course farm machinery like today's did not exist, making farm work extremely laborious and difficult. Slaveswere forced to labor all day under a hot sun, much like work horses and mules.

To eliminate feelings of guilt and to justify their actions, slave owners found it easier to think of their slaves as "nonhuman"beings. To the white slave owner, those first Africans resembled monkeys as much as "men," with their dark skin color, bushy hair, and broad-shapednoses. The slave owner viewed these different physical features as "inferior." Furthermore, the slave owner perceived of these newly arrived slaves as "ignorant" since they neither spokenor understood English. Slaves were considered by their owner as his property, like cattle or furniture, and if his slaves did not obey him, he would "fix" them so that they would. He was their "master," "superior" to them, and it was his job to teach them to "know their place."