Views On Slavery Essay, Research Paper

There are many perceptions as to how people view slavery. When people talk about slavery, the first thing that comes to their mind will be African American Slaves in the United States. They will also think of how they were brought to the United States against their own will and unequally exploited. However, according to Stephen F. Austin, during the eighteen-twenty?s and thirty?s Mexicans also had slaves. He compares American Slaves and Cruz Arocha as a Mexican Slave. Although there are many differences between Cruz Arocha and the American slaves, especially in the ways they are treated.

First of all Americans brought their slaves to the United States chained up and against their own will. They would fit over one hundred of them in small rooms in ships for a trip across the Atlantic Ocean, with out giving them an adequate supply of food and water to live off of. According to the book, Out of Many second edition, they were stowed so close that they were not allowed one foot and a half in each breadth. Although most of the slaves died on the trip and were thrown over board, those that did survive were the best equipped for the harsh conditions awaiting them. The trip itself got rid of all the slaves that would not last long in harsh conditions. Those that survived were what the Americans needed. Upon arrival in the United States the slaves would se either sold or traded for goods, land or other slaves. They were always chained up when they were not working and when they were, there was always someone watching over them with a gun and a whip. Slaves who did not obey their masters were whipped. According to the book even the most broad-minded plantation owners of the eighteenth century thought nothing about floggings of fifty or seventy slashes. Mexicans viewed slavery as having people mistreated and never treated as equals. Not showing any type of moral value towards a real person.

Mexicans on the other hand had what Stephen F. Austin called slaves helping them out in anything needed. Even though these so-called slaves were not chained up and whipped like American slaves, they were still slaves to Austin. This was because they were not paid for the job that they did and had no say so in family decisions. These so-called slaves were given, in return for their services good food and shelter. They could go mostly anywhere they wanted without someone always looking at what they were doing and threatening to whip or kill them. These so-called slaves were not brought to do what they did against their own will; it came to be because of some family problem. In most cases their families died out so they had no where else to go. So they went to another family who would help them out, and in return they would help that family with anything needed to be done around the place where they lived. So, when Stephen F. Austin saw how Cruz Arocha did everything around the hacienda for Juan Seguien he thought Arocha was a slave. So, Austin?s and the American view of slavery and slaves were that anybody who was not paid for work and had no say so in family matters was slave.

Stephen F. Austin is wrong in comparing Cruz Arocha to the American slaves. The only similarity the American slaves and Arocha is that they work for someone and they do not get paid for it. Arocha is never chained up and held against his own will like the American slaves. He is never treated like property and sold or traded to other people for goods like the American slaves were. He is not there because he is being forced to stay there but because it is necessity that keeps him there. Arocha does not hate Juan Seguien and his families like the American slaves hate the people that own them. Americans do not keep their morality and see slaves as animals and not as humans. They vied them as means as getting power, land and money. Mexicans never lost their morality and always treated their so-called slaves like people who actually had feelings.

Slavery is a very controversial issue and there will always be more than one view to it. Therefore there will always be conflict in this issue. Americans treated their slaves in an immoral way, and Mexicans always kept their morality. That would turn out to be one of the major reasons why American slaves were treated so badly.