Introduction Slavery is an emotive issue which is worth studying. The period under which this slavery was practiced formed a sad epoch in the life of many. Slavery has, thus evoked varied feelings and expressions that reflected what many went through. This is because slavery had a great impact on the people and the nation of America as a whole. This paper will look at the various aspects of slavery. Slavery in the South It is recorded that slavery started at around 1619. By this time the colonists had large farms of tobacco operational. Tobacco plants were being planted around that year. We are told that around five years later, the first batch of slaves was brought in aboard a ship. These were about 20 Africans who were designated to work as servants in the tobacco firms. After these, the number of slaves brought in began to soar [1] . At one time in the year 1617, it is said, about 3000 African slaves were in Virginia. Due to the exponential rise in the number of slaves, many legislators began to craft legislation that sought to restrict the rights of the slaves. The slaves were taken as property which could be retained or disposed off at their masters’ will. This meant that owners could now sell the slaves at their own volition. By 1700s there were, thus, a huge number of slave-owners engaged in buying and selling of slaves. Records show that slave trade in the south was so perilous; slaves were treated cruelly. They were highly discriminated against. As farming shifted from tobacco to cotton farming the demand for slaves continued. Some of the problems these slaves faced included no pay despite having worked for long hours, poor diet, etc. They also did not get proper housing; they lived in shanties and other forms of dehumanizing settlements, yet the economy of the region depended heavily on them. The labor was hard as every one of the slaves was assigned duties. For instance, women did household chores such as cooking, clearing the houses of their masters. Men got trained for menial jobs such as carpentry and even masonry as a larger percentage of them were farm laborers [2] . From the life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs introduces her story by giving a brief background of what the situation was. She says that having been born a slave girl, she never knew of the impact of slavery until she was past six years of age. Her father had been trained as a carpenter. He was so skillful that he worked as “the head workman”. From the introduction that Jacobs provides we learn of what went through the mind of most slaves. For instance she reveals her father’s wishes. She says that her father always longed for the period when he would be free to do whatever he wished. What is ironical is that after working, instead of being paid by his mistress, he was instead the one who paid the mistress two hundred dollars per year. He also did not have a right to his own children. He tried fruitlessly to purchase his own children. Slave Trade and Colonial Society To establish slavery, the colonial society served as a platform through which the trade could prosper. For instance the colonies to a large extent were autonomous. A good illustration can be drawn from the colonies of Virginia and Maryland [3] . For instance in Maryland, the house of delegates, though part of the British imperial system, was autonomous. So was the Virginia House of Burgesses. So when it came to legislation. these autonomous colonies could pass whatever they deemed crucial to their own interests. Slaves were also moved from