What is a slave? According to the Webster dictionary, a slave is a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another. The demand for slaves in the early stages of the United States was very high. As new technology was created like the cotton gin and the water powered loom, more slaves were needed to work the machinery. Although the life of a slave master was of a higher standard, the life of a slave was not. Many slaves worked long days in the fields. Slaves who worked in rice fields were often at risk of being harmed by different animals that were in the flooded fields. People who were enslaved were not allowed to be married by law and had to follow slaves codes that were put in place to limit their rights. Abolitionist like Frederick Douglass, played a big part in the life of slaves and education of African Americans. It was people like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman who inspired Martin Luther King to fight for equal rights for African Americans. The picture belowis a map representing the routes of the Underground Railroad where Harriet Tubman guided many slaves to freedom.
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