16
Roy Lavon Brooks in his book When Sorry Isn’t Enough: The Controversy Over Apologies and Reparations for Human Injustice 1999 gives a definition of
injustice-human injustice-based upon a synthesis of the instruments of international law:
A human injustice is the violation or suppression of human rights or fundamental freedoms recognized by international law, including but
not limited genocide; slavery; extrajudicial killings; torture and other cruel or degrading treatment; arbitrary detention; rape; the denial of
due process of law; forced refugee movements; the deprivation of a means of subsistence; the denial of universal suffrage; and
discrimination, distinction, exclusion, or preference based on race, sex, descent, religion, or other identifying factor with the purpose or
effect of impairing the recognition, enjoyment, or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the
political, social, economic, cultural, or any other field of public life.
Brooks, 1999: 7
2.6 Slavery in America
Dorothy Schneider and Carl J. Schenider in their book Slavery in America gives detail explanations about slavery in America: the slavery in Africa, the first
slavery in America, slave life, work, runways, rebels, until the end of slavery in America. Slavery in America began in the 16
th
century until 19
th
century. The slaves were African who were taken from West coast of Africa and brought to the North
American colony of Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. Schneider 2007:49 says, “Probably they hired the blacks as indentured servants, bound to work for a fixed
term of years, rather than as slaves for life……Little else is known about their lives, though at least one for a time enjoyed freedom and property. Others certainly came
in the early days as indentured servants, but by 1660 the Virginia labor force included blacks in bondage for life.”
17
In all the English colonies, north and south, slavery got off to a slow start in the 17
th
century but increased rapidly in the 18
th
century, as the colonists recognized the need for a large labor force to develop the new continent. They looked first to the
Indians and then to Africans, who were already laboring as slaves in vast numbers elsewhere in the New World.
Over time, slavery moved to south. It was because the South planters needed many hands to clear, drain, and cultivate the fertile lands along the coast. With the
invention of the cotton gin and the boom in the international demand for southern cotton, planters turned to the Southwest for new, fertile land and to slavery to supply
the workers for this labor-intensive crop. In 18
th
century, the slavery spread throughout the American colonies because the African slaves were cheaper and more plentiful labor source than indentured
servants who were mostly poorer Europeans. But, most of slaves were treated so badly by their master.
William Goodell in the book The American Slave Code in Theory and Practice: Its Distinctive Features Shown by Its Statutes, Judicial Decisions and
Illustrative Facts. It is a key antislavery work centering on legal discourse and practice. This book gives more understanding about slave code that is used at the
time. It also shows that the slave shall always be reputed and considered as real estate; shall, as such, be subject to be mortgaged, according to the rules prescribed by
law, and they shall be seized and sold as real estate. Goodell 1853:15 said that it is often maintained that the ‘legal relation of master and slave” is not a criminal one,
and that there is no sin, or moral wrong, in the mere fact of sustaining that relation.
