As recorded in our history, slavery began in the early 1700s. Former slave William J. Anderson stated in his 1857 account that "these facts will seem too horrible to tell and we it's some of the real dark deeds but it's history, our history" ("Master/Slave" March 2007). Slavery was an abomination and had to end. It was all about ownership, treating slaves like human beings, and knowing that you would live as a slave and die as a slave. The relationship between the master and the slave was a simple relationship, an “I own you” mentality. Harriet Jacobs (who was a former slave) stated that she "realized that her status as property, defined her place in the master-slave relationship and no matter how humane a master might be, he or she could sell a slave with little or nothing." discomfort” (“Master/Slave” March 2007). Women in slavery had to endure numerous sexual abuse proposals from their masters. If they refused advances they were beaten, so “enormous numbers of female slaves became concubines to these men” (“Master-Slave Relations”). If a slave, a mistress, were to give birth to her master's child, the child would then be a slave, but most of the time, a house slave. Slave women were purchased to produce more slaves. Basically, the slave woman's main purpose was to produce more workers as a well-oiled machine for them, they would continue working until their masters allowed them to stop. Often this happened from dawn to dusk. Slaves were treated less than humans. Most Southern plantations were divided between house slaves and field slaves; the lighter-skinned slaves were the house slaves and the darker-skinned slaves were the field slaves. The… medium of paper… after their death they are buried and forgotten as if they never existed at all. It is stated that most of your slave marriages were annulled by their masters because slaves were traded and sold by their families without any notice. “32% of marriages were canceled by the bosses. A slave husband could be separated from his wife and children from their mothers.” (http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/00394/life.htm). Religion played an important role in slavery as most slaves were Christians and recognized that the Bible did not sit well with their masters and the slaves were punished. Works Cited “Master-Slave Relationships.” Accessed January 26, 2014. http://www.bowdoin.edu/~prael/projects/gsonnen/page4.html.National Humanities Center, “Master/Slave.” Last modified: March 2007. Accessed January 26, 2014. http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/enslavement/text6/text6read.htm.