The enslavement of black people and forced labor in harsh conditions as agricultural, domestic, and service workers went on for centuries in the United States. In today’s currencies, some claim that slaveholders extracted more than $14 trillion in work from their slaves, which is a staggering amount of money. Enslaved people worked in the fields, sowing and harvesting crops, harvesting and packaging crops, and raising, milking, and butchering cattle. It was their job to cook and serve food, clean houses, weave and mend clothing, and give child care services, among other things. They shaved, carried luggage, and drove wagons, carts, and carriages, among other things. 4, When enslaved black individuals sought to flee, federal laws such as the 1793 and 1850 Fugitive Slave Acts assisted in ensuring their recapture by fining officials who failed to apprehend putative runaways and imprisoning anyone who assisted in their eviction from their homes. 5. Enslaved people might be tormented, disfigured, and even killed if they were apprehended without fear of legal retribution. The
Even though the United States abolished slavery in 1863, the abolition of slavery did not correspond with the opening of all occupations to freed black labor. The Freedmen’s Bureau, which was established by the federal government in part to assist formerly enslaved people in their transition to freedom, on the other hand, encouraged black people to remain in the South and enter into contracts doing the same work for their families who had previously enslaved them. 7: Following Reconstruction, state and local governments stepped up their efforts by passing Jim Crow laws, which defined the status of black people in the Southern economy and social structure. South Carolina, like other states, instituted stringent racial “Black Codes” that penalized black individuals who worked in any occupation other than farming or domestic slavery. It is possible that they will be arrested if they violate these regulations or abandon their occupations after signing a labor contract, and that they will be forced back into unpaid labor on white plantations due to a gap in the 13th Amendment. Lawmakers also worked to discourage African-Americans from moving in pursuit of safety and economic opportunities in other countries. In order to prevent interstate labor recruiters from encouraging or subsidizing the relocation of black people, they enacted emigrant-agent legislation that prohibits them from placing advertisements in predominately black towns for remote job openings. During
Technology developments in the mid-20th century decreased the necessity for farm labor and household work in the Southern United States. Due to these changes, as well as discriminatory regulations of the United States Department of Agriculture, widespread lynchings, and Ku Klux Klan terror, hundreds of thousands of black households in the South were forced to go north. Because of this, the number of black farm operators and agricultural and domestic labor in the United States has been rapidly declining for several years now. 14. Black employees, on the other hand, continued to be overrepresented in low-wage service jobs. The ongoing devaluation of domestic and agricultural employment, as well as the search for low-wage employees of color, led to a large concentration of Asian American and Latinx workers in these occupations, which continues to be the situation today.
Segregation and the continuous undervaluation of workers of color are both clear consequences of government policy, according to the report. Even today, persons of color continue to be overrepresented in the lowest-paying agricultural, domestic, and service occupations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Figure 1, you can see that When it comes to the total number of workers in the United States, Black or African American, Asian, and Hispanic or Latino people account for 36 percent. However, they account for 58 percent of miscellaneous agricultural workers, 70 percent of housekeeping cleaners, and 74 percent of baggage porters and concierges. Due to the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow, certain forms of employment were considered less important, and the history of these institutions continues to influence the American economy and its outcomes.