In the United States, American Slavery consisted of African Americans who were brought into America for property and violently forced to work in large or small plantations. In her novel "Kindred", Octavia E Butler, writes about a modern black woman who's snatched unexpectedly from her home in 1979 Pasadena, California and transported back in time to the Antebellum South. Dana, the modern black women, is summoned to save and work for Rufus, a white son of a plantation owner, out of his misery. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the antebellum period and each time the stays grows longer with uncertainty of whether or not Dana's life will end. Octavia Butler depiction of slavery in the Antebellum Period in the South accurately illustrates how women and slaves were specifically treated inhumanely throughout the antebellum period and comparing the injustices in today's society such as domination, racism, and human trafficking that lead to forms of modern slavery.
Although Dana voyages to the Antebellum South, she observes the racist injustice of slavery throughout physical and mental oppression to gain control of African slaves. Slaves are considered property because they were black and labeled as subhuman. To enforce the status of blacks being property, white owners would use inhumane violence as a form of punishment. In Kindred, Dana disobeys Tom Weylin, Rufus father, when he clearly warned her not to read anymore and suddenly one day Dana gets discovered, Weylin says, "Didn't I tell you I didn't want you reading' 'I treated you good' said Weylin 'he snatched the book from me and threw me on the floor' 'I never saw where the whip came from; never even saw the first blow coming. But it came like a hot iron across my back, burning into me through my light shirt, searing my skin" (106,107). Mr. Weylin whipped Dana for disobeying his authority, enforcing his law and making it known that whoever disobeyed his orders would suffer the consequences.
