The African ancestors of today’s black Americans were brought to the U. S. as slaves in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. They worked on farms, especially the large farms in the (36) states. Slowly they became a (37) part of the economic system of the South. Slaves did not have the rights of people. According to the law, they were "things" which belonged to the person who bought them. They had to (38) the orders of their owners without question. They were not allowed to learn to read; their owners feared that (39) slaves would begin to think about the injustice of the system and would learn to struggle for their (40) . Slaves had to work long hours in extremely unhealthy conditions. Their owners had complete power over them. They could be bought and Sold like animals at the slave markets, black children were (41) from their parents and never saw them again. Slave owners had the fight to punish severely any slave who broke rules or (42) against the system. Slaves were often beaten (43) by their owners or killed. (44) . There was a law against brutality to slaves, so (45) . In practice, however, the law meant nothing. (46) .
