The abuse and harsh treatment that slaves received from their masters remained hidden. Because of this, slaves had no legal rights to protect them and no voice could be taken seriously. They could not go to court to complain and hold a trial to get justice. They had no protection, only the protection that the slave community gave each other. They learned the skills “necessary to protect themselves and their loved ones from a brutal system of slavery” (Hine 159). Through folk tales, the slave learned skills that included “watching what they said to white people, not talking back, hiding information about other African Americans, and dissembling” (Hine 159). By doing so, the African slave protected himself and gave the master fewer problems and opportunities to punish him. Slaves saw religion as a way out of the slavery they found themselves in. It was a way of coping with slavery and the treatment they received. Since then, religion was the only place where they were not considered slaves, but human beings. However, sometimes “masters denied their slaves access to Christianity” (Hine 159). Slaves saw other ways to become involved in religion. The religions most practiced by slaves were the Baptist and Methodist religions. These religious congregations “had segregated seating according to race, but blacks and whites joined in fellowship and church discipline” (Hine 159). There were also plantation churches that were sponsored by the master and where they were preached to obey their masters. The slaves did not like this and instead “preferred a semi-secret black church where they conducted themselves under the leadership of” (Hine 160) a black preacher. Here they practiced their beliefs and performed their services by singing... middle of paper... which he had over his slaves. Slavery in the 19th century was comprised of the Atlantic slave trade and chattel slavery and how it constructed the way slavery was viewed in the Americas. Reinforcing the idea that African slavery was the most beneficial and profitable way to develop the economy of the Americas. African slaves suffered many things while arriving in America and living in this country. They saw a way of living that was not in their eyes and in their minds. They were accustomed to profiting from others and denied what was already theirs, namely freedom and equality. The racism and discrimination they face because of the color of their skin is inexplicable. And the many problems with the Americans were treating them the way they did and seeing them as something different from them. Treat them as property and not as human beings and deny them their rights.