Slavery in Colonial America

Slavery was introduced to Colonial British North America in the 17th century, in imitation of labor practices used in Spanish and Portuguese colonies in South American colonies.

Related Topics:
Slavery - Colonial British North America - 17th century - Spanish - Portuguese - South America

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Slavery under European rule began with importation of European indentured servants, was followed by the enslavement of local aborigines in the Caribbean, and eventually was primarily replaced with Africans imported through a large slave trade. Most enslaved persons brought to the Americas ended up in the Caribbean or South America where tropical disease took a large toll on their population and required large numbers of replacements. The African slaves had something of a natural immunity to yellow fever and malaria, but the fact that they were severely malnourished, overworked, and poorly housed attributed to their perishing of disease.

Related Topics:
Indentured servants - Caribbean - South America - Tropical disease

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The first Africans to be brought to North America landed in Virginia in 1619. They were treated as indentured servants at first, and a significant number of African slaves even won their freedom through fulfilling a work contract or for converting to Christianity. But in the 1660's, for unknown reasons, the social status of African slaves was lowered greatly.

Related Topics:
Africa - North America - Virginia - 1619

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By the 1670s slave codes enacted by individual colonies made slavery a legal, racially-based institution throughout the American Colonies. Until the American Revolution, slavery existed legally in all American colonies, north and south.

Related Topics:
1670 - American Colonies - American Revolution

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It was the monk Bartolomé de Las Casas (1474–1566) who came with the idea of using inhabitants from Africa as slaves instead of Indians. At first, Las Casas was a pioneer for people's rights and fought for the indigenous peoples in America and their rights, since they were originally used for slavery. However, when the indigenous slaves almost died out, he suggested importing slaves from Africa. Las Casas struggled with the slaveholders for the termination of slavery until his death.

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Fernand Braudel has said:

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:Such hardships are not to be laid at the door simply of the planters, the mine-owners, the moneylending merchants of the Consulado in Mexico City or elsewhere, the harsh officials of the Spanish crown, the sugar- and tobacco-dealers, the slave-traders, or the grasping captains of trading vessels.... they were essentially middlemen, agents for other people.... In reality the root of the evil lay back across the Atlantic, in Madrid, Seville, Cadiz, Lisbon, Bordeaux, Nantes or Genoa, without question in Bristol, and in later years Liverpool, London and Amsterdam. (Braudel, 1984, p. 393).

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Braudel quotes Karl Marx: ""The veiled slavery of the wage-workers in Europe needed, for its pedestal, slavery pure and simple in the New World."

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In British North America the slave population rapidly repopulated themselves, where in the Caribbean they did not. The lack of proper nourishment, poor health, and lack of heterosexual desire are speculated as reasons. Of the small population of babies that were born to slaves in the Caribbean, only about 1/4 survived miserable conditions on a sugar plantation.

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It was not only the major colonial powers in Europe such as France, England, the Netherlands or Portugal that were involved in the transatlantic person trade. Small countries, such as Sweden or Denmark, tried to get into this lucrative business. For more information about this, see The Swedish slave trade.

Related Topics:
Colonial powers - Europe - France - England - Netherlands - Portugal - Sweden - Denmark - The Swedish slave trade

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Following the Revolution, some of the new states began to write constitutions that eliminated slavery, though the new Constitution of the United States limited the ability of the Federal Government to interfere with slavery, or for a time, the slave trade.

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The United States prohibited the slave trade in 1808. Slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865 with the passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

Related Topics:
1865 - 13th Amendment

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