The European settlers and traders introduced slavery in the 17th century, specifically beginning in 1650s. Before then, particularly in 1620s, the Europeans relied on indentured servants for labor but it was never clear whether these servants were slaves. The fact that slavery was practiced in America long before the British colonized the nation provided a leeway for the Europeans when the scarcity for labor emerged.
Slavery was necessitated by the agricultural plantations owned by the Europeans and which involved heavy and intensive labor. The Indians were the most enslaved population, particularly in the north of the Caribbean where there were difficulties in the acquisition of African slaves (Gallay, 2002). The first Africans who worked for the British in colonial America arrived in 1619 in Virginia but were treated as indentured servants who worked through a contract and gained freedom after completing the contract or consenting to Christianity conversion. Such freed individuals were also allowed to acquire slaves or indentured servants in their endeavors (Morgan, 1975).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The Europeans relied on various plantations to strengthen their economy and sustain their colonies in America. In Virginia and Maryland, slaves were imported from Africa to work in tobacco plantations. The British in South Carolina utilized slave labor in rice plantations. With the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, the Europeans focused their economy on cotton production with South Carolina, Georgia, and the western regions of Mississippi becoming the main producers ( National Geographic News, 1996). This shifted the slave trade from the upper South, which comprised of Maryland and Virginia, to the lower south and west.
Other than providing free labor in the agricultural plantations, slaves also worked in the domestic domain as maids, launderers, carriage drivers, among others. They also worked in the field of artistry where they engaged in weaving, carpentry, and masonry, among others. With the expansion of the cotton plantation economy, financial institutions offered loans for the purchase of land and slaves. Enslaved Africans became a commodity that could be transacted and also used as collateral in business undertakings ( National Geographic News, 1996). The use of slave labor was, therefore, founded on the sustenance of the economy to enable the day to day undertakings of the Europeans in colonial America.
References
Gallay, A. (2002). The Indian slave trade: The rise of the English empire in the American South. New York: Yale University Press.
Morgan, E. S. (1975). American slavery, American freedom: The ordeal of colonial Virginia. New York: Norton.
National Geographic News (1996). How slavery helped build a world economy. Retrieved from http://news.nationalgeographic.com on 16/8/2017.
