It is indeed shocking to hear that slavery still exists in the contemporary society. The vice manifests itself in different ways with the earliest case dating back to as early as the 17 th century. The poor in America constituted the greatest percentage of the slave labor during its initial stages. However, in the early 19 th century, the United States bought slaves with most of them being imported from Africa and parts of South America. It is during this period that the slave force increased and gained ethnic diversification. Although the US was colonized by the British, the Spanish were the first Europeans to set camp in the US (1607), with Britain’s dominance prevailing during the mid of the 17 th century. Despite the limited number of slaves during colonial America, the available workforce was developed and utilized for different tasks across the various colonies.
During colonial America, plantation farming was the main economic activity and even though other tertiary industries were integrated into the economy, farming and crop production were the primary activities. Jamestown was the first permanent colony of the British in America, which was established in 1607. The colony’s economy was rudimentarily run using the income generated from plantation farming, especially Tobacco, which was the main crop. Other plantation crops included cotton, sugarcane, and rice. However, the Jamestown colony had one major problem; there was more work to be done in the fields than the available labor (Morretta, 2017). This, therefore, called for a prompt search for more people to work in the plantations. As the British established more colonies in America, there was also a rapid rise in the need for labor. Therefore, the development of using slaves for labor was initiated by the lack of proportionality between the available labor force and the quantity of field work.
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Initially, slave labor was provided by the colonized American natives since those with a lighter complexion were not involved in the labor as they were perceived ‘more European,’ and for that reason reserved for civilization. As the British acquired colonies, slaves were traded from Barbados, the Caribbean, and South America. In addition, African slaves gained popularity after independence. Slave labor thus caused the British colonies to reconfigure their administrative structure to ensure that the colonies were well-organized and that crop production was thorough in running the respective economies. The main issues that arose as a result of slave labor include the increase in ethnicity due to the profiling of laborers and deaths that resulted from rebellion and diseases.
Indeed, slave labor had unintended consequences. First, the whole slave labor phenomenon morphed to slave trade and slavery. Subsequently, individuals opened slave trade enterprises while the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade surged. Apart from slave labor being used for merely crop production, slaves were also utilized for domestic duties and in the satisfaction of sexual desires of their masters. Consequently, the value of human life was degraded as they were viewed as objects rather than humans. Additionally, the social class of Americans became stratified as slavery garnered more popularity and applause from both the natives and British colonialists (Masterson, 2012). Although America had already gained independence, slavery played an important role in the instigation of the Civil War.
Slavery was a mutation of slave labor. In as much as the terms may seem synonymous, slavery was more intensive than the mere use of slaves for labor. African Americans who were taken to the US for labor constituted about 30% of the total number of slaves in the US by the mid-19 th century. Historically, slavery was almost exclusively associated with African Americans. The invasion of the British into the US was the onset of slave labor and consequently slavery. It is sad that slavery still exists today. Indeed, even though mental slavery is a common subject among many scholars, slave labor still exists in various parts of the world such as Libya. Ultimately, it is important for everyone to embrace multidimensional liberality and refrain from any type or form of slavery.
References
Masterson, D. (2012). White Slavery in Colonial America : And Other Documented Facts Suppressed from the Public Know! CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Morretta, A. (2017). Slavery in Colonial America . Cavendish Square Publishing LLC.
