Many Americans are taught to believe and incorporate into their world view certain images of slavery that are often magnified. These ideas are renewed and reinforced so that they take on the clarity of actual memories. These memories then become motivators of attitude and behavior and become a fierce determination, to never again become a slave to anyone or anything. The psychological phenomena for this is called "confabulation".

The Spanish involvement in particular in Native American slave trade started very early. On his second trip to the Americas in 1493, Columbus enslaved around 1000 indigenous people. He selected half of those to be exported to Spain as slaves and the other half to serve as slaves to people in the Americas. The remaining were released. He then continued to boast to the Spanish about the potentials of slavery and its benefits. Columbus by himself captured and exported more Native slaves - about 5,000 - than any other single individual. In addition to capturing the Indians as slaves, the Spanish also hunted the Indians for fun and butchered them to feed their animals.

Native American slaves were used for several purposes, from working in the plantations, to being guides through the unfamiliar wilderness. Native American slaves often died because of European diseases. The escape of Native American slaves was frequent, because they had a better understanding of the land; whereas the African slaves did not. While both Native Americans and Africans