Slavery In The North American Colonies

Discussion #4

1. Explain why African slavery took root in the North American colonies.

Slavery was first introduced to the North American Colonies in 1619 when John Rolfe, son-in-law of Powhatan, ruler of the Pamunkeys in Jamestown, Virginia purchased black laborers from the Dutch (possibly from the West Indies), who subjugated the slave trade until the eighteenth century. The depiction of slavery was not yet applied to black laborers until 1680 when black slavery became the prevalent labor system on plantations. It 's important to be informed that white laborers who were called indentured servants were free and would not work the plantations , they wanted to go and work on their own land (which was more profitable to them); but they were forced to work on the plantations. Indentured servants were predominately white and generally English and were temporary workers, therefore they felt as if they had various rights that had to be respected, and therefore it made it more difficult to supervise them. As stated by (Davidson, Delay, Heyrman, Lyyle, and Stoff, pg 41) “Sugar, already flourishing in the Atlantic islands off the coast of West Africa, was gaining a foothold in the islands of the Caribbean. Rice, long a staple in Asia and grown also in Africa, made its way into South Carolina toward the end of the seventeenth century”. It was the most economical and practical solution the Southern colonies ' needed to construct a labor force. With the various crops

By owning a slave, the owners were not only getting a permanent worker, they were legally entitled to their offspring as well. African slavery took place in North America because it was the most economically viable solution to southern plantation owners ' labor needs. The slave owners in America used slavery by forcing people to work for them because that was the only way of thinking that life would be easier for them but slavery was never the right way to get the best productivity or outcome from