Slavery in Americia?

There has been much written and said about slavery in the Americas; especially in the US; yet that institution has been around since the beginning of time! It even exist still today in certain parts of Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia... There is even some form of slavery {mainly female sexual slavery } in the western world today!!

Here is a partial over view from a site @ digitalhistory.uh.edu - post as follows:

What are the origins of American Slavery?

In 1690, one out of every nine families in Boston owned a slave. In New York City, in 1703, two out of every five families owned a slave. From Newport, Rhode Island to Buenos Aires, black slaves could be found in virtually every New World area colonized by Europeans.

{Not just dear old Dixie}

Black slaves were brought to the New World, by the Spanish, due the killing off of the Native American Indians used and killed in slavery; at least as early as 1502. Most all of the Native Indians were killed of in most of the Caribbean; and the population of Central America... The population of pre Colombian Mexico went from over 50 Million to less than 15 million within 25 years time... Over the next three centuries, slave traders brought estimated more than five million Africans to the New World (another twenty percent or more Africans died during the march from where they were captured by both local Black Africans and Islamic Traders to the African coast plus many perished during the "middle passage" on the ships across the Ocean).

Why beginning in the sixteenth century did Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, Danish, and English colonists all bring African slaves to their New World colonies? Why did they do something that we find wholly repugnant morally?

Few questions have aroused more bitter debate or evoked more impassioned controversy than the origins of black slavery. Some have argued, the product of deep seated racial prejudice? There is a great deal of evidence showing that many Europeans held deeply racist sentiments well before the establishment of the institution of slavery.

Many Europeans including Elizabethan Englishmen associated blackness with evil, death, and danger. They often portrayed the devil as having black skin and associated beauty with fairness of light skin. Through their religion, too Englishmen denigrated Africans, claiming that Negroes were the descendants of Noah's son Ham, who, according to the Old Testament, was cursed by having black offspring for daring to look upon his father drunk and naked while his brothers averted their eyes.

Long before the English had much contact with Black Africans racist stereotypes were already widespread. One English writer claimed that Negroes were naturally "addicted unto Treason, Treacherie (treachery), Murther (murder), Theft and Robberie (robbery)." Without a doubt, Englishmen considered Africans an alien and unassailable people.

Or was black slavery just the product of a haphazard and random process that took place gradually with little real sense of the ultimate outcome? Proponents of this line of argument that it was inevitable that European colonists would eventually come to rely upon a black slave labor force. Far from being the result of a conscious plan, the adoption of black slavery, was the resulted of innumerable local and pragmatic choices, reflecting such variables as the mortality of the native Indian population, the limited availability of white servants, and the low cost of African slaves. {One of the first things Columbus did was to take the Arawak Indians slaves on the island of Hispaniola! 1492}

In every English colony, for example, colonists initially relied on white indentured servants for the bulk of their labor needs--not on black slaves. They finally had to settle on African slaves because the supply of white surf shortages plus the threat of revolt among armed white indentured servants. Another example where an armed people can help keep their freedom!

Actually slavery was the product not of racism but the outgrowth of European attitudes toward the poor or lower class. Actually not only European, But also Asian, African and Islamic societies were based on the principle of inequality.

{BTW: It was not only the Europeans who had various forms of slavery or indentured servants, in fact many of the African slaves came from capture by both local African tribes and Islamic sources. The Islamic countries are one of the main enslaving societies in the world today! Southeast Asia also ranks high in enslavement in the world today!}

Elizabethan Englishmen flogged the poor and forced them to toil in work houses. Far from finding the idea of slavery repugnant, Elizabethan Englishmen accepted the idea, adopting a statute in 1547 allowing persistent vagabonds to be enslaved and branded with the letter "S." {There were white folks}

Since slavery was introduced thousands of years ago, slavery carried far-reaching consequences for the future. By assuming positions formerly occupied by an underclass of unruly and despised white servants, black slaves helped to create a remarkably "free" and affluent society of whites, committed to the principles of liberty and equality.

Questions to think about:

1. Since slavery or indentured servants were part of the world order and have been in existence by most all societies through out history; how did the Negro / Black slavery become such an important issue; with slavery still present in the world today? Well mainly because they have been portrayed as the main victims of Slavery continually for the past over 150 years in the United States! This plus both government reverse discrimination laws and much propaganda by the Mass Media has lead to an almost cult or special class of privileged persons!

2. What, in your view, is the most compelling explanation for why European colonists adopted slavery?

It was an accepted practice, plus the Negros were available and there were not many other sources of laborers, beyond the Orientals (mainly Chinese) which were imported into the U.S. and existed in a servant - slave capacity for the past 200 years...

BTW: Most slavery was the result of war prizes, or settlements between rulers of various nations or kingdoms in the history of world! Most all of the world societies have had various forms of slavery in their history... Even the American Indians took and used slaves, many times times even killing them for sport or religious practices...

** In fact even after the passing of the 13th Amendment; in the U.S. slavery was still active; right under the noses of the US Army with the selling of both young male and females Indians into slavery went on in both the Arizona and New Mexico territories until statehood in 1912...

3. How would you account for the depth of prejudice in Elizabethan England or anywhere in the world 500 years ago?

BTW: Prejudice is the motivation for much of the grief and war among people or societies even in the world today!

Ex. The Islamic mainly (Arabs) countries hate Jews and Israel... Plus many African tribal wars! Not to discount the many gang, drug and pirate attacks...