How Did African Americans During The Second Half Of The 17th Century

During the second half of the 17th century, the enslavement of African Americans began within North America. First, African-Americans that arrived in Jamestown in 1619 were brought as servants, not slaves. This quickly changed to a different approach, when the House of Burgesses in 1670 declared, "all servants not being Christians imported into this colony by shipping shall be slaves for their lives (Earthlink)”. The exploitation and capture of slaves were “rationalized” through the reasons of religion, race, economics, and overall public opinion. If it is part of the Bible, why not? The perspective of colonists would deem to be so, but it also involved their ideals of what Christianity was or the validity of a “Christian”. The rise of colonies in the Americas and necessity of labour made Europeans turn their
Conquest and settlement of the New World depended on the enslavement of millions of black slaves. Slavery in America began when the first African slaves were brought to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, to assist in the production of cash crops; tobacco, rice, indigo, etc. (Hewitt). Investing/purchasing slaves, paying your workers nothing, and reaping its benefits of their labor created a lucrative life of many slave and plantation owners. Economically, plantations were often efficient and productive. Socially, they achieved stability at the cost of human freedom. Profits from slavery were great, often as large as the profits made by factories in the North (PBS). Furthermore, slave owners held almost every position of political power in the South, as well as important jobs in the Federal government. For example, other than John Adams and John Quincy Adams, every President in the first forty-five years of our nations existence was a slaveholder (PBS). If slavery was deemed to be beneficial for society and our presidents, early Americans saw nothing wrong with