How Did Slavery Shaped American Culture

Slavery has been apparent throughout all of history. Since the ancient times of Mesopotamia, communities used force workers to help with different tasks. Most countries have included slavery in their culture at one point of time. America was one of these countries.At the beginning of the development of the colonies, slavery was rarely considered because indentured servants were much cheaper. However, as time went on, the indentured servants served their time and gained their freedom, the amount of available indentured servants decreased. Slavery started in colonies because there was no other way to get the labor that the colonists wanted. Because slaves would not be granted freedom after a certain period of time, slavery seemed like the perfect solution to these colonists. Eventually, in the 1670s, slaves were being imported to America. Although slavery was extremely damaging to the families and communities of Africans, it played a major role in shaping the colonies and modern day America. Slavery in the colonies helped shape the colonies culture, economy, and ideas of freedom.
Slavery shaped the colonies culture by introducing different foods and medicine. In the South, many whites looked up to slaves for their healing powers (Faragher 72). Slaves also cooked for their masters, where they introduced African food. This transformed the colonies’ culture because African culture merged with the colonists’ culture. For example, in the book Out of Many: A History of the American People, the author states, “In Louisiana a combination of African, French, and Indian elements produced a distinguished American cuisine (Faragher 73).” This shows that slavery helped shape the culture in the colonies because food is a large aspect in culture. Because Africans influenced their food, they also influenced their