Slavery In The 1800s

As far back in history as can be traced, slavery has existed in some form. Chattel slavery, or the owning of human beings as property able to be bought, sold, given, and inherited, is perhaps the best-known form of slavery. Slaves in this context have no personal freedom or recognized rights to decide the direction of their own lives. The ancient Hebrew people were enslaved by Egypt for generations. Ancient Greece and Rome both relied on slavery as a means of forced labor for agriculture, household maintenance, and manufacturing of goods. In medieval Europe, slavery was practiced in Italy, Russia, France, Spain, and North Africa. Very often, slaves were members of one nation that was conquered by another. Throughout history, slaves have come
Initially, the labor force consisted of white indentured servants. The first appearance of black slaves in the Americas occurred on the Caribbean islands of Barbados and Jamaica. Both islands were colonized by the English businessmen who grew sugarcane as a cash crop. When the supply of white indentured servants dwindled, these planters began to buy West African slaves from the Dutch who conducted an active slave trade in the Atlantic Ocean. Slaves from Africa were tightly packed into these ships like sardines and delivered like goods, many of them dying on the trip over to the Americas. On the American mainland, the practice of enslaving Africans developed differently depending on the needs of the region. In Virginia, for example, the Dutch slave trade was not accessible to the early days of the colony. As a result, Virginia tobacco planters relied initially on indentured servitude and, to a much lesser extent, labor from people indigenous to the area. Eventually, difficulties with keeping Native American laborers and