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Slavery in the Colonies The issue of slavery, primarily between 1607 and 1776, is one of many complexities to be found in American history. In order to unravel the reasons behind why African slavery in particular flourished across colonial America, it is necessary to establish the backdrop of the problem. Economically, the demand for labor was outpacing the supply of bodies from Europe, forcing the colonists to look elsewhere, namely Africa. Historically, slavery was established as a short term solution to needed labor, however, terms became later became. And culturally, the white man could easily overlook the pain of the African because of the large differences between them. . Thus, slavery was driven primarily by the fact that it was an economic solution, a historical idea, and a vibrant display of bigotry. As the New World began to flourish, it became necessary to satisfy the need for human labor. Beginning as early as the early 1600s, captured Native Americans were among the first put to work. However, this plan did not work because the early settlers could not catch their workers after they escaped. As well, a number of indentured servants came to the colonies as a means to serve a sentence, or for expanded opportunities. However, they too would not last long enough for the colonists as they served as temporary workers, so by the turn of the 18th century, the colonists had resorted to enslaving the only people left, Africans. Although there was a high demand for the African slaves, there was a much larger profit that Europeans saw in trading them. Thus, the slave trade originated from profit motive as well as the decreasing supply in other substitute labor sources. Several of the contributing factors to the growth and development of slavery require a broad historical context. Beginning with the Pequot Indians in the early 1600s, slavery was only

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a means for the colonists to utilize the natives they had captured through war. Slavery, at that point, was also contrasted by the employment of indentured servants, Europeans sent to the colonies on limited terms for various reasons, including owing debts, some crime committed, or simply for limited by the landed gentry of Europe. The indentured servants, along with the slaves, rose up united in 1676 during Bacon's rebellion, which scared many of the white landowners. One of the major outcomes of this was the increased paranoia surrounding slave revolts. The slave owners suppressed their forced laborers in several ways following this: harsher punishments (which led to mutual hatred between slave and master), breaking up families (which slaves still managed to get around), and disrupting any definite structure of organization within the slaves. Following the example of their imperialistic cousins across the Atlantic, the colonists found slavery to be an outlet for their racial angst. The mistreatment of their slaves was very nearly related to the un-Christian, unfamiliar, and "uncivilized" manner they conducted themselves. The anglo-centric viewpoint disallowed any difference, racial or otherwise, to be assimilated into its culture, producing the agonizing African slavery ordeal. Many of laws defining slavery were not put into place until after the 17th century, however they wholly stripped the slaves of their rights, something that no other laborer could have happen, leaving them as strictly "property" to be put to use. The institution of slavery subjected several generations of one race to an inhumane and revolting practice, one that instilled a nation with racial prejudices and affected an entire culture in and of itself. To a large extent, slavery can be attributed to the economic, historical, and cultural considerations of the colonists. Slavery, even as complex as it is, was founded principally upon those three tenets, leading the nation down a self-destructive path of coercion.