Enslaving African Americans
In the New World of freshly established British colonies in America, European settlers felt they could justify enslaving Africans because of their dark skin and different culture. The ignorant colonists told themselves it was acceptable to treat Africans as animals of a different species and to dismiss their sense of humanity by putting themselves above the Africans in their minds and in the social hierarchy of colonial America. From 1619 to 1750 when the American colonies were in need of a larger labor force, it was easier for the colonists to enslave Africans because they viewed the darker-skinned race as being inferior and uncivilized.
Europeans ignorantly turned their heads away from the similarities between African and colonial societies
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Slavery expanded in North America as the demand for tobacco increased (Brinkley) in the 1690s and after the Royal African Company of England lost its monopoly over the slave trade (Brinkley). Colonists needed a large work force for harvesting crops and growing tobacco after the “starving time” during 1619 in Virginia, so they turned to the Native Americans (Zinn). The Indians, after experiencing the “white man’s wrath” during Columbus’s time, would not be fooled into working for the colonists again (Zinn). In some places, like in the Carolina area, enslavement of the natives was made illegal in 1672, leaving the British colonies without enough workers (Zinn). This time the colonists resorted to the enslavement of Africans to prove to the laughing Indians that they were capable of taking care of themselves (Zinn). The colonies discovered that purchasing African slaves instead of hiring white servants or Native Americans to work was more affordable and economically beneficial. African slaves were cheaper to hire than white servants and were enslaved for life, along with any children they may have had (Johnson). More income also resulted from buying African slaves because they created a larger and cheaper labor force than a group of only white servants
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