American Slavery

Timothy 6:10 in the King James Version of the Bible states, "The love of money is the root of all evil". This statement can be applicable to the cause of African slavery in England's North American colonies. Slavery was a horrible experience that involved the subjugation of an entire human race, forcing them to harsh labor for the profit of their masters'. Even though this was practiced in Europe for centuries, it was not practiced in England.

Due to the shortage of indentured servants and the increase in manual labor, England's North American colonies had to resort to desperate measures in order to prosper in the new land. African slavery was introduced to the mainland colonies by the Dutch, French, English, and Spanish planters on the Caribbean sugar island, who was already using the system of African slaves. Using their success as a model, England's North American colonies began to use the institution of slavery as well. Obtaining captive Africans was convenient and easy through the slave monopoly of the Royal African Company, and it posed to be a huge long-term investments; such as life-time service compared to indentured servants three to four years, which was very attractive to the English mainland colonies.

The Chesapeake plantations, where prosperity rested heavily on tobacco, was the first to get involved in African slavery. The production of tobacco, rice, and indigo distinguished the southern colonies economics from the northern. Because of this, the southern colonies relied heavily on the labor of African slaves, thus becoming true slave societies, compared to the northern colonies, which just had a society with slaves because their economy rested on the profits of the Atlantic trading system.