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Development of Slavery in North America | BRI’s Homework Help
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The development of slavery in North America was shaped by economic interests and the growth of the Atlantic trade system. While early British colonies often relied on immigrants and indentured servants for labor, the success of plantation economies in the Caribbean and Brazil encouraged the expansion of African slavery. Through the triangular trade system, enslaved Africans became the primary labor force for Southern cash-crop plantations. During the late 1600s, colonial laws in places such as Virginia and Maryland increasingly defined slavery as a permanent, hereditary condition limited to Africans, stripping enslaved people of basic rights and reinforcing racial distinctions. At the same time, opposition to slavery grew in parts of the North, particularly among groups like the Quakers. These developments helped establish slavery as a central institution in the Southern colonies and laid the foundation for the racial and economic systems that would shape American history for generations.
0:00 welcome to homework help whether you’re studying for the AP u.s. History exam or any other exam that your teachers inflicting upon you we’ve got you covered today we are talking about the development of slavery in North America start it is important to note that slavery had been common throughout history it was often a byproduct of
0:22 conquest and every region in the world knew slavery prior to the 1600s however the development of slavery in the British colonies was a little odd as many of the early British colonies either opposed permanent slavery or a cheap labor filled through alternative means the rise of permanent slaves
0:44 within the British colonies was a business decision driven by a witnessing successful Dutch and Portuguese slavery in Brazil and in the Caribbean islands and eventually became the business model for many in the American South so to better understand how slavery developed in British controlled North America we
1:06 have to take a quick jump to the Caribbean England arrived in the Caribbean late and settled Barbados in 1625 almost a century after the island had first been discovered by the Portuguese after establishing themselves in the Caribbean they began inserting themselves into the growing sugar and rum trade which had been developed by
1:27 the Dutch it was the business-minded Dutch who turned transatlantic trade into a more efficient system Dutch ships traveled one way between Europe Africa and the Americas without returning home until the whole voyage had been made this ensured that they were always stocked full of goods European goods
1:49 were exchanged in Africa for slaves these slaves then went to the Americas in exchange for rum and sugar and that rum and sugar was shipped back to Europe before this slave trafficking by the Spanish and Portuguese was sporadic the new Dutch system became dominant by the mid 1600s leading to an explosion of
2:12 slave importation into the new world in the 1660s england jumped into the market to compete directly with other european powers this has become known as the triangular trade system many of the American colonies were established prior to the emergence of the triangular trade so neither New England nor Virginia
2:35 initially relied on African slaves for local labor instead this was fulfilled through immigration or indentured servants indentured servants both black and white earned their passage to the new world by promising labour for a set amount of years and were freed of their commitment after the terms of the
2:55 contract had been met also prior to the 1660s lifelong servants white or black had certain recognized rights they cannot be arbitrarily killed or harmed and the condition of servitude did not automatically transfer to their family this changed as the English colonies in
3:16 the Caribbean became more deeply involved in the triangular trade African slavery slowly became the dominant source of agricultural labor and since the American South was growing into a cash crop economy slavery increased in the American north New England became home to a growing collection of
3:37 Protestant settlers especially the Quakers who were strongly opposed to slavery thus slavery never took deep root in their culture by the 1660s plantation owners in the American South began to react to the growing abolitionism of their northern neighbors by transforming slavery into an institution exclusive to
4:01 Africans alone colonial laws in Virginia and Maryland were changed to distinguish African slaves from other free laborers slavery became inherited the rights of punishment even to death was transferred from the state to slave owners and slaves were restricted in their
4:21 movements and communication this all culminated in American slaveholders developing racist ideologies beginning in the 1700s which in turn came to dominate the southern plantation society ironically this all occurred during a growing abolitionist movement throughout England it was England who eventually
4:43 eliminated the transatlantic slave trade in 1807 shortly after the birth of the United States of America while slavery would almost leave the face of the earth on its own time the development of the cotton gin and spinning jenny in the mid-1800s would revive the fire of American slavery but that’s a story for
5:06 another time