Economic Effects Of Slavery In America

Introduction
In America, the problem of slavery began as an economic event which saw the affluent Europeans and Americans trade and own slaves who worked for them. The number of slaves that each person owned or commanded represented their wealth and the influence in the society. Coming from another country, I think America is all about liberty and rights. However, slavery is the opposite of the American concept. For me, Slavery was fairly new to me even though it is in the past. I didn’t know the impact or even any goodness it does to the United States. In addition, I think being an owned slave for the Africans and the few Americans held as slaves was in a way considered as a way of life and the master was supposed to be the god of the slaves
During the colonial period and the coming of European immigrants to the United States, there was a shortage of labor. The main economic production in the southern part was farming, particularly cotton that was exported to Europe and supplied in the Northern parts of America. The South thus required enough workers to yield more produce of the farms. In August 1619, the first twenty blacks were shipped to America in Jamestown, Virginia. These blacks were not labelled as slaves but as indentured servants, a condition which was to run for seven years. This was followed by other white people from the poor countries of Europe who also came as indentured servants. According to their masters, the indentured service was supposed to be taken as payment for the expenses of their journey across the seas to America. When the white people agreed to the terms that the African black people who had been released after the seven years of indenture service were brought back to work in the farms. For these newcomers from Africa, it was not an indentured service but a service with no payment or any specific term to release. (Edmund 34). This was the beginning of slavery in America. Larger numbers of Africans were brought to North America as slaves to work in the farms and large plantations established in South part of the United States. In the South, the slave owners would be entitled to the slave labor output, even without remuneration. In fact, the rights and protection of slaves would be regulated by laws and customs in particular time and place. (Goldfield