Forms Of Slavery In America

Our country has a rich history. This history includes many wonderful things but also some terrible things. Slavery was one of these horrible things that stains our country’s past. Slavery emerged the main form of labor and when conditions surrounding the slaves changed, the groups of people who were slaves changed as there was still a demand for labor. Throughout our history, we have had many forms of slavery: Native American slavery, indentured servants, and African slavery.
In America, Native Americans (a.k.a Indians) were the first slaves. When English immigrants came to America, the Native Americans were already here. The Native Americans were friendly with the immigrants and even taught them farming techniques and how to build canoes.The English benefited greatly from the Indians’ help; however, there was still tension between the two groups as the English were hostile to the natives as they thought they were superior to those “savages.” Consequently, the English took the Indian’s as their slaves; however, many of the natives died as they weren’t immune to European diseases.
The “need” for slaves grew as the labor needed to make a profit grew. Native Americans materialized as the first ones to fill this “need.” This role shifted to indentured servants when the Native American population greatly decreased as they weren’t immune to the diseases the English brought with them. The role then shifted to African slaves as indentured servants had become unruly and desired their own land and more rights. While in the end we abolished slavery, we still enslaved people and took away their rights. We did many horrible things to slaves and hopefully we can learn from our country’s mistakes and ensure that slavery or other things similar to it doesn’t happen