Origins of Slavery

Discrimination and Slavery When the New World first started to colonize, it was used as an exploitation society. The English who were coming to the colonies wanted to exploit America for all it was worth and bring the wealth back to England. When the English arrived, they did not find gold and silver like the Spanish and Portuguese; however, they did discover agricultural products like tobacco, sugar, and rice that could be produced on a large scale to yield huge amounts of profit. In order to mass-produce these products laborers were needed. Whites and blacks alike were taken advantage of and put into a system of indentures where they were the scum of society. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, due to predisposed discrimination towards the black people, the conditions for white servants improved, while those of the black servants deteriorated and eventually lead to slavery. All three authors, Degler, Handlin and Morgan, believe that the black people were predisposed to slavery for one reason or another. Degler stated that, “This absence of a status for black men… made it possible for almost any kind of status to be worked out” (Degler, 51). He also claims, “the fact that inferior and onerous service was established for the Indian makes it plausible to suppose that similar status would be reserved for the equally different and pagan Negro (Degler, 53).” Handlin states that the black man was, “Farthest removed from the English, least desired, he communicated with no friends who might be deterred from following. Since his coming was involuntary, nothing that happened to him would increase or decrease his numbers (Handlin, 211).” From this, one can infer that the blacks were the most likely choice for slaves because it would have the least affect on all other people who coincidentally consisted of all white Christians. In the introduction of Morgan’s argument, he admits “Englishmen who colonized America and their revolutionary descendants were