Slavery in the colonial history of the United States

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The institution of slavery in the colonies of British America developed through a combination of factors, but primarily from a boom in industrialized agriculture and the early existence of large slave labor populations on nearby European-colonized Caribbean islands. Before the 1650s, however, African-based industrial slavery had not developed within the colonies. During this time, Native Americans were the main target for servitude by British American colonists. By the 1650s, several Southern colonies were known to have begun enslaving both local Native Americans and African Americans for work on industrial plantations. As indigenous peoples suffered massive population losses due to imported diseases, Europeans turned to the importation of African slaves, initially, from European-owned West Indies (Caribbean) sugar plantations, primarily to work on tobacco, rice or indigo plantations. Ancient methods of European slavery and racist ideologies were handed down to the British American colonies...

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