Slavery in America began with the use of white indentured servants, but after the Bacon Rebellion, plantation owners turned to African slaves who were easier to control. The slave trade was facilitated by international trade in rum, lumber, rice, and sugar. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and the three-fifths compromise helped maintain slavery until the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation led to its eventual abolition.
The beginning of slavery in America can be traced back to the history of a labor system in ancient times, which dates back to the Aztec and Inca civilizations. The institution of slavery was also a common form of labor in Rome, Greece and Egypt. Slavery in America is also linked to the Portuguese and Spanish, who brought the first African slaves to the Caribbean and Central America in the 1500s to work in the gold mines.
As transatlantic trade opened up in the 1600s and 1800s, it connected North America to Europe and Africa, creating a global economy for the United States and other countries. International trade in rum, lumber, rice, and sugar eventually led to slavery in America because existing trade routes facilitated the transportation of laborers from Africa. Before that, American colonists preferred to use white indentured servants from Europe as laborers in the tobacco fields. Indentured servants represented a more convenient and consistent source of labor than African slaves.
After 1676, indentured servants began asking for concessions; some fled their owners, and others found menial replacement work. They began to rebel against upper-class white employers in a revolt referred to as the Bacon Rebellion. The rebellion was a key factor in the beginning of slavery in America because escaped slaves were easier to identify due to their skin color and could not ask for land.
Whites decided that black slaves were easier to control, as the law defined Africans as property for life. From the 1680s onwards, plantation owners began buying slaves from Africa, which marks the very beginning of slavery in America. In Georgia and the Carolinas, rice became a lucrative crop, with many farmers emigrating from Barbados. They brought nearly 100,000 African slaves with them to work the rice fields, which further promoted slavery in America.
As rice production spread to Georgia, the idea of slavery gained popularity throughout the South. In the colonies north of Virginia, the concept of slavery in America clashed with the ideals of the Puritan religion and the climate proved unsuitable for rice and sugar crops. These factors eventually led to widespread slavery in the South and opposition to the practice in the North.
Southern plantation owners obtained concessions after the American Revolution, with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. It allowed slave owners to cross state lines in search of fugitives. The owners also pushed for the passage of a law making each slave three-fifths of a person to gain representation in the Electoral College. The act allowed for the continuation of the slave trade with Africa until 1808.
After restrictions on international trade took effect, plantation owners began trading slaves to America internally as new cotton-growing regions expanded into the South. Anti-slavery groups began forming in the North, culminating in the Civil War when African Americans fought alongside white soldiers. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 freed slaves in America, but slavery was not abolished until the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified two years later.
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