Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Why were Africans brought to the US as slaves?

This question can be approached from a long-term perspective, which would have to take into consideration the African context at the time of European arrival, the role of the Portuguese, the demand for labor in the New World, the growth and development of the transatlantic slave trade, the arrival of Africans in Virginia, slavery legislation in the English colonies, and so forth. There is abundant historical literature to probe the origins of race-based slavery in the United States.
In the proximate sense, the bringing of Africans to the United States as slaves was the continuation of the same practice in the English colonies. In other words, one might ask why the United States continued to bring Africans to America as slaves after the American Revolution. Why did the Constitution not eradicate slavery? The short answer is that slavery was convenient and profitable, but it was not quite that simple. One can begin probing the issue more deeply by going to the first link below. One could also look at the eventual prohibition of the slave trade through a series of legislative acts in the early 1800s. The second link below provides a helpful summary and a short bibliography at the end.
http://abolition.nypl.org/print/us_constitution/

https://www.montpelier.org/learn/slavery-constitution-lasting-legacy

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