scroll to top
Stuck on your essay?
Get ideas from this essay and see how your work stacks up
Word Count: 604
In the early seventeenth century the English began to rapidly and successfully colonize America With this rapid population increase also came shortly after a booming new agricultural economy And with this economy came a need for labor a labor that was at first hard to find Looking desperately for help big time planters and small time farmers alike began to develop a system of servitude which first involved indenture servants from Europe and Native American slaves But soon the English looked across the sea for a new source of labor They looked to Africa and by the middle of the seventeenth century everywhere in English America the status of slave with all that it entailed became reserved for those of West African ancestry rather than for native Americans or for certain Europeans Betty Wood Origins of American Slavery pg6 But why did the English look to Africa as a source of involuntary servitudeDid the English consider the use of slaves from West Africa before colonizationWe know that the Spanish and Portuguese were enslaving them as early as the late fifteenth century Wood Origins of American Slavery pg 10 Perhaps the English sought slaves in Africa because it was already socially and economically acceptable But why would any country including Spain and Portugal turn to Africa for slaves in the first place Most scholars are under the influence that it was purely because of the Africans ethnicity But others lay significance mainly on the economic and demographic considerations of the time Economic necessity and a quest for profits may haven driven the English to enslave West Africans Wood Origins of American Slavery pg 7 But the most convincing theory to most is the theory that Africans were accepted as eligible for slavery by the lack of Christianity in their society Through many centuries of Crusades and Holy Wars Europeans had come to associate a relationship between Christianity and slavery Wood Origins of American Slavery
@Kibin is a lifesaver for my essay right now!!
- Sandra Slivka, student @ UC Berkeley
Wow, this is the best essay help I've ever received!
- Camvu Pham, student @ U of M
If I'd known about @Kibin in college, I would have gotten much more sleep
- Jen Soust, alumni @ UCLA