Some colonists always had racial and cultural prejudices against blacks. Segments of the English population believed in negative stereotypes about Africans such as “black color is God’s punishment for sin”, and that blacks practice witchcraft, cannibalism and savagery. Prominent colonists, such as John Smith in Virginia, were extremely opinionated and made no bones about their view that African blacks were idle and had devil like characteristics. “The combination of color, language, dress and culture, created an image of Africans as others and since slavery was a status reserved for strangers, the Europeans had no moral issue in enslaving black Africans. However, racial prejudices were neither universal nor the sole cause of slavery. During
