Slavery made the European colonization of North America and the Caribbean possible. Native Americans were the first people to be enslaved in North America. Many Native American societies had practiced different forms of slavery for thousands of years before they ever met Europeans. The Native American practice, however, represented a temporary condition and was more a badge of status than a moneymaking enterprise. Most Native American slaves were women and children either purchased or captured as prizes in warfare. Some were adopted into their new tribe over time, their offspring being free persons who could even rise to positions of leadership. Slavery, therefore, was not a hereditary condition, nor was it based on race. (Schneider and Schneider,
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While most theories of capitalism set slavery apart, as something utterly distinct, because under slavery, workers do not labor for a wage, in fact slaves were seen as a form of capital, because they could reproduce and thus “grow” the initial capital investment beyond merely the economic production of the individual slave. At the dawn of the industrial age theorists like Rev. Thomas Malthus could not envision that capital, which is an asset that is used but not consumed in the production of goods and service, could compound and diversify its forms, increasing productivity and engendering economic growth. Yet, ironically, when Malthus penned his Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798, the economies of Western Europe already had crawled their way out of the socalled “Malthusian trap” and this was certainly the case in the New World with slavery. (Schneider and Schneider, 2007, …show more content…
In the years between 1725 and 1775, slavery became increasingly significant in the northern colonies. Massachusetts was the first slaveholding colony in New England. New York traced its connection to slavery and the slave trade back to the Dutch settlers of New Netherland in the seventeenth century. Philadelphia became an active site of the Atlantic slave trade, and slaves accounted for nearly 8% of the city’s population in 1770. In southern cities, including Charleston, urban slavery played an important role in the market economy. Slaves, both rural and urban, made up the majority of the working population of the thirteen
While most theories of capitalism set slavery apart, as something utterly distinct, because under slavery, workers do not labor for a wage, in fact slaves were seen as a form of capital, because they could reproduce and thus “grow” the initial capital investment beyond merely the economic production of the individual slave. At the dawn of the industrial age theorists like Rev. Thomas Malthus could not envision that capital, which is an asset that is used but not consumed in the production of goods and service, could compound and diversify its forms, increasing productivity and engendering economic growth. Yet, ironically, when Malthus penned his Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798, the economies of Western Europe already had crawled their way out of the socalled “Malthusian trap” and this was certainly the case in the New World with slavery. (Schneider and Schneider, 2007, …show more content…
In the years between 1725 and 1775, slavery became increasingly significant in the northern colonies. Massachusetts was the first slaveholding colony in New England. New York traced its connection to slavery and the slave trade back to the Dutch settlers of New Netherland in the seventeenth century. Philadelphia became an active site of the Atlantic slave trade, and slaves accounted for nearly 8% of the city’s population in 1770. In southern cities, including Charleston, urban slavery played an important role in the market economy. Slaves, both rural and urban, made up the majority of the working population of the thirteen