African Slavery Vs American Slavery

Environmental pressures force the need for change. With this is mind, the rapid growth of the Colonial economy was due to the production of desirable commodities such as sugar and tobacco. Just like in evolution, the areas it changes are optimal for the conditions at the time being. However, as the environment changes because of new pressures, so do our evolutionary traits. These commodities can be seen as the environmental pressure that, through a short period of time, caused the evolution that resulted in slavery finding a place in the colony of Virginia. When examining the works of Richard Dunn and Anthony Parent, it is apparent that the rise of slavery in the Western Hemisphere had major impacts on the institutions of the time. Being …show more content…
In fact, the African natives enslaved their own people some of which were traitors, members of other tribes, and captives from war. The slaves that were shipped to the colonies were enslaved for various reasons. While the colonists believed this establishment of serving a higher authority would make for an easy transition, the conditions of European enslavement of the Africans was different from the African enslavement. European slavery, or plantation slavery, stripped the slaves of their freedom, status, and culture. While African slavery was not permanent and they were allowed to be with their families and served in society as teachers and wives. Both authors point out the dehumanizing of the African people due to enslavement by the Europeans and that is proven to be true as they basically ripped them from their country and culture and put them to work as …show more content…
Before the colonists had the idea to emulate the West Indies’ methods, the New England colonists, who needed labor, practiced indentured servitude. The problems surrounding the continuation of this practice was the increase in competition of land. The servants were promised a small portion of land at the end of their contract, however, as the elites were expanding, the land incentive quickly diminished and forced the colonists to adapt.
Since indentured servitude was only a temporary status, those who owned them had poor living conditions, or the lack thereof, set in place. This treatment is foiled by that of slaves. The reason for this is that slavery was meant to be a permanent status. Also, as previously stated, the slaves were considered property. These facts illustrate the reason why the treatment of slaves, when it was first institutionalized, was better than that of the preceding