Slavery

In 1619 the first Africans were brought to the New World by the Dutch. They were traded for food. Originally they were used as indentured servants and so were English people. Indentured servants were by race. Anyone could be a servant. They worked off their debt to the person that brought them to the New World. As the labor started to get harder, people didn't want to work. That's when slavery began. The first Africans were protected by Christianity and could not become slaves. Slaves could be of any race. In 1640, three servants run away. 2 were white and one was African. The white servants got years added on to their contracts. The African got a life sentence as a slave. In a short period of time slavery had shifted from non-Christians to non-whites.

People started buying a male slave and a female slave so they could bear children and the master would inherit them as slaves. If you were born into a slave family, you were automatically a slave. Free African servants could become slaves as well. No one knew you were free. They could just go up to someone and be like "I want to sell my slave" and you would be sold. The English made the Africans slaves because they were easy to identify.

Massachusetts was the first state to recognize slavery as being legal in 1641. Connecticut recognized it in 1650, Virginia in 1661, Maryland in 1663,and New York and New Jersey in 1664.

Slaves were treated very different than everyone else. If a slave owner killed a slave, it was legal because a slave was considered property. Government doesn't care what you do with your property so it didn't matter to them. In 1691 a law was passed that if was illegal to free a black slave.

In the short time between indentured servants of every race, to slaves, to black slaves, a lot of people's views were changed. Still to this day, some people look down on black people and how they were slaves. Some people are still so racists as to think that we should still have slaves.