The Origin Of Slavery In American History

Words: 820
Pages: 4
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Matthew Jacobs
US History 1 Honors
November 8, 2015
Kelly Clark
History Slavery Paper For many centuries, prominent civilizations and countries frequently used slavery to advance their civilization. The famous Greek philosopher Aristotle said that “a slave is a living possession” whose purpose is to assist their master, showing how slaves were thought of as property that would economically benefit their owner. Many of the largest and most successful empires in history, such as the Greek and Roman empires, as well as colonial America, owe much of their success to the work of enslaved people. Although most people think of race as the dividing line between master and slave, this has not always been the case throughout history. Notwithstanding …show more content…
Almost most people think of the enslavement of black Africans during colonial times when they think of slavery, throughout time slaves were not limited to being of any one particular ethnicity or race. In both Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, the race of a person did not determine who would become a slave, as the only reason a person was enslaved was if they were conquered by the Greeks or Romans. Slavery in Africa during the colonial period also provides an indisputable counterexample to this theory. In Africa, a person was enslaved by other Africans who came to villages “to kidnap. . . stout young people,” to be sold to Europeans or colonists and transported to the New World. Although the ultimate owners of the slaves were white, the participation of other Africans in the capturing and sale of slaves was an essential part of the slave trade. This shows that people were willing to enslave others regardless of their race, whether they were of the same ethnicity or race as their captors or if they are not. The enslavement of people of the same race throughout time provides evidence that slavery is not based in …show more content…
Slaves provided a cheap source of labor, since it was less costly for the colonists to purchase a slave than it would have been to pay laborers. Also, paid workers had more rights than slaves. If they did not receive good working conditions and adequate pay, they could refuse to work and try to find a better job elsewhere. This forced the landowners to pay their workers adequately or risk having no workers at all, which annoyed many of the wealthy landowners. Due to this slaves logically seemed to be a more reliable workforce to the upper-class because they had no rights, and, no matter how much they wanted to, they could not leave their owners without risking their life and the little freedom that they had. Slavery has been used often throughout history because it provides inexpensive and reliable workers, as opposed to the less reliable and more expensive paid workers that otherwise would be
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