While Africans in colonial America held very little social or political power, their contributions not only supported the Southern colonies but led to their eventual prosperity. Show
The first Africans brought to the colonies of what would be the United States had been enslaved by the Portugese. In the British colonies, they maintained a legal status similar to white indentured servants. Unlike the white indentured servants, however, the enslaved Africans did not volunteer their labor. However, the Africans' status in the United States slowly deteriorated over the course of the century, as colonies slowly added laws to permit slavery and restrict the rights of Africans. There are two examples of this shift from indentured servitude to the institution of legal slavery for blacks in the British-American colonies. One is the story of John Punch, a black indentured servant who ran away from his boss along with two white indentured servants in 1640. All were captured. While the white indentured servants had their terms extended by four years each, Punch had his term of service extended to the rest of his life. The second example is the case of John Casor. He was an indentured servant who had fled from his boss, Anthony Johnson (who, ironically, had also been among those first African captives brought to the 13 colonies until he earned his freedom and bought his own piece of land). In 1654, Johnson took Casor to court to force him back into servitude. Casor claimed he had earned his freedom, but the court did not agree—and went a step further to declare that Casor would be Johnson’s property for the rest of his life. These decisions laid the legal foundation for lifetime servitude. More laws followed, including one in 1662 that said children were born into slavery if their mothers were enslaved, and one in 1705 that declared all non-Christian servants brought to the colonies would automatically be enslaved. While slavery existed in every colony at one time or another, it was the economic structure of farming in the South that depended on slave labor to prosper. A large labor force was needed to work the large plantations that grew labor-intensive crops like tobacco and rice. That labor demand was filled by the forced labor of Africans. While most enslaved people worked in the field, others were used in the enslavers’ homes, assisting the owners in running the plantation and household as manservants, maids, cooks, and nannies. As enslaved people became more and more in demand in the South, the slave trade that spanned from Africa to the colonies became a source of economic wealth as well. Working long hours, living in crude conditions, and suffering abuses from their owners, African captives faced harsh conditions in colonial America. Families were often broken apart, with husbands and wives sold to different owners than their children. For those enslaved during this time, there was little hope of escape from slave life. None of the colonies outlawed slavery prior to the Revolutionary War, so running away to freedom was extremely difficult. There was a small chance a captive would be freed when their enslaver died, but it was equally likely that their family would be split up to surviving family members. Still, the enslaved resisted their bondage, with uprisings like the Stono Rebellion in 1739. Despite these hardships, Africans in colonial America developed a vibrant culture that embodied a combination of resistance against their enslavers, adopted Christian worship, and customs from their native Africa. Storytelling was an art form as well as a means of sharing critical information about survival for the enslaved, and since they were not allowed to read or write, it was the primary way African-American history was passed down. Music and dance, which was central to African life, became sustenance for slaves’ emotional lives in America, especially in their prayer and worship practices. Many cultural elements from colonial America still exists in African-American culture today. Africans came to the New World in the earliest days of the Age of Exploration. In the early 1500s, Africans trekked across the many lands in North, Central, and South America that were claimed by Spain, some coming in freedom and some in slavery, working as soldiers, interpreters, or servants. Explorers of African descent joined the expeditions of Francisco Vázquez
de Coronado, Ponce de Léon, Hernan Cortés, Hernando de Soto, and many more. Esteban de Dorantes, also known as Estevanico, who was born in Morocco and held in slavery by a Spanish captain, traveled from Cuba to what is now Florida, was shipwrecked near Galveston, and served as a scout and interpreter on long journeys throughout Mexico and the land that is now the state of New Mexico. As European powers increasingly sought to establish long-term colonies in the Americas, increasing numbers
of Africans came to these continents, often against their will. Free and enslaved Africans lived in Spanish Florida by the late 16th century, and in 1619, a year before English pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, a group of "20 and odd" African people was brought to England’s Jamestown colony in Virginia in captivity. These individuals had been caught up in the transatlantic slave trade, a web of
international commerce and human suffering that was entangling Europe, the Americas, and Africa. As it expanded, this institution would bring about profound changes in society, politics, and everyday life on multiple continents, and would shape the African experience in America for centuries to come.  West Africa before the Slave TradeAt the dawn of the era of transatlantic slavery, Africa was a vast and diverse land, the home of many ancient cultures and more than 800 languages. The region that would be most powerfully affected by the slave trade was in West Africa, along a strip of coast between the Senegal and Congo rivers, although many other regions were touched by the slave trade. Olaudah Equiano was the son of a chief of the Igbo people in West Africa, but was seized and sold into slavery as a small boy. In his autobiography of 1789, he looked back on life in his homeland, remembering it as "a charming fruitful vale."
A Global Network of SufferingThe expansion of the transatlantic slave trade disrupted in West and Central African societies, and over the centuries would extract an immeasurable human toll. Europeans had first made contact with African societies centuries before, and had long maintained trading posts on the continent's coasts. As European colonies in the Americas expanded, though, their governments increasingly looked to Africa for a source of cheap labor to power their growing farms, mines, and plantations. Beginning in the 16th century and for centuries after, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Dutch traders systematically purchased large numbers of African people, many of whom had been captured by the traders’ African allies in wars or in raids, and transported them to the American colonies for permanent enslavement. Some forms of slavery had already existed in the region, but large-scale abduction and transportation of people, as well as the treatment of enslaved people and their descendants as permanent property, were not common. Soon, countless cargo ships were crossing the Atlantic, carrying shiploads of shackled people to the Americas, often then bringing raw materials home to Europe. It is estimated that during the many centuries of the transatlantic slave trade, more than 10 million people were enslaved and transported from Africa to the Americas. Of these, several hundred thousand were sent to the 13 British colonies and, later, the United States. We may never know a precise number, but some estimates hold that more than 1 million people died on the journey to the Americas. The survivors faced a harsh life in another land.
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Why did slavery expand in North America?Throughout the 17th century, European settlers in North America turned to enslaved Africans as a cheaper, more plentiful labor source than indentured servants, who were mostly poor Europeans.
What led to the growth of African slavery?Ivory, gold and other trade resources attracted Europeans to West Africa. As demand for cheap labour to work on plantations in the Americas grew, people enslaved in West Africa became the most valuable 'commodity' for European traders. Slavery existed in Africa before Europeans arrived.
What factors led to the development of African slavery in colonial America?A large labor force was needed to work the large plantations that grew labor-intensive crops like tobacco and rice. That labor demand was filled by the forced labor of Africans.
Why did slavery increase in the English colonies?After enslaved Native American laborers began to die due to exposure to disease, European powers began purchasing enslaved Africans, who became their primary labor source. Britain sent their first slave ships to the British West Indies to work on tobacco plantations and then later sugarcane plantations.
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What was the underlying cause of the expansion of African slavery in English North America?
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