Slavery

Arrival of Slavery and Enslaved Africans

Within the scope of U.S. history, and especially in terms of American slavery, 1619 marks the introduction of the first African laborers in the nascent British colonies. Shortly after Dutch traders unloaded a man-of-war vessel containing 20 Africans at Jamestown, Virginia, the number of Africans in the mainland British colonies grew at a rather slow rate, but it was later bolstered by a robust transatlantic trade in enslaved people that lasted until its abolition in 1808.

Those early African laborers, like many of their European counterparts, worked primarily as indentured servants on the first Virginia tobacco plantations. It took some time, though, before racial distinctions marked these early Africans as the ideal group suited for a lifetime of bondage. Experiments with Native American enslavement proved less promising over time.

Moreover, as indentured servants, these African laborers toiled side-by-side with European indentured workers and largely enjoyed the same privileges. Together, African and European bound workers performed many of the same tasks and even faced similar punishments when doled out by their masters.

Thus, skin color did not necessarily provide European indentured servants with a set of enviable circumstances. Oppression touched all early indentured servants similarly. Over time, perceived gender and racial differences erased that sense of rough equality among the indentured class. Darker skin and African lineage became wrong in the eyes of early American colonists and their European counterparts.

By the mid-17th century, Europeans believed that they had a Christian right to enslave non-Christians. Although Africans could easily convert to Christianity as a means of declaring immunity from slavery, these strategic conversions would only work for a limited time in the colonies. Soon, physical difference, rather than religious persuasion, would serve as the ultimate marker of enslaved and freed persons. For example, Maryland, in 1639, decided that Christian baptism did not make a slave free or prevent an African or Native American from being enslaved. Instead, European “blood” made all the difference. Whiteness had its privileges.

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