From: Tasheeva Drayton
Date: 2/7/00
Time: 11:23:55 PM
Remote Name: 155.247.152.65
Tasheeva Drayton History 67 Week 4
How and why did African slavery get started in America? What did slavery mean for African culture?
Slavery got started because as the colonies grew agriculturally the plantation owners needed workers. Indentured servants were a good way to get the workers that they needed, but soon all of them could buy their freedom or their time served was up and the owners were left with a low staff. The English colonist realized that they could force to seize the Africans and force them to work for them as slaves which was less expensive then the indentured servants. They got the idea from the Spanish and Portuguese who had already enslaved the Africans. Slaves were considered property, which entitled the owners to the children of the slaves and so on. It was free labor and expendable labors because if they lost one slave they would have many new ones being raised and bought or sold. Culturally the Africans were stripped of all they had back in Africa. They were forced to convert to Christianity. They were also made to speak English. However, the slave owners could not fully take away their African roots. African slaves created their mixture of English and African called Creole. They also agreed to change religions under the terms that the religion would be a way to express their feelings, which was an element of their African past.