THE ORIGINS OF NEGRO SLAVERY

THE ORIGINS OF NEGRO SLAVERY
By: Eric E. Williams

Slavery was not born of racism, but racism was the consequence of slavery. The Indians were the first instance of slave trading and slave labor in the New World. England and France followed the Spanish practice of enslavement of the Indians. The only restraint to Indian slavery was to those Indians who refused to accept Christianity and to the warlike Caribs on specious plea that they were cannibals. Negro slavery involved vital imperial interests. Europeans saw that Indian slavery was unprofitable because it was unsuited to the diversified agriculture of these colonies. In addition the Indian slave was inefficient and the Spaniards discovered that one Negro was worth four Indians. Sugar and cotton required strength in which the Indian lacked and demanded the “cotton nigger”.
The immediate successor of the Indian slave was that of the poor whites. These white servants called “indentured servants”, which...