Summary
Highlights
European settlement in North America led to a demand for a large, unpaid labor force, resulting in the mass enslavement of Africans starting in 1619. This was an extension of existing slavery in Central and South America.
Despite ideals of liberty, New England colonies embraced slavery, using forced labor to fuel booming commerce in shipbuilding, manufacturing, insurance, and banking. Cities like New York and Boston thrived economically through the slave trade, with enslaved people even building infrastructure.
As slavery expanded, it became a permanent, generational status tied to race. A complex system of beliefs and punitive laws was created to codify, control, and subordinate Black people, promoting the false idea of Black inferiority and denying them basic human rights.
The Transatlantic Slave Trade was formally abolished in 1808 due to economic shifts and outcry. However, slavery persisted through the Domestic Slave Trade, especially in the agrarian South. The narratives supporting slavery created a racial hierarchy that continues to shape America today.