The Economic Impacts of African Slavery on the Development of the United States

The transatlantic slave trade which began in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries forever changed the demographic structure of the United States. It introduced an ethnical race which was treated in ways that violate every tenet of present day United Nations human rights charter and the US law. However, such treatment of African slaves was common and lawful during the 17th and 18th centuries and slaves were mainly the source of unfree labor in the agricultural South of the United States. These very slaves who were forced to migrate from their homes in Africa became the main reason for social and political change in America. The impact of African slavery was such that America's only civil war was fought for their liberation and emancipation. A century later the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960 caused much change in the US social structure, law and ideologies; and central to the Civil Rights Movement was the issue of 'black freedom'.

The origins of slavery in the US can be traced to colonial America where there was an abundance of agricultural land but not enough labor. During the colonial era Native Americans and indentured servants from Europe were used as agricultural labor. However, Native Americans were inefficient and were more profitable if sold to Caribbean planters. The number of poor Europeans who served as indentured servants started declining towards the end of the 17th Century due to improved economic conditions in Europe. Also, European immigrants found that more money can be made in the North where they were taught skilled labor and worked in factories. Labor in colonial America became scarce and plantation owners especially in the South demanded another source of unfree labor, African slaves. Towards the end of the 17th Century the population of African slaves began increasing at a formidable rate and when England assumed superiority in the transatlantic slave trade the African slave population increased to 40 percent of the population in Southern mainland colonies and laws were made in 1660 which provided that black slaves and children of slave women would serve for life.