The earliest settlers of the English colonies planted the seeds of a fatal contradiction: slavery in a land of freedom. During the American Revolution, many citizens had a difficult time merging their demands for freedom for themselves with the practice of enslaving humans. With the atrocious way of life unfolding emerged such motivations, or "threads" that ensnared blacks for slavery in America. The temptation of White superiority, the helplessness of Africans, and profit for those involved in slave dealership all triggered the inducement of Africans into the evil depths of American slavery.
All humans live with the urge to grow powerful, to enhance themselves through the undermining of others and the uplifting of their spirits. It is such a feeling of superiority and dominance that keeps many people going in life. As Edmund Morgan writes in his book American Slavery, American Freedom: "So you killed the Indians, tortured them, burned their villages, burned their cornfields.
Scars of a whipped slave (April 2, 1863, Baton Rou...
Perspectives on slavery
English: Family on Smith's Plantation, Beaufort, S...It proved your superiority, in spite of your failures" (Zinn 24). The use of African slaves, foreign captives, gave a resolve to Americans, especially poor ones. It was accepted in society to recognize the native Africans as slaves out of the ignorance and strong urgencies to come to a human power. Zinn explains that in the early 17th century, "a million blacks had already been brought from Africa to South America and the Caribbean, to the Portuguese and Spanish colonies as slaves"(26). African blacks had been firmly known from society as pure slaves, undermined workers. There here existed a tired feeling of ineptness really induced Virginians and other Americans especially ready to become the masters of slaves. The Whites were desperate for a workforce and slavery presented itself as an ideal solution of their own fault in working. This helped those who were poor...