Slavery and the Early Development of America

Abstract

Part I explores American history from colonialism to the 1960s. This chapter focuses on the establishment of hereditary slavery based on “race” in parallel with the development of democracy among whites. Which came first, slavery based on “race,” or prejudice against Blacks? Racial prejudice was embedded by the introduction of slavery based on “race” around the time of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1667 in Virginia. Northern whites became prosperous directly and/or indirectly through the Atlantic trading system, with the slave trade as its base. Slavery continued to make possible the newborn republic’s successful development to the extent that it could not abolish slavery until the end of the Civil War, despite its declared belief in natural rights.