Establishment of Slavery in English Colonies - Research Paper Example

ough one should not excuse the men and women who started slavery in the colonies on the basis of cultural relativism, one also should not ignore the causes of slavery in the first place. First, understanding the origins of slavery is important for preventing the institution from ever returning. Second, it is important to scholars to understand the social and economic conditions of the early English colonies, and the perspective of slaves (and slaveholders) provides an excellent perspective on that history.

Common belief in our day is that slavery itself began as an expression of racist ideologies against the African continent (Williams). However, it seems more likely that slavery took its origins in the English colonies with economic factors and the growing capitalist ideology sweeping across Europe and her farthest outposts. Slavery on the British Isles was nearly nonexistent throughout the kingdom’s history; nevertheless, the institution of slavery spread like wildfire throughout its colonies, and was common operating procedure by the 17th century.

In her seminal work The Origin of American Slavery, historian Betty Wood addresses the question of social and economic causes for slavery in the English colonies. She ascribes the origin of slavery to both factors: racism and economics. She writes, “Albeit with the benefit of hindsight, it would seem from the outset American slavery was characterized by an awareness of ethnic differences that over the course of a century hardened into an overt racism” (Wood 7-8). But this does not answer the crucial question of whether racist ideologies or capitalist ideologies played the crucial role in the very beginning of slave trade.

There are arguments to be made for either case. A Marxist historian, for instance, might blame capitalism more readily than a historian of African history, such as William Dillon Piersen in his Afrocentric From Africa to America. To consider both sides of the debate, one must analyze the