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The Idea Of Slavery In America Essay

¶ … constitution had been written with the abolishment of slavery included, the nation would not have benefitted much from such an act. Unfortunately, the United States was built on slave labor. This was especially true in the south. The colonists in colonial America would not have expanded the way they did. They would have not done well in crops like cotton and tobacco had they not employed slave labor. History states the conditions that existed back in the colonial era was deadly to most but African slaves. Although Europeans used indentured servants and Native Americans, they quickly died in those conditions. Examining it in a positive way, the nation would have learned to exist and trade using other methods. They may have learned to cooperate with native populations and perhaps focus more on trade and developing skills versus farming and slave trading. The nation would have also remained unified. One of the main reasons the United States had states that seceded was because of the slave issue and the states individual desire to govern. Perhaps the federal level of government may have developed earlier on with a unified people.

The negatives however, far outweigh the positives. Most of colonial...

Even moving into the 1800's, there was still a lot of land that was unexplored and uncultivated. Colonists not only had to deal with wilderness and foreign environments, but they also had to deal with the native populations and native wildlife. Slavery enabled people to explore and move into places that they otherwise would not be able to reach (Kolchin, 1993, p. 26). Although slavery was horrible and destroyed the lives of many, Americans that owned slaves had a chance at upward mobility.
Immigrants from Europe could leave their home country, go to America, buy some slaves and create a life for themselves. Slaves were the determiner of wealth not just for people in the south, but also the north. Those that lived in the north traded the product produced in the south. Slave trading was also a way many people made money. "20% of colonial New Yorkers were enslaved Africans. First Dutch and then English merchants built the city's local economy largely around supplying ships for trade in slaves and in what slaves produced - sugar, tobacco, indigo, coffee, chocolate, and cotton" (Slaveryinnewyork.org, 2015). That money was used to build the foundation of much of the United States,…

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References

Kelly, A., Harbison, W., & Belz, H. (1983). The American Constitution. New York: Norton.

Kolchin, P. (1993). American slavery, 1619-1877. New York: Hill and Wang.

Slaveryinnewyork.org,. (2015). Slavery in New York. Retrieved 11 September 2015, from http://www.slaveryinnewyork.org/history.htm
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