Eighteenth Century Slavery - Essay Example

Slavery was focused in dynamic crop growing on Long Island and in most part of the Northern colonies. The majority slaves were occupied in farming and stock otherwise as household servants for the metropolitan influential. An immense invasion of Africans in the middle of the eighteenth century in Africa and motivated the formation of numerous African churches and compassionate towns and cities. Northern slaves cultivated an energetic African-American ethnicity. These slaves uphold a several fashionable celebrations like Election Day, during which roles between whites and blacks were temporarily reversed.

The New England Slave Trade (Northern Colonies) was considered a success for it paved the way for the establishment of New England's economic structure. The wealthy class rose into power due to the profit gained from trading slaves. The monetary gains acquired through slave-trading were used for further enhancement of culture and expansion of philanthropic works. (Greene, 1942) New England proved to be the leading slave merchant in comparison to American colonies. As trade and manufacturing became the most important activities in the northern section, they developed the end of sale of cheap lands in the West to workers needed for northern industry.

The prevention of widespread slavery and the slave-based economic system to new western territories where it would compete with wage-labor and provide less of a market also occurred in the Northern colonies. "Slaveholding reflected social as well as economic standing, for in colonial times servants and retainers were visible symbols of rank and distinction. The leading families of Massachusetts and Connecticut used slaves as domestic servants, and in Rhode Island, no prominent household was complete without a large staff of black retainers.

New York's rural gentry regarded the possession of black coachmen and footmen as an unmistakable sign of social standing. In Boston, Philadelphia, and New York the mercantile elite kept retinues of household slaves. Their example was followed by tradesmen and small retailers until most houses of substance had at least one or two domestics." (McManus, 1973) Slavery in the southern colonies (South Carolina and Georgia) also flourished similar to slave-trading in the middle. While this system ensured the growth of the free black population, it also contributed to the need for laborers.

The initial slaves were from Europe however they were replaced by the African slaves were more economical so most people preferred to have the African slaves instead of the Indians. Indentured servitude can also be considered as one of the factors why there was a lack of manpower. (Evans, 1965) The agriculture of the Southern colonies was not gaining any profit for it was smarter to purchase crops from New World. Aside from this, there was an increasing demand for additional workforce and that encouraged them to purchase slaves which were supplied by the Western and Central parts of Africa.

The primary reason that attributed to the lack of workforce was the increased availability of lands that were cheap and this resulted to the increase of people owning lands. Since there were large numbers of landowners, they wanted to have their lands profitable to at least return their investment. Thus, these landowners