To what factors can we attribute the initial development and eventual expansion of African slavery in Europe’s New World colonies? How would you describe this progression?

As many know, the backbone of nearly all New World colonies was the widespread use of chattel slavery. The question, then, is why this became so prevalent in the first place?

The first reason that chattel slavery even became an idea in the New World came after the Spanish and Portuguese considered much of their work raiding Central and South America complete. With no communities or civilizations left to conquer, they needed ways to make money, and the Central American islands were considered a great place to start mining and farming cash crops like sugarcane. The Spanish and Portuguese then had to figure out how to best turn a profit through these endeavors – the best route they saw was enslaving the natives of the region.

While the idea of just enslaving the people that were already there may seem like a great idea initially (if we ignore the horrors of slavery itself, in any case), issues arose quite quickly. Not only were the people who had spent their entire lives on this land incredibly good at escaping, but their immune systems weren’t adapted to resist the Old World diseases that Spaniards and the Portuguese put them in constant contact with. As a result, despite the best efforts of Europeans, the mass enslavement of the native peoples of Central America had failed after many successfully fled the European farms, and many more succumbed to the diseases introduced by the Europeans themselves. To add insult to injury, debates sparked up in Europe about the ethicality of enslaving the Natives, and in 1542, the Spanish government banned the enslavement of Indians, advocating for their conversion to Christianity instead. While it may not have actually changed how Spaniards in the New World behaved, it set a precedent that a new source of labor needed to be found.

After the failure of the enslavement of Central American native groups, the Spanish and Portuguese needed a new source of free labor. With Asia too far away and Europe too ‘civilized,’ the Europeans set their sights on a new source – West Africa. Europeans successfully managed to take advantage of an already existing, albeit small-scale, slave trade by pitting African leaders against one another, making the kidnapping and selling of fellow Africans into slavery not only more profitable than ever, but a virtual necessity, as Europeans often paid using guns and ammunition. With an exponentially growing incentive to attack your neighbors, the mindset in West Africa became ‘raid or be raided,’ splitting West African society apart and losing generations of Africans as a result of European greed.

In conclusion, the rise of chattel enslavement of Africans in the New World can be attributed to an initial desire of the Spanish and Portuguese to grow cash crops, followed by a failed attempt to enslave the Natives of the area, culminating in the official start of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, which was kept running by the purposeful destabilization of African society.

Please note that this essay was written in about 60 minutes the night it was due. For Archival Purposes(TM) I felt it should still be up here.