Quote:
Originally Posted by badrunner
We've reached a new low when "slavery had nothing to do with racism" becomes a talking point
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You are mistaking what came about in the US with why it started in the first place.
Let me help you out. We had indentured servants...but this became a problem. They started living longer than their service contract which meant they eventually got their freedom. This caused a couple of issues, chiefly you had a bunch of young men and women(mostly men) who had little to no access to land which meant they wanted to push further west which meant they came into conflict with the local native Americans for their land. The local governments didn't like this, but it pretty much kept happening until Bacon Rebellion in Virginia. At this point the government found it was easier for everyone involved to simply import slaves rather than servants. Slaves didn't require eventual freedom and they didn't understand English law while they were in service.
The fact that places like Virginia went the way of slavery wasn't guaranteed. Georgia very well could have stayed a free state if it wasn't for a few misguided steps they choose in their early decades. One of the earliest recorded slave owners in America was a black man. I think people today wonder how the hell could slavery been allowed in the first place. The real question is why did we end slavery in such an abrupt way(historically speaking) and why at that certain time in history. Slavery was the norm.
In any case, was there racism in America in 1609? Yes. Was racism the main reason that we started bringing Africans in to become slaves? No.
Edit: I've already explained why Africans were targeted for slavery vs anyone else. They were the easiest targets for Europeans(and for Arabs and the Turks btw).