Merriam-Webster dictionary states that, "A slave is someone who is legally owned by another person and is forced to work for that person without pay." Commonly it is thought that your typical slave was an African American. Africans were portrayed as primitive and uncivilized, yet they were actually just the opposite.Reasons Africans tended to be chosen is that they were more easily brought from traders on the West African Coast and were more immune to diseases than imported white slaves. Yet, additional factors include that they were better laborers because they came from a civil society and were often craftsmen. Alan Brinkley states, "By the late seventeenth century, the indentured servant population had become one of the largest elements of the colonial population...""As early as 1502, therefore, European settlers began importing slaves from Africa," Brinkley informs. He then proceeds to inform us, "The African slave trade long preceded European settlement in the New World. As early as the as the eighth century, west Africans began selling small numbers of slaves to traders from the Mediterranean and later to the Portuguese."Slaves benefited the Americans in many more ways than one. The most evident benefit is the manual labor slaves took on, yet slaves had more qualities. For instance, Africans were habitual to the hot, humid atmosphere and were resistant to malaria. This helped when slaves were asked to perform rice cultivation, because it was such an unhealthy and difficult task that the white laborers refused to perform it.In conclusion, African slaves were easier to buy and sell, immune to diseases, adapted to the climate easier, and were beneficial in more ways than one. Slaves were thought be African Americans, but lower class whites could serve as well. Slavery is a part of American history and is still a sensitive issue today.
