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The enslavement of blacks in the American Colonies began during the 1600's. Slavery flourished in the South, where large plantations grew cotton, tobacco, and other crops. The plantations required many laborers. But slavery was less profitable in the North, where economic activity centered on small farms and industries.

By 1860, the slave states had about 4 million slaves. The slaves made up nearly a third of the South's population. For more information on the history of slavery in the United States, see African Americans (The years of slavery); United States, History of the (Expansion) (The irrepressible conflict).

Views of slavery. During the 1700's, noted philosophers and religious leaders in Europe and North America began to condemn slavery. They declared that slavery violated human rights and God-given law.

Many Americans turned against slavery during the Revolutionary War in America (1775-1783). These Americans came to believe that slavery had no place in a nation that had been formed to protect natural human rights. Few people in the North owned slaves, and opposition to slavery developed more rapidly there than in the South. Some Southerners, including such leaders as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, spoke out against slavery. Jefferson owned slaves, but he believed slavery was morally wrong and would someday have to end. He took no strong stand in his own state, Virginia, because he felt the people were not ready for such a step. The high profits that resulted from slavery had far greater influence than did any moral arguments.

Map Slavery in the United States in 1860

Support of slavery remained strong throughout the South. But only about a fourth of the region's whites owned slaves or belonged to a family that owned them. About 45,000 planters owned over half the slaves, and these planters controlled the economy and government of the Southern States. Even the many Southerners who did not own slaves accepted the planters' view that the South's economy would collapse without slavery.

During the early 1800's, abolitionists started a crusade to end slavery. Southerners then began to defend slavery in what became known as the proslavery movement. Some Southerners in the movement argued that slavery reflected "the law of nature" that permitted the strong to rule the weak. Others insisted that the Bible supported slavery. Still others claimed that Southern slavery provided blacks lifelong security and better living conditions than they would have had in Africa. By 1860, most Southerners identified their honor and destiny with the continuation of slavery.

Functions of slaves. During the 1600's and 1700's, most slaves in what became the Southern States worked on plantations that grew chiefly indigo, rice, or tobacco. The cotton gin invented by Eli Whitney in 1793 resulted in fast, large-scale production of cotton. This fiber was the raw material most needed by U.S. and British industry. The high demand for cotton led to the establishment of cotton plantations throughout the South.

Picture Slaves who picked cotton

During the 1800's, most of the plantation slaves were field hands who planted and picked cotton. House slaves worked as servants in the owner's home. Other plantation slaves became skilled craftworkers such as blacksmiths, bricklayers, cabinetmakers, or carpenters.

Slaves also had a variety of jobs in Southern cities and towns. Many worked in factories. Others became construction workers on canals and railroads or worked as dockworkers, lumberjacks, office workers, or riverboat pilots. Still others toiled in mines.

Conditions of slavery. Owners housed their slaves and provided them with food and clothing. The amount and quality of these provisions varied widely.

Field hands worked longer than any other kind of slave. Their workday generally lasted from sunrise to sunset. Some of these slaves were housed as well as free workers. But many other field hands lived under the worst conditions.

Josiah Henson, who later wrote of his experiences as a field hand, recalled that "our dress was of tow-cloth ... and a pair of coarse shoes once a year. We lodged in log huts. ... Wooden floors were an unknown luxury. In a single room were huddled, like cattle, ten or a dozen persons, men, women, and children. ... There were neither bedsteads nor furniture. ... Our beds were collections of straw and old rags. ... The wind whistled and the rain and snow blew in through the cracks, and the damp earth soaked in the moisture till the floor was miry as a pig-sty."

Most house slaves lived in their owner's home. They worked fewer hours and had more privileges than did field hands, but were more subject to the wishes of the owner's family. Most slaves who in time were freed by their owner had worked as house servants.

No Southern state gave slaves the legal right to marry, own property, testify in court, or earn their freedom. Yet some slaves did all these things because slavery, like other human practices, had certain weaknesses. For example, owners had no guarantee of receiving willing obedience or even loyal service from their slaves. To encourage faithful service, some slaveholders treated their slaves kindly and promised them such privileges as gifts and money. Other owners relied on punishment, such as lashings, short rations, and threats to sell members of the slave's family.

Whatever the system of discipline, slavery resulted in a contest of wills between owners and slaves. In this unequal contest, the owners held all the power of reward and punishment. But slaves used flattery, sabotage, and many other tactics to outwit them.

The religion of the slaves played a key role in helping them survive the brutality of slavery. This religion, a mixture of African and Christian beliefs, made the slaves feel part of a community. It also gave them hope of a better life in heaven. State laws prohibited the education of slaves. But the slaves developed their own language, music, and other means of communication.

Picture Harriet Tubman

Many slaves tried to run away to freedom. Thousands succeeded, including those who followed the runaway slave Harriet Tubman along an escape system called the underground railroad. Some slaves joined organized rebellions, but whites easily crushed most revolts. Noted leaders of slave revolts in the United States included Gabriel (also called Gabriel Prosser), Nat Turner, and Denmark Vesey.

Effects of slavery included a major role in the economic development of the United States. Slaves helped clear the wilderness and build important canals, railroads, and roads. The cotton picked by slaves became the nation's most valuable export. The income from cotton paid for a major share of U.S. imports.

The westward expansion of slavery during the early and mid-1800's had important political effects. Northerners feared that the South would gain control of Congress if Western territories entered the Union as slave states. Attempts by the North to exclude slavery from these territories angered the South and helped bring on the American Civil War (1861-1865).

Slavery had a variety of effects on slaves and owners. It broke the spirit of many blacks but made many others vow to resist it. Slavery caused fear and hate between most owners and slaves. But it created feelings of love and respect between some. After the Civil War, discrimination and a lack of education prevented most former slaves from obtaining a good job. Discrimination also kept them from receiving the civil rights they legally had been granted. Historians disagree over how much slavery contributed to discrimination and to other racial conflict that occurred in later years.