LYNN BERGMAN: HISTORY OF SLAVERY IN THE 13 ENGLISH COLONIES
Native American Slavery
Many Native American tribes practiced forms of captivity and bondage before and after European contact. Traditionally, indigenous cultures took captives during regional conflicts and tribal warfare.
During the colonial era, some tribes participated in the commercial slave trade (Chattel Slavery), capturing members of rival groups to sell to European colonists in exchange for manufactured goods and weapons.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, a small number of nations (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee or Creek, and Seminole) adopted the southern plantation style of Chattel Slavery. Wealthy members within these specific nations held thousands of enslaved African Americans prior to and during the Civil War.
Transportation Act of 1718 (English and Irish “criminals”)
This was a British law that allowed British courts to send criminals to the American colonies as forced laborers. From 1718 until the Revolutionary War stopped the practice in 1775, over 50,000 convicts arrived in America. Colonists bought the prisoners at docks as “indentured servants” to work on farms and plantations. Minor crimes got 7 years of forced labor. Serious crimes pardoned by the King of England got 14 years of forced labor. The British government paid English shippers to ship the prisoners to the American colonies.
Under the same act, 162,000 convicts consisting of men, women (15%) and children from Britain (3/4) and Ireland (1/4) were sent to penal colonies in Australia from 1784 through 1868.
Slaves from Africa
African societies had their own systems of enslavement rooted in crime, death or war. Fellow Africans were traded by their African captors to Europeans in return for European firearms.
Between 1525 and 1866, 12.5 million Africans were shipped to the New World. 10.7 million survived the dreaded Middle Passage. That leaves 1.8 million souls who died while being transported by ship. When the number who were worked to death on sugar plantations is added, the historical result is a Black Holocaust.
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade resulted in 388,000 to 450,000 enslaved Africans landing directly in mainland North America. The addition of re-exported African captives from the Caribbean brings the number in North America to 500,000 to 650,000 by 1776. In 1776, about 90% of the African population in the 13 colonies were enslaved. This amounted to less than 4% of the total volume of enslaved Africans trafficked across the Atlantic Ocean.
The enslaved population in the American colonies grew significantly through higher birth rates and longer life expectancies than in the Caribbean and South America.
Where were the other 96% of enslaved Africans shipped to?
Brutal Sugar Plantation Economies throughout the Caribbean and South America resulted in high mortality rates requiring constant fresh importations of African slaves. For example, descendants of African slaves in America (42 million) represent about 65 times the original 650,000 slaves from Africa, whereas descendants of African slaves in Brazil (21.8 million) represent about 4.5 times the original 4.9 million slaves from Africa.
Number of African slaves shipped to Caribbean and South America
Portuguese Brazil 4.9 million
Other English colonies (Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Bahamas) 2.6 million
Spanish colonies (Caribbean and South America) 1.5 million
French colonies (Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Saint Lucia) 1.3 million
Brazil 2026 population demographic (total 213.7 million)
Brown (mixed race) 45.3% (96.81 million)
White 43.5% (92.96 million)
Black 10.2% (21.80 million - originally from Africa 4.9 million) multiplier 4.45*
Indigenous 0.6% (1.28 million)
Asian 0.4% (0.85 million)
USA 2026 population demographic (total 349 million)
Hispanic/Latino 19% (66.31 million)
White 57.5% (200.6 million)
Black 13.5% (47.11 million – originally from Africa 0.65 million) multiplier 72.28
(Estimated descended from original African slaves = 42 million) multiplier 64.61*
Indigenous 1.5% (5.23 million)
Asian 6.0% (20.94 million)
When was slavery outlawed in the Americas?
It took half a century to outlaw slavery in the New World, 1838 through 1888.
British colonies – August 1, 1838
French colonies – April 27, 1848
United States of America – January 1, 1863
(Spanish) Puerto Rico – March 22, 1873
(Spanish) Cuba – October 7, 1886
(Portuguese) Brazil – May 13, 1888
Summary
As I have stated previously, there is probably not a race of people on earth whose ancestors, at one time in history or another, were both slaveholders and slaves. I performed the research above to demonstrate that, as Louis Gates Jr. has stated, “Guilt is not heritable”. Individuals bear no moral responsibility for the past actions of their forebearers. We all need to learn from the mistakes of our ancestors but we are not responsible for reparations to victims of their misdeeds. Also, we need not be ashamed of ancestors who were enslaved… many of the world’s greatest public works were built by slaves. Only those former slaves who live in freedom today may honestly share whether or not they are proud of the work they performed under the thumb of a slaveholder.
Love = Work + Courage
DakotaBeacon