When English settlers arrived in North America, many viewed the New World as a land of vast resources ripe for the taking. The journal kept by Captain John Smith reveals his desire to "exploit Virginia for profit" (Early 5). While different American Colonies required ready supplies of inexpensive labor, those in the North often relied on the labor of large families. In the Southern Colonies, such as Virginia, the rise of agriculture and large-scale farming demanded large supplies of inexpensive labor. Indentured servants and poor whites filled some of this need, but the growing need for labor led to mass importation of large numbers of Africans as slave labor.
The growth of the colonial economy and capitalism led to a greater need for large supplies of inexpensive labor. Slavery became a ready solution to this obstacle standing in the way of colonial economic development. As sociologist Elizabeth Martinez explains: "White supremacy and economic power were born together...In this country, as history shows, capitalism and racism go hand-in-hand" (5). This analysis will discuss the development of the American colonies as viewed through the lens of the economics of slavery. A conclusion will address the significance of slavery to the economic development and prosperity of Early America.
By the time of the American Revolution, great men like James Madison, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were advocating equality and republicanism, planting the seeds of constitutional democracy. Paradoxically, Virginia represented the colony with the most numbers of slaves. Freedom and slavery were reconciled in Virginia and other colonies, as the upper-classes viewed slavery as a means of dealing with the poor and ignorant. In American Slavery, American Freedom, Edmund S. Morgan maintains that while most blacks arrived in the colonies as slaves, many enjoyed rights that would later be deprived them as the co...