The idea of slavery I think came about with purely economically intentions. The act of slavery, however, was fueled by racism. It’s no coincidence that slaves were black people. Initially, when the number of slaves wasn’t so immense, Europeans easily could have taken white prisoners from their country and forced them into slavery. Claiming the Bible set the precedent for the darker brother to work and be a slave instead of the lighter brother, Europeans and Americans chose to instead force Africans to slavery.
As stated Europeans used the misinterpreted passages from the Bible and racial hierarchy theories to justify the terrible conditions of slavery but also used these excuses as reasons to abuse slaves. If slavery were a solely economic act then why did this have to happen? Just owning slaves promised economic gain and the beating and raping slaves did not increase it. I definitely think economic gains were the intentions of slavery but race played a greater role within the act of slavery and the greatest role in what occurred after it.
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