Question 3

I think that economics played a greater role in the slave trade only because I think it came first as a justification. I think this is true because Africans originally came over as indentured servants. Their children were not born into slavery. The idea of "race" developed after the slave trade had already begun. Economics was the catalyst for the slave trade but racism was the means by which it was justified. There would be no reason to capture slaves if its only because of racism. But the only way by which they could capture slaves for economic reasons was if they stripped them of their humanity.