There were a lot of obvious labor and economic benefits to creating a race based slave system; however, the transition to race b
ased slavery was more complex than what might be obvious to a 21st century student. Read Edmund Morgan's paper, "Slavery and Freedom: the American Paradox" and as a class evaluate his argument that wealthy English anxieties about English poorer people living in the colonies encouraged the development of a race based slave system. What evidence does Morgan provide that proves his point?
The evidence provided to support the assertion of why a race based slavery system was developed was that wealthy English people feared a revolt from the English poor and used slavery to avoid it.
<h3>How was a race based slavery system started?</h3>
The wealthy English people in the colonies were worried of an internal revolt from the poorer English people and so they came up with a race based slavery system.
The purpose of this was to placate the poorer English colonists by making them aware that they were higher on the social ladder than enslaved people because they as English people, were of a superior race.
