Slavery was introduced to North America very early on by the Portuguese, who used slave labor when they tried to set up a trading post in South Carolina early in the sixteenth century. The slaves rebelled, however, and escaped. In 1619, a Dutch trader sold slaves to the Jamestown colony as indentured servants. From this beginning, slavery became part of the American culture for more than two hundred years.
Lincoln urged those freed by the proclamation to "abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense" and to "labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
