Similarities Between North And South American Slavery

African slaves were brought to the America’s by the millions in the 17th and 18th century. The Spanish and British established lucrative slave trades within Africa and populated their new territories with captured and then enslaved Africans. The British brought the slaves to their new colonies in North America to work on the large plantations and the Spanish and Portuguese brought the slaves to South America. Slavery within North and South America had many commonalities yet at the same time differences between the two institutions. Slavery in South America looked similar to slavery in the Americas, in that both used African slaves from the Trans-Atlantic trade and used their slaves primarily for the production of labor intensive cash crops.

Slavery by its very nature is a brutal act of depravity forced upon another person. It deprives a person of any freedom and strips them of human dignity, forcing upon them the will of another as absolute power. Slavery in North America was a much harsher institution than slavery in South America. Slavery in North America had no pre-colonial rules regulating slavery due to England not establishing any prior to establishing claims in America. However, the Spanish and Portuguese had a history of slavery and had preexisting laws and practices in place that they brought with them to the Americas. The rules put into place provided more liberal practices in dealing with issues of slavery, such as the freeing of slaves. In South America slave owners were encouraged to provide a conversion and transition their slaves from being enslaved to free. South America provided more legal pathways for slaves to be freed and it was something encouraged by the Catholic church the predominant faith practiced by the Spanish and Portuguese. It was far more common for slaves to be freed by their owners in South America. By contrast, in North America the law did not encourage the conversion of slaves to