by Jennifer Searle

Created on: May 27, 2007

Slavery began in North America when an unnamed Dutch ship brought a supply of twenty African slaves to Jamestown in 1619. The Dutch ship had been damaged by a battle and needed to be repaired and supplied. They traded their human chattel for the help they needed at port. The Jamestown residents, mostly made up of workers for the Virginia Trade Company, were not quite sure what to do with their new human property. It has been implied that the new found slaves had been treated like indentured slaves, however there is little to no evidence to prove this. Occasionally black slaves were set free during the early years of slavery for exceptional work, and this practice was continued through until the time of slaveries abolition. Though freedom was rare for most slaves and any that were freed were usually too old to enjoy their freedom.

The practice of owning slaves was not new to the Americas, since the white colonists had been using Native American captured peoples as slaves already. The colonists found that the black slaves were much easier to control and keep from running away than the Natives. The Spanish and Portuguese had been involved since the 1500's and the Dutch early on had been against the practice of slave trading because they were against Spain and Portugal in general. It wasn't until the Dutch West Indies Company founded a colony in Brazil and found the demand for sugar cane could not be met without slave workers. That was when they actively became involved in slave trading.

In 1624 when the Dutch settled New Amsterdam, they brought with them slaves up the Hudson Valley River to work. In 1641 the Massachusetts colony legalized slavery; this was only 21 years since the pilgrims first settled in Plymouth. In 1649 the black slaves only numbered around 300, but with the increase demand of tobacco, cotton and rice the numbers were to swell to almost four million in 1860 before the Civil War.

The Quakers began showing disinterest in slavery as early as 1688 when a formal protest was held in Germantown, Pennsylvania. By 1776 the Quakers prohibit slave ownership within Quaker society. In 1774 Rhode Island and Connecticut prohibit anymore importation of slaves, yet continue to participate in slave trading to other states.

During the time leading up to the Revolutionary War, women had become active in seeking equality among the genders and started to look at the inequality of slavery. Though at this time it was not nearly as active as it will become after the

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