Slavery in The Colonial United States

This article is about slavery in the Colonial era. For slavery after the United States were formed, see Slavery in the United States.

The origins of slavery in the colonial United States are complex and there are several theories that have been proposed to explain the trade.

Read more about Slavery In The Colonial United States:  Background, The Development of Slavery in 17th-century America, The Atlantic Slave Trade To North America, Indentured Servitude, Enslavement of Native Americans, The Rise of The Anti-slavery Movement

Famous quotes containing the words united states, slavery in, slavery, colonial, united and/or states:

    “In a moment when criticism shows a singular dearth of direction every man has to be a law unto himself in matters of theatre, writing, and painting. While the American Mercury and the new Ford continue to spread a thin varnish of Ritz over the whole United States there is a certain virtue in being unfashionable.”
    —John Dos Passos (1896–1970)

    “I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name,—if ten honest men only,—ay, if one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “The cloud was so dark that it needed all the bright lights that could be turned upon it. But for four years there was a contagion of nobility in the land, and the best blood North and South poured itself out a libation to propitiate the deities of Truth and Justice. The great sin of slavery was washed out, but at what a cost!”
    —M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)

    “In colonial America, the father was the primary parent. . . . Over the past two hundred years, each generation of fathers has had less authority than the last. . . . Masculinity ceased to be defined in terms of domestic involvement, skills at fathering and husbanding, but began to be defined in terms of making money. Men had to leave home to work. They stopped doing all the things they used to do.”
    —Frank Pittman (20th century)

    “I feel most at home in the United States, not because it is intrinsically a more interesting country, but because no one really belongs there any more than I do. We are all there together in its wholly excellent vacuum.”
    —Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)

    “The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western World. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity—much less dissent.”
    —Gore Vidal (b. 1925)