|
|
Article: The Origins of American Slavery: Freedom and Bondage in the English Colonies.(Review)
- Article from:
- The Historian
- Article date:
- January 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
The Origins of American Slavery: Freedom and Bondage in the English Colonies. By Betty Wood. (New York: Hill and Wang, 1997. Pp. 132. $18.00.)
The author of this study asks two interlocking questions that have troubled historians for decades--namely, what made English colonizers and colonists think they could enslave West Africans and what prompted them to do so. Wood concludes that enslaving Africans resulted from a complex interaction of racial prejudice and economic ambition. Prejudice counted less than pragmatism in explaining how and why Englishmen looked to Africans to supply their New World labor needs, but as racial slavery became more deeply rooted as an ...