How did the presence of slavery vary in the different colonies?

Answer 1

In the beginning we find that slavery was in all colonies.. yet the first slaves were basically indentured servants meaning: after a set agreed period of time the person would be freed.. in most cases it was anywhere from 4 to 5 years...

However, that could be a life time in the early years of the New World... since the average life span was only 6 years after arriving due to the harsh environment (bears, mountain lions and the occasional hair cut from a native American) not to mention diseases and radical climate change.. that the new settlers had to adapt to...

After the early colonies were civilized and people started living longer especially in the southern colonies indentured slaves was not as economically vibrate as it once was...since people (including yourself) were living longer... so you would continue to needed slaves..to work your land meaning that you would have to get new ones every five years...

To say it a different way-- A white slave and a black slave lived the same amount of time during the early years of America... so black slaves being more expensive then white ones it would be better to buy a white one.. since life expectancy was short for both of them...

Yet when life expectancy became longer ....the southern colonies started getting African slaves.. -- it is important to remember that even after the first slaves arrived still the vast majority of slaves through out the colonies were from Europe. (Scots, Irish, or Germans)..

Slavery in the New England and Middle colonies slowly evaporated due to economic reasons... in others words free labor would of hurt the colonial people from Europe... causing mass unemployment ... hurting the local economy.. plus Irish and other immigrants worked just a little over slave wages and you didn't have to feed and shelter them.

The Southern colonies had fewer people.. so there was a need for a ready labor force (forced or not)... and slaves fit this bill nicely...