Why were African Americans enslaved?

Answer 1

African Americans have never been enslaved. Their ancestors, Africans, have because the original colonists percieved them as 'wild animals' and 'monkeys' capable of doing minor jobs.

Answer

African Americans were indeed never slaves. By the time blacks were given full citizen status in the US (the 1960's-70's) and actually BECAME "African Americans", slavery had long since been abolished.

However, the reasons behind the historic slave trade itself are numerous. Slavery is a practice that has been around for much (if not all) of human civilization. The defeated peoples of opposing countries were frequently taken as slaves by the victors, various races have been targeted at various times in history as being little more than animals and only useful for physical labor, and many more.

There is no consensus as to when/why Africans were initially viewed as being inferior, though there are many writings within the Catholic church which certainly imply it, if not say it out right. Though, it is unfair to say that the Catholic church created it: Institutionalized racism is also (probably) as old as mankind, where one group is officially viewed as inferior based off some aesthetic rationale.

It is my personal belief that the Africans were specifically targeted simply because they didn't have the technology that Europe had at the time and made for easy victims; that they were still isolated tribes with limited communication between tribes, rather than large cities, so were easy to take relatively unaware and the small groups were just unable to put up any significant resistance. I think the racism of slavery probably came after the fact: That people were using blacks as slaves and as a way of making themselves feel ok about it, tried to convince themselves that the African was somehow inferior, much like Hitler did with the Jews.

Answer 2

to work on the plantations

Answer 3

To buy there families back.