Did the United States inherit slavery from the British Empire?

Grok ^

[ProgressingAmerica]

Yes, the United States inherited the institution of chattel slavery from the British Empire, as it was already well-established in the British colonies of North America long before the American Revolution and independence in 1776–1783.

Historical Context

The first recorded arrival of Africans in the English colony of Virginia occurred in August 1619, when an English privateer ship (the White Lion) brought "20 and odd" Africans—seized from a Portuguese slave ship—to Point Comfort (near modern-day Hampton, Virginia). These individuals were initially treated as indentured servants rather than lifelong chattel slaves, but this event marked the beginning of African forced labor in the English mainland colonies. Over the following decades, the system evolved into full chattel slavery (hereditary, race-based, and treating people as permanent property). Key developments under British colonial rule included:

By the mid-17th century, laws in Virginia and other colonies formalized slavery, such as rules making the status of children follow that of the mother (partus sequitur ventrem, starting around 1662 in Virginia).

Indentured servitude (mostly white Europeans) gradually gave way to African slavery as a cheaper, more controllable labor source for tobacco, rice, and indigo plantations, especially after events like Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 heightened elite fears of unrest among white servants. By 1700, slavery was entrenched across the colonies, with slaves replacing most indentured labor in the South. Every British North American colony had enslaved people to varying degrees, though it was most concentrated in the Chesapeake and later the Deep South.

British merchants (from ports like Bristol and Liverpool) dominated the transatlantic slave trade that supplied the colonies, and the British Crown granted monopolies like the Royal African Company. Slavery formed a cornerstone of the British Empire's economy in the Americas, including the Caribbean sugar islands, which influenced practices on the mainland.

At Independence

When the 13 colonies declared independence in 1776, they inherited a colonial system where slavery was legal and economically vital, particularly in the South. The U.S. Constitution (1787) implicitly recognized and protected it through provisions like the Three-Fifths Clause, the Fugitive Slave Clause, and a delay until 1808 on banning the international slave trade. Slavery was not "created" by the United States as an independent nation; it was a direct continuation of British colonial practices.

Slavery existed in many societies worldwide long before (including among Native American groups, in Africa, the Islamic world, and earlier European colonies by Spain and Portugal), but the specific system in what became the U.S. was shaped by English/British colonial law, trade networks, and plantation models—especially influences from Barbados and other Caribbean holdings.

Divergent Paths After Independence

Britain: Continued the slave trade until abolishing it in 1807 and slavery itself in most of its empire via the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 (effective 1834 in many colonies, with an "apprenticeship" transition period). Slavery had never been legal on the soil of England itself (confirmed in the 1772 Somerset case), but it persisted in colonies.

United States: Banned the international slave trade in 1808 (effective alongside Britain's ban), but allowed the domestic trade to flourish. Slavery expanded dramatically with the cotton gin and westward settlement, leading to its entrenchment in the South until the Civil War (1861–1865) and the 13th Amendment in 1865.

In short, the U.S. did not invent or originate slavery in its territories—that was already underway under British rule for over 150 years by the time of independence. The new nation inherited, expanded, and eventually fought a war over the system it received from its colonial predecessor. Claims that America "created" slavery overlook this colonial timeline.

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TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: britishempire; grok; inheritance; inherited

[ProgressingAmerica]

This is why it is inaccurate to say that slavery is the United States's original sin.

Slavery is the Empire's original sin. They brought it here as it pertains to these (former) colonies, its their fault.

This fact makes a lot of people uncomfortable. But why? Facts are stubborn things. Additionally, we are Americans, you are an American. America first. We should celebrate that America is not at fault here. And the Empire doesn't even exist any more anyways. So what is the point of defending a ghost.

It is worth celebrating. America first, America.

[DesertRhino]

I would more correctly say we inherited it from a world tradition for four or 5000 years at least. We were the people who broke it and killed over half 1 million of ourselves in the process. Some will argue with the Brits started abolition. What they were actually doing was removing competition. When they were busy growing about abolition, they were running into like one giant plantation, and moving coolie labor around the world, which is still slavery with a slightly different structure.

[Tell It Right]

The U.S. Constitution (1787) implicitly recognized and protected it through provisions like the Three-Fifths Clause,

Vastly incorrect. By counting slaves as only 3/5ths in the census, especially given that slaves couldn't vote, it undermined the federal power the slaves states had relative to the states with less slaves. If the slaves had been counted as 1 person each, the slaves states would have had more representatives in the US House and more electoral votes for president.

[DesertRhino]

And at the very moment The British were supposedly fighting slavery, they would stop American ships on the high seas and enslave our sailors to serve on their ships.

[Bubba_Leroy]

So the United States abolished the international slave trade 20 years after the U.S. Construction was first adopted and abolished slavery entirely less than 60 years later, all over 160 years ago.

Time to get over it.

[Secret Agent Man]

Yes. The monarchy would not allow colonies to end it. It was requested by most colonies in the north for decades and the kings rejected it.

So this was one of the several main reasons for breaking with Britain.

Not like liberals teach it today, much less any actual history.

[Deaf Smith]

I thought your thread would touch a subject, though it came very close.

The first legal slave owner in the 13 colonies was Anthony Johnson of the Virginia colony.

Anthony Johnson was a black man who was originally a indentured servant.

[Secret Agent Man]

Every major world power has had slaves, some still do. Regionally, every strong country has had slaves, some still do.

[fhayek]

The facts are these. Slavery existed from time immemorial. It existed everywhere, by every civilization. We didn't just inherit it from the British, we inherited it from humanity. And who ended it? (well, it is not technically ended), but who ended it? White people. The British Empire in the mid nineteen century. America a little later. But part of America ended it in the eighteen century in places like New England and Pennsylvania. Something that has existed forever started being eradicated in America. When the country was founded, sure, parts of the country still had slavery, just like the rest of the world. But thanks to White people in Britain, and yes, America, it started to become outlawed. Far from being condemned, our country should be lauded for it's role in the abolition of slavery.

[lonestar67]

The first essay is censored by Google:

America is structurally anti racist essays

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/02/america_is_structurally_anti_racist.html

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/08/america_is_structurally_antiracist_redux.html

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/07/america_is_structurally_antiracist.html

Grok explanation is still weak.

[DesertRhino]

Exactly! The 3/5 compromise was nothing but an affirmation of the humanity of slaves. The 13th states had to find a way to come together. Individually there was no way they could face the greatest superpower on earth. The 3/5 compromise pointedly told the southern states that they could not simultaneously count them as population to increase their number of congressmen, Without giving them full civil rights. The way it’s taught in school now is criminal.

[I got the rope]

Slavery came from the Jews and Muslims (just another type of Jew).

[Retain Mike]

Oh yes. The clause was an incentive, never adopted, to choose something like indentured servitude under which every person would be counted for representation.

[Right_Wing_Madman]

Slavery is the Empire's original sin.

In 1776, slavery was legal in every country in the world. I just asked Grok which were the first five countries to prohibit slavery. Please get a grip.

1. Vermont (1777): The Vermont Republic (an independent entity at the time, not yet part of the United States) was the first in the Western Hemisphere (and often cited as the first modern jurisdiction) to explicitly ban slavery outright in its constitution. It prohibited both the enslavement of adults and the importation of slaves, with immediate effect for new cases. Vermont joined the U.S. as a state in 1791, and the ban held.

2. Pennsylvania (1780): Pennsylvania passed the first gradual abolition law in what became the United States ("An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery"). It did not free existing enslaved people immediately but banned the importation of new slaves and freed children born to enslaved mothers after the act's passage (at age 28, treated as indentured servants until then). This served as a model for other Northern states.

3. Haiti (1804): Following the Haitian Revolution (the only successful slave revolt leading to independence), the newly independent Republic of Haiti became the first country in the Americas (and often cited as the first Black republic) to abolish slavery completely and permanently upon declaring independence from France. This was an immediate, total ban with no gradual provisions. Haiti had earlier partial abolitions during the revolution (e.g., 1793–1794 under French commissioners), but 1804 solidified it nationally.

4. Massachusetts (1783) The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled slavery unconstitutional under the state's 1780 constitution (which declared all men "born free and equal"). This came through a series of cases (notably the Quock Walker cases), effectively ending legal slavery immediately in practice. By 1790, no enslaved people were recorded in the state. It is often grouped with Vermont as one of the earliest outright abolitions in the new United States.

5. New Hampshire (1783) New Hampshire's 1783 constitution similarly declared all men equal, leading to gradual abolition that freed future children of enslaved mothers and effectively phased out the practice. While not as instantaneous as Massachusetts' court rulings, it is frequently listed alongside it in timelines of Northern U.S. states ending slavery shortly after the Revolutionary War.

[Just mythoughts]

When the ‘income tax’ was instituted, everybody became a slave ... well some taxed more than others ..

“Tax allowance to claim rental to oneself for one's own house
When renting out part of your primary residence, you can claim rental income on your taxes but can also deduct certain expenses proportionally based on the space used for rental. For example, if your rental room makes up 12% of your home, you can deduct 12% of shared expenses such as mortgage interest, property taxes, HOA fees, homeowner's insurance, and utilities. Direct expenses solely for the rental portion, like repairs to just that room, are 100% deductible. Additionally, you can depreciate the portion used for rental of the building value, with a standard depreciation period of 27.5 years. This information is crucial for accurately reporting your rental income and expenses on your tax return.
Claimyr”

[Judge Bean]

Slavery is the Empire’s original sin? No, slavery goes back to the beginnings of society.

[Freee-dame]

Absolutely horrible as it is, slavery has been around for thousands of years. After a war, the victors often took the losers as slaves. Neither the British nor the American colonists invented it.

[ProgressingAmerica]

"I would more correctly say we inherited it from a world tradition for four or 5000 years at least."

This statement would be inaccurate, it cannot be correct.

Massachusetts was not a colony of Mesopotamia.
Maryland was not a colony of ancient Greece.
New Jersey was not a colony of Spain.
Virginia was not a colony of Egypt.
Connecticut was not a colony of China.
Rhode Island was not a colony of Persia.

Etc etc etc.

All thirteen colonies were singularly colonies of Britain.

The only small exceptions might be, maybe, that New York started out as Nieuw Amsterdam and a few others had small influences as well much much earlier, but by the time you get to 1700+ all thirteen colonies are long dominated and singularly British. So you got the Netherlands in there.

So no, it cannot be said of some "everybody did it" 5000 year tradition.

"Some will argue with the Brits started abolition"

Some do, but they are not correct, that is only a historiography and not history. The actual historical record and the documents shows that it was the Americans who started abolition. We did that. That's our fault. Abolitionism was American, not British.

Another point to celebrate, as Americans. Of course. We were correct.

[ProgressingAmerica]

I agree. That is a point Grok got incorrect.

[fidelis]

And at the very moment The British were supposedly fighting slavery, they would stop American ships on the high seas and enslave our sailors to serve on their ships.

I'm not sure the practice of capturing and pressing sailors into serving on ships is the same thing as true slavery. In slavery, the slaves are not only held involuntarily, but they became chattel property, to be bought and sold by their "owners". I don't think this was typically the case for impressment. I'd be happy to be proved wrong if someone has some reliable references.