Posted on 04/04/2026 11:14:30 AM PDT by 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.
Name which of the 13 colonies were a colony of any expansionist African nation.
I’ll wait.
Defending a ghost can be very profitable. Just ask BLM.
Few people realize that at the time of our founding, 4 of the top 10 slave owners were black. Those same 4 black slave owners helped fund the Confederacy into existence.
Agree not many countries didn’t have slavery of some sort Rome may have been the leader of it.
you are correct sir!
the 3/5ths clause was a win for the abolitionists
More to the point, it was a necessary evil bargain to form a country to preserve the rebellion. Had the colonies split - England would reconsidered us in parts.
The free people did not want telhe slave population to count at all. The slavers wanted the lm to count as 1. Because the slavers ie democrats cast their vote !
The battle has reignited with illegals !
Oh, I have a grip.
My “grip” is holding true to my values and not allowing the left (or right) try to mould them to fit into their way of thinking.
I don’t have to prove anything to anyone.
You might mistake my succinct position as “anger.” It’s not. Not even close. There are too many “emotions” running the world these days. I don’t participate in that.
And you thought the American revolution was about tea taxes... The British empire was heading down a path which would result in the slave trade act of 1807... Barring slavery and the total abolition of slavery with the slavery abolition act in 1833. They even freed slaves during the revolution if they fought for the British forces.
One former slave in particular was aboard a ship that brought my great, great, great, great grandmother to Canada from New York in 1784... His name was British Freedom. Hey... If you’re going to pick a name... Make it mean something and ‘British Freedom’ was a pretty neat name.
Turkey officially banned slavery in 1889, after forced to do it by international (British) pressure.
But there are still slaves (like Yazidis) in Turkey even now.
I am convinced people are entirely fearful about this. I do not understand why there is so much cowardly lionness on this.
I do not understand. The Empire really actually literally did this. They are actually the guilty ones.
I do not understand your insistence that somehow, someway, the British Empire was solely responsible for slavery in North America.
There were plenty of indian tribes with slaves when the Europeans came to the Americas after Columbus.
The Portugese brought Africans to South America for slaves.
The French brought Africans to the Carribian for slaves.
Slavery was not a British invention.
Blame slavery for the diabetes epidemic in the USA. Slaves made large-scale sugar plantations in the West Indies possible and highly profitable. All the ills of sugar followed that industrial production of sucrose. Food sweeteners were rare and expensive before that.
Priggery.... America was not solely influenced by English traditions. We inherited the economics, thinking and societal influences from all over the world, some filtered through England... but the founders studies, understood and used lessons from all of history.
We were the first to truly arise from all of humanity with the idea of individual liberty. We didn’t do it perfectly, but we were the first by far and with the most refinements, very quickly.
Wishful thinking. It was a win for the slavers. The "abolitionists" wanted slaves counted as zero, the Slavers wanted them counted as full persons.
The 3/5ths was a compromise that gave the slavers more power than the "abolitionists" wanted. It was one of the things which set up regional tensions between the North and South.
“I’m not sure the practice of capturing and pressing sailors into serving on ships is the same thing as true slavery.”
The differences are at best, academic. For large numbers of them, it was for the rest of their lives. The essence of slavery is not chattel status. The essence of slavery was expressed in the 13th Amendment. Involuntary servitude except as punishment for a crime....
THAT is the definition of slavery. No mention of compensation or chattel status.
The word slave comes from Slavs who were ironically white slaves.
Great Britain and the Dutch didn’t invent slavery. Africa and many countries had slavery hundreds and thousands of years ago.
Africa still has millions of people in slavery today.
https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/findings/regional-findings/africa/
Years ago I sent you a link to a video showing someone removing some sort of weird stringy blockage from an artery connected to a still beating heart. It looked real to me. I know you're in the medical field, so I asked you if it looked real to you.
I don't think you even looked at it. I think you dismissed it out of hand because it was in the discussion about the Covid Vax.
It's admirable to be contrarian and not be intimidated or pressured by other people into conforming to what they want you to believe, but as John Maynard Keynes said:
"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do sir?"
This idea doesn't work if you won't even look at the facts.
I'm just sayin, keep an open mind.
The 13th Amendment doesn't apply to the British out at sea, now does it?
A general definition of slavery includes chattel ownership, what most people presume when they think of slavery. In the English language, there are other names for other forms of involuntary servitude.
That is NOT where slavery came from. How did you come up with that lie?
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