Free Republic

Many Americans believe slavery only involved white people owning black people. They believe the master race was white and the slave race was black. North American slavery actually involved relatively rich people,[e.g. land owners] owning poor people who might or might not be of the same color. There were two types of forced laborers brought to North America: indentured servants and permanent slaves. Most of the primarily Irish indentured servants were forced to travel to North America, but some were volunteers. The first Africans were treated as indentured servants but were eventually treated as permanent slaves. Members of the two...