Slavery in Colonial British America

Enslaved Africans were brought into English mainland colonies from the early seventeenth century, while colonial legislatures gradually converted varied forms of servitude into a hereditary racial system. Conditions differed sharply between Chesapeake tobacco plantations, the Carolina rice country, northern ports and smaller farms.

Enslaved people carried agricultural knowledge, craft skills, languages, religious traditions and family strategies into the colonies. They resisted exploitation through escape, negotiation, community building and revolt, even as colonial wealth and political power became increasingly dependent on their labour.

African Founders examines these regional systems from the perspective of Africans and their descendants, stressing not only oppression but also the institutions, ideas and practices they created within British North America.