Positive and negative effects of slavery on the Americas, Africa, and Europe

Positive and Negative Impacts of Slavery

When speaking of pre-Civil War history, people seem to take two basic positions. The first position is that slavery as an institution was inherently evil and it created no real benefits for the enslaved or the enslavers. The second position is that slavery was a benevolent institution, in which more-capable people took care of less-capable people in exchange for providing those people with room, board, and something to do. Neither depiction is entirely correct; slavery had benefits and detriments to America, Europe, and Africa and the peoples of those lands.

To understand the concept of slavery as a beneficial institution, one must understand that slavery in Africa existed long before Europeans began colonization or started the transatlantic slave trade. While morally repugnant by modern-day standards, slavery in Africa had some benefits to Africans, including the enslaved. First, slavery in Africa was largely the result of wars. Instead of killing the losers of a war, the winners of wars would enslave the losing population. While some of these slaves were used for labor purposes, the main use of such enslavement was to increase the population and power of the dominant society, and slaves were given positions such as that of concubine, which resulted in the intermingling of the two societies. African societies also permitted the enslavement of family members; troublemakers could be sold into slavery, which increased family harmony, provided a profit for the family, and theoretically provided the enslaved family member with the opportunity to grow and become disciplined. Slavery, especially designated periods of servitude, also served as a form of currency and permitted people to establish debts in exchange for goods, with the option of paying them off by selling a family member or oneself. Lawbreakers and wrongdoers were also subject to enslavement in Africa, a logical solution in societies that had no prisons. As practiced in Africa, slavery had benefits for the African people.

The benefits to Europeans and Americans are even more dramatic; imperialistic European countries gained vast amounts of wealth because they used slave labor to strip natural resources from conquered lands. As slavery evolved and it became permissible in society to treat slaves with less and less regard, more labor could be demanded from each individual, which meant more profit from the owners. In America, especially the United States, it is possible that slavery was responsible for the development of the American middle class, because it established a caste-system and gave birth to the concept of white privilege. Slavery was certainly pivotal in the boom years of America's early economy.