At the start of the eighteenth century, there were around 28,000 African slaves living in what is today the United States, mostly owned by wealthy plantation owners in Virginia and Maryland, in addition to some 150,000 native slaves mostly in New England and the Carolinas. By that time slavery had become legally institutionalized in most colonies as a status distinct from indentured servitude. Though early iterations of what became known as the slave codes set the primary difference between the two as slavery being for life rather than a set period of time, changes made at the turn of the century limited the practice while making it abjectly worse for those who could still be enslaved. By the newly enacted slave codes, people could only become slaves if they were imported from a non-Christian nation or were natives sold to colonists by other natives or captured during conflicts. However, a person could be born into slavery if their mother was a slave at the time of their birth, a concept which followed similar laws regarding who was regarded as a British citizen and therefore eligible to vote and hold office in the colonies. This of course makes a lot of sense if you’re a terrible greedy asshat.
Significant growth in the number of African slaves in the Thirteen Colonies began in the 1730s. Prior to this time, the high cost of importing African slaves compared to buying native slaves or indentured servants limited the practice. However, a combination of dropping prices for African slaves, fewer people willing to become indentured servants, and the increasing demand for buckskins and ravages of disease literally and figuratively killing off the native slave trade, changed everything. By 1770, some 250,000 African slaves had been imported and the population had risen to 460,000, the equivalent of nearly 25% of the people in the Thirteen Colonies, though they were not equally distributed. In New England 3% of the population was African slaves, in the Mid-Atlantic 6%, and in the South over 30%.
In the more northern colonies, the majority of slaves worked as house servants, artisans, laborers, and craftsmen, with the largest concentration being in New York City. Comparatively, those in the southern colonies worked in agriculture. Plantations growing tobacco, indigo, and rice were largely dependent on slaves. These were labor intensive crops and plantations using slave labor were significantly more profitable than those who did not. Charleston in South Carolina became the center of slave importation, with its auctions deciding prices across the Thirteen colonies. While wealthy owners of large plantations often had 50 or more slaves, the majority belonged to a burgeoning population of middle-class farmers who most often had 10 or fewer. The purchase of slaves, combined with the availability of cheap land, allowed people to accumulate wealth at a much faster pace then would otherwise be possible, the dream being to first establish a farm, then buy some slaves to work alongside the owner to expand it, to eventually reaching the point where the owner wouldn’t have to work at all.
The great success of the Thirteen Colonies over time was the growth of a middle class. In the northern colonies, this was achieved through trade and industrialization. In the southern colonies, this was achieved through the availability of slaves, meaning that a significant portion of the population was dependent upon the practice. As a result, there was significant social pressure to turn a blind eye towards the terrible abuses and consequences of slavery, first by viewing them as being less than human and eventually no different than livestock, though livestock it was apparently perfectly okay to fuck if one had the inclination. The theft of humanity from the slaves greatly increased the likelihood of whippings, beatings, and rapes, and encouraged practices such as brandings, forced selective breeding, and the breaking apart of families. This in turn further reinforced the need to ignore the humanity of the slaves, given how could someone view themselves as an ethical and good person if they were willing and able to do such things to other people. It was a shit cycle of self-reinforcing cognitive dissonance.
The level of this cognitive dissonance varied from place to place. For example, though slavery was common in the French colony of Louisiana, slaves had the right to marry, could not be tortured, families could not be broken up, and had to be instructed in the Catholic faith. It was also easier for slaves to become free, especially if their fathers were of European ancestry, and once free it was relatively easy for them to get an education. Though not encouraged, interracial marriage was not uncommon. Though the offspring, known as Creoles, were treated as second class citizens, they sat higher than slaves in the social hierarchy. Similar conditions existed across New Spain. While certainly not great, it was a definitive step above the treatment experienced by slaves in the Thirteen Colonies and the Caribbean.
