Why were Africans enslaved and transported to the New World? This is the fundamental question that faces anyone studying the Atlantic slave trade. Why were Africans the only ones enslaved and why did the American colonies need this type of labor? Could not America have been developed without slaves? In this chapter, I suggest answers to the first question, while in the following chapter I examine the nature of the American labor market in the fifteenth to the nineteenth century to answer the query about why slavery was the adopted solution to the perceived shortage of labor in America.

Though of limited importance, slavery still existed in Europe in 1492. Like almost all complex societies in world history until that time, the states of Europe had known slaves from their earliest foundations, and slavery in earlier centuries had been a fundamental labor institution. As in most such societies this had involved what was called domestic slavery, in which the labor power of the household was extended through the use of these workers. But slaves in Europe at various times and places had performed all known tasks and had even formed separate classes and groups beyond the household level. Few European or other peoples escaped slavery themselves and almost all societies treated their slaves as outsiders, rootless and ahistorical individuals who were ultimately held against their will by the threat of force. In all societies where they existed, slaves were also the most mobile labor force available.