Beginnings of slavery

Slavery didn't happen in a small amount of time or by just one decision, many things occurred that led to slavery. Everything started in 1619 when the Dutch brought over the first 20 African Americans, they were not slaves, only indentured servants. Indentured servitude was very common throughout the colonies, the servants were not only black, but also white. In 1640 is when everything changed; 3 servants ran away together, yet got different punishments. The two white men only had to finish their contract plus one year, as the black man had to stay a servant for the rest of his life. After this had happened, owners could use this as a reference if their slave tried to free themselves. The motivation as to why this shift had occurred is economically based; people wanted money. Massachusett's was the first state to legalize slavery in 1641, not too long after the other colonies followed the legalization. Soon, it was only Christian's that weren't slaves, then it changed to be any black person alive was a slave. Realizing that you can't tell if someone was a slave or not, they made all black's slaves; including new born babies if their mother was black they became a slave too. There was no difficulting inforcing black slaves because there was no escaping skin color, unfortentely for them. Soon it became illegal to free your black slave, then in 1672 the king granted a charter allowing slavery. Therefor he gave some money, but gained more back.