Slavery in the United States began in 1619 when slaves were imported from Africa to Jamestown, Virginia. The reason for importing black slaves from Africa was because, in some places, having Indians as slaves was illegal, but mostly because it was more difficult for the African slaves torun away. One reason for it being more difficult for them to run away was because they were easily recognized in America. Typically, the value of the 20 or so slaves on each plantation was extremely higher than the value of the land and crops themselves. The only way a slave could go to town was if his or her owner gave them written permission, and because the majority of all Africans could neither read not write, this gave the Americans all the more reason to import their slaves from Africa.
             During the British colonial period, slaves were used mainly in the Southern colonies, but there were also bought and used in the Northern colonies. Their main use was to grow and tend to the crops of indigo, rice, and tobacco. At this time, cotton was only a side crop, but in 1793, a man named Eli Whitney contibuted to the growth and demand of cotton when he invented the cotton gin.
             The cotton gin picked the seeds from the cotton at a much faster rate than if this task were being performed by hand, which increased the production of cotton. Before this device was invented, it is questionable to whether or not the ownership of slaves was dying out, and with the coming of the invention, slaves had high hopes that slavery was dying out. Unfortunatley, there was somewhat of a higher demand for slaves to do the work because an extremely higher amount of cotton was being produced and distributed. Though the demand for slaves was increasing, the supply of them was decreasing. It was then that the United States Constitution banned the import of slaves after 1808.
             Another issue of slavery is that the United States probably had the highest population of slaves. One ...