In the late 1600s, the term servant took on a new meaning in English Mainland North America. Servitude became involuntary, inheritable, and required of blacks. A servant's term became lifelong. By the 1660s the term Negro and slave became synonymous, and as a result of newly established laws, enslaved Africans were subjected to harsher and more brutal control than any other laborers. The origin behind the initiation of slavery is a well-debated issue. Was it unique to America? Were blacks always designated to be slaves? Historians Oscar and Mary Handlin, Carl N. Degler, and Edmund S. Morgan debate the origin of slavery and racism towards Negroes. While Handlin and Morgan offer well put together thoughts, Degler argues a valid point with the most supporting evidence. Prejudice against men of color, whether free or un-free, preceded the legal establishment of slavery in the 1660s, and it was this "framework of discrimination," (Degler pg. 52) that is referred to as the leading cause behind the enslavement of African Americans specifically.
             Negroes were treated as an inferior to the white man, servant or free, from the moment that they arrived in the New World, years before slavery became a legal institution. While at first Negroes were rarely called slaves, the fact that historical evidence points to the existence of such an institution should not be overlooked. Dating back to the colonial era, prejudice has been an American trait that has been expressed towards men of color, dark skin specifically. Degler uses American's treatment of Indians in the early ages of the New World as proof. "The fact that an inferior and onerous service was established for the Indian makes it plausible to suppose that a similar status would be reserved for the equally different and pagan Negro," Degler remarked (pg. 53). Just as Englishmen created an image of inadequacy for the Indians and, as a whole, were unwilling to live peacefully with men who w...