In the mid 1400's a type of mercantilism began to take shape: Slave trading.  Richard Hooker describes this kind of commerce as  "…the profitable buying, selling, and distributing of human beings from Africa as slaves to Europeans…."    Hooker further states that this method of intercontinental economy became so popular that within the span of ten years the slave trade industry flourished to the tune of approximately a thousand African slaves being exported to Europe per year.   As European powers began to explore the New World they found that the slave trade was a needed form of mercantilism in conquering and subduing the Americas; because slave labor was inexpensive, effective and accepted.
    The pursuit of the New World presented two obvious problems: lack of money and lack of manpower.  Slave labor answered both these issues.  Although paid labor was available for these exploration voyages, they were not easily funded. The purchase of slaves was inexpensive, especially in comparison to paid labor, and satisfied the argument of manpower.  By saving money on slaves Explorers and their sponsoring merchants could spend money on necessities such as ships, food, clothing, and weapons.  The way slaves sometimes were obtained was also cost cutting.  Hooker explains,
"In 1441, the Portuguese reached the Senegal River in West Africa and found that they could acquire black Africans without having to go through the slave traders, thus eliminating the cost of at least one middle man in the commerce in human lives: instead of dealing with Islamic traders, the Portuguese would deal directly with black
  Africans by either purchasing or kidnapping human beings.  The first Portuguese ship to arrive in West Africa south of the Sahara was also the first European ship to bring back a cargo of humans directly taken, rather than bought, from Africa."
Along with the cheap acquisition of slaves, the slave traders would save money in transporting them by denying them fresh clothing, adequate food rations, decent medical attention and proper living space.  However the needs of the slaves was not always the best place to cut expenses as can be voiced by Olaudah Equiano who, as a slave, gives this eyewitness account:
"The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us.  This produced copious perspiration, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness amongst the slaves, of which many died…"  Once these voyages reached the New World, the slaves that were marketable were then bartered and became the property of their new slave owners.  The process of bringing the slaves from Africa to the Americas was an inexpensive process.
    Not only was slave labor inexpensive, but it was also effective.  Slave labor was effective because of motivation and the adaptability of the slaves.  Slave labor can be divided into two types: the indentured servant and the lifetime slave.  Originally the African slaves were treated as indentured servants and were given their freedom after working for five to seven years.   Indentured servitude was an effective means of slave labor, because the slave would know that he would eventually be earning his freedom.  Furthermore his bound labor may involve a type of apprenticeship with his owner which would teach the slave a trade or skill.   Indentured servitude for the African slaves quickly evolved into lifetime slavery.  Soon the color of the slave's skin became synonymous with their station in life; if you were black you were someone's property.  Another effective quality of slave labor arose from the slave's ability to adapt to his work.  Even though the vast number of European settlers considered African slaves inferior human beings, they soon came to realize that the slaves abounded in agricultural and land cultivating skills due to their homeland ecological system.  Furthermore the slaves seem to adapt (especially when cared for humanely) to the explorer's lifestyle better than the Native Americans, whose population numbers were cut dramatically at the hands of the explorers.   Since the vast work that the slaves did was farming or plantation work, especially in the southern colonies, their labor was very effective in crop production.  Slave labor was needed in the conquering of the New World because of its effectiveness in subduing the land.
    Slave labor and slave trading in the conquest of the Americas was, for the most part, accepted.  Two religious organizations stood against slavery: the Quakers  and the Mennonites.   The transport of slaves on voyages of exploration became the norm.  Julius Lester shares,
"There were thirty blacks with Balboa when he discovered the Pacific Ocean; blacks accompanied Pizarro to Peru, Coronado to New Mexico, Narvaez and Cabeza de Vaca in their explorations of what is now Arizona and New Mexico.  Blacks also accompanied the French explorers to Canada and the Mississippi River valley."   The wealth and resources that were potentially available for the taking in the New World was a strong motivator to accept the slave labor.  Furthermore, Europeans were willing to kidnap and sell their own into bondage as indentured servants. The slavery of the African was an upgrade to the indentured servitude and considered as progress in the conquest of the Americas. Slave labor was accepted and necessary to the rapid empire building in the New World.
    No one can debate the horrible atrocities connected to the slave trade and to slave labor that occurred during the European explorations of the New World.  And neither can anyone debate that without slave labor the rapid conquering of the Americas would not have taken place.  History can be cruel in its hindsight, but kind in its foresight.

by Philip N. Geissler