The Slavers : 219 



and independent on the termination of the contract. The fact re- 

 mains that many American colonists were very far removed from 

 freedom as we understand it today when they set foot on American 

 soil. 



Quite apart from the matter of indentured service there was also 

 the matter of apprenticeship. All the trades were highly organized 

 and were in the hands of master craftsmen, and all of those who 

 were learning a trade were bound, for a period of years, to perform 

 services for the master craftsman in exchange for education and 

 training. Many colonists came to America bound to a master crafts- 

 man for a period of years by the rules and conditions of the craft. 



Thus in many ways the distinction between slavery and other 

 forms of service was originally not as clear-cut as we suppose today. 

 As time went on and men won new political and economic liberty 

 in America, the separation between slave and freeman became greater 

 and sharper. 



We have already noted some of the origins of the transatlantic slave 

 trade. Its seeds were planted when the ships of Henry the Navigator 

 began bringing back to Portugal occasional slaves from the West 

 African coast. The first permanent Portuguese stations in Africa 

 were set up south of Cape Verde in 1482 and in the succeeding years 

 and from this time on a modest trade in slaves became an accepted 

 part of the Portuguese development of West Africa. The Portuguese 

 trade never reached any very large proportions. 



From the literature and art of the period it did appear that no 

 wholesale abuses attended this traffic and that a considerable propor- 

 tion of the early slaves returned to Europe from Africa passed into 

 personal or domestic service. They were apparently regarded as curi- 

 osities and as such enjoyed a number of rights and prerogatives. 



Slavery of this European type was not destined for any great meas- 

 ure of success and could have gone on for years with no world- 

 shaking consequences. The fact was that Europe, in the fifteenth 

 century, was plentifully supplied with labor and that as a conse- 

 quence labor of all classes was still relatively cheap. In fact, Europe 

 was in a better position to export labor than to import. 



What accounted for the rapid and spectacular development of 

 Negro slavery was the discovery of the vast regions of agricultural 

 lands in the West Indies and the American continents. Slavery 

 would have had a slower growth and have been more restricted if 

 the Spaniards and the other conquerors and colonists had made bet- 

 ter use of the natives that already populated those territories. This 



