Why+did+slavery+grow+to+be+such+an+important+institution+in+Colonial+America,+and+how+did+it+divide+North+and+South+in+Colonial+America?++Zeigler

 Colonial America was an exciting place to be during the time it was first being pioneered. Citizens in England were willing to submit themselves into another's servitude in order to gain passage to the New World. The English economy finally began to stabilize and the people chose to remain in England as wages began to reach an acceptable amount. The American people were still in need of a labor force that would be useful in helping to establish and sustain a new country. Slavery began to establish a foothold, grew into a necessary institution for some parts of the colonies, and eventually created rifts between the Northern and Southern colonies of the future United States.  Slavery was at first a revolutionary idea in the colonies. Colonists were at first unsure of how to utilize this brand new source of labor. Up until this point, all servants were eventually made into freed men at the end of their term of servitude. However, slaves were able to be kept their whole life as no contract was signed between master and slave. They were also more easily coerced into believing they were inferior as the color of their skin was visibly different, whereas indentured servants and masters were both white and were therefore harder to "brainwash" into inferiority.  Along with the fact that slaves were able to kept for life, any family they would have would also be able to be used as chattel. Due to slave codes, if a couple was brought over from Africa and the woman would have children after they had been made slaves, the master would then also legally own the slaves' offspring.  The first source of labor that the colonists would assumedly use would be the Indians. Unfortunately for them, the Indians were susceptible to fall ill to many fatal English diseases and would often die as a result of having never been exposed to them before. Because there had been contact between Europe and Africa throughout history, the Africans had a great immunity to many white illnesses. This contact evolved throughout the years and developed into a trade triangle between Europe, Africa, and the colonies. Goods from Europe would be traded with Africa in exchange for slaves, who would then be traded in the colonies for goods to be taken back to Europe.  Slavery gained such a stronghold in the colonies, especially in the South, because labor was necessary for economic reasons. The plantation societies of the South was able to make a large amount of money growing tobacco, which was an easy crop to grow. The only thing that would inhibit the plantation owners from making a huge amount of money would be lack of workers to harvest the crop. Therefore, the plantation owners would attain as many slaves as they could to ensure that they could garner as big of a crop each season as they could. Growing off of this, the bandwagon effect began to occur. The plantation owners were the upper class of the time, and people strived to as like them as possible. Plantation owners had slaves, therefore others would purchase slaves to make themselves appear wealthy.  Economically, slavery was vastly different in the two geographic regions of the country. The North had no profitable use for the slaves, as the land wasn't suited for vast plantations that only needed labor to provide for them. Farming, shipping, industry, and fishing were the main economic sectors of the North, none of which easily used slave labor. As previously stated, the South was dominated by plantations which required the labor of slaves to make a living.  One could also argue that the North was thinking more progressively. Infrastructure was abundant in the North, compared to the South. Infrastructure was abundant in the North, compared to the labor-minded South. The North had cities and towns while people in the South had plantations, which served as small towns. Connection between towns in the North was needed, so roads were being built. Plantations were rarely left, so roads weren't as necessary in the South. Education laws were being passed in the North, requiring some towns of a certain size to have schools available for students through a certain age, while children who could afford to go to school in the South were often kept at home to learn the ways of the plantation, which was usually the best job that they could come by.  Although colonists had never used slavery on such a scale, those that did had troubles giving it up. It soon became a way of life for many colonists, especially those in the South. These would led to rifts between the North and South which could be seen as the first seeds of the Civil War.   