Was slavery in the United States unnecessary?

Slavery in the United States was the legal institution of human chattel enslavement, primarily of Africans and African Americans, that existed in the United States of America in the 18th and 19th centuries. read more

Slavery itself was never widespread in the North, though many of the region’s businessmen grew rich on the slave trade and investments in southern plantations. Between 1774 and 1804, all of the northern states abolished slavery, but the so-called “peculiar institution” of slavery remained absolutely vital to the South. read more

Slavery in the United States. Black slaves played a major, though unwilling and generally unrewarded, role in laying the economic foundations of the United States—especially in the South. read more