There were a lot of obvious labor and economic benefits to creating a race based slave system; however, the transition to race based slavery was more complex than what might be obvious to a 21st century student. Read Edmund Morgan’s paper, “Slavery and Freedom: the American Paradox” and as a class evaluate his argument that wealthy English anxieties about English poorer people living in the colonies encouraged the development of a race based slave system. What evidence does Morgan provide that proves his point?
