USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Slaves sat at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Almost 4 million African Americans were enslaved by 1860, most through natural increase.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Southern class structure had four basic social classes: the wealthy plantation slave owners, non-slave-owning yeoman farmers, poor whites, and slaves.

Detailed explanation-3: -The North American royal colonies not only imported Africans but also captured Native Americans, impressing them into slavery. Many Native Americans were shipped as slaves to the Caribbean. Many of these slaves from the British colonies were able to escape by heading south, to the Spanish colony of Florida.

Detailed explanation-4: -Regardless of the slave’s origin, he was nearly always a marginal person in the society in which he was enslaved. In Africa slaves were despised, and their low status, which was passed on to freedmen, persists to the present time. In most societies most slaves were at the very bottom of society.

Detailed explanation-5: -Digital History. Although slavery was highly profitable, it had a negative impact on the southern economy. It impeded the development of industry and cities and contributed to high debts, soil exhaustion, and a lack of technological innovation.