African Slaves in Virgina, (1600's).

The reasons usually stated for African slaves being preferred by plantation owners is that they could more easily be bought from traders on the West African coast and were more immune to European diseases than indigenous Americans or imported white slaves. Although there is truth in these arguments they disguise the real reasons: Africans made better slave labourers than the Indians of the West Indies and North America because they came from a much more …

…of the slave trade they showed very little of the 'searching curiosity' now exhibited by the Europeans who came to Africa to make their fortunes. African society was established and reasonably settled. One African chief is quoted as saying; "We let the streams run on, and do not enquire whence they rise or whither they flow" Not understanding African society, Europeans usually thought the worst and treated African customs with contempt. Slavery reinforced this attitude.