Slavery dates back to the dawn of civilization.
Chattel slavery involves the ownership by one person of another . This entry focusses on the operation of that labor system in the United States. Although chattel slavery dates back to the dawn of civilization , in the area that became the United States it emerged after the importation of Africans to the Virginia colony in 1619. Prior to the American Revolution, all British colonies in the New World legally or informally sanctioned the practice. Nearly every colony counted enslaved Africans among its population. Only during and after the Revolution did the northern states abolish the institution or begin to implement gradual emancipation. But slavery was more economically entrenched in the southern states and became more so over time. By the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, slaves constituted one-third of the total slave-state population of 12.3 million. Slavery has captured the attention of economists since at least the eighteenth century . Two basic questions have remain...