Slavery in the United States.

... Slavery in the United States Michael Argenti Slavery has played a central role in the history of the United States. It existed in all the English mainland colonies and to dominated the South. Most of the Founding Fathers were large-scale slaveholders, as were eight of the first 12 presidents of the United States. Debate over slavery increasingly dominated American politics, leading eventually to the nation's only civil war, which in turn finally brought slavery to an end. After emancipation, overcoming slavery's legacy remained a crucial issue in American history, from the reconstruction following the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement a century later. The enslavement of blacks in the American Colonies began during the 1600's. Slavery flourished in the South, where large plantations grew cotton, tobacco, and other crops. The plantations in the South required large numbers of labourers, and the cheapest and most efficient way of producing was to acquire

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