ABSTRACT
Eric Williams, who was at one time the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, wrote his classic Capitalism and Slavery to show that slavery in the New World was fundamentally an economic institution that contributed in an important way to the economic development of Europe. Slavery was not simply a moral institution, nor did it exist for reasons of race. Race was, in fact, rather incidental to the phenomenon of slavery. Europeans did not choose black Africans as slaves for racist reasons. Indeed, in the early years of slavery, attempts were made to enslave both white Europeans and Native Americans. The failure of these efforts caused European colonists to look elsewhere for their supply of slaves, and Africa seemed to offer the best opportunity in economic terms. Africans were enslaved because they were numerous, nearby, cheap, and could be conditioned to be good workers.
