ABSTRACT
The first African slaves shipped to America in 1619 were captured, probably by members of another African tribe, and sold to Dutch traders on the West African coast. The exact number of slaves brought to the American colonies before 1788 is unknown since records reflect numbers brought to the Caribbean area as well as the colonies. A domestic slave trade continued to flourish after that with slaves being sold like livestock for prices ranging as high as two thousand dollars for a well-disciplined, muscular, young adult male. In nineteenth-century Mississippi, slaves had dual status as property and persons, meaning that slaves could be tried as persons for wrongdoing, but considered as the property of another if sentenced to death. The precariousness of the much-vaunted happiness of the slaves can need but one further reflection to be appreciated.
