Perhaps this contradiction can be partly understood by
seeing the way in which individual rights had come into being in
English society. Instead of springing from a belief in abstract
human rights, they were an accumulation of concrete legal and
political privileges which had developed since Magna Charta.
Viewing it in this light, it may have been easier for the white
colonists to insist on their rights while denying them to the
slaves. Nevertheless, the existence of slavery in the midst of a
society believing in individualism increased its dehumanizing
effects.
The third characteristic which set American slavery apart was
its racial basis. In America, with only a few early and
insignificant exceptions, all slaves were Africans, and almost
all Africans were slaves. This placed the label of inferiority
on black skin and on African culture. In other societies, it had
been possible for a slave who obtained his freedom to take his
place in his society with relative ease. In America, however,
when a slave became free, he was still obviously an African. The
taint of inferiority clung to him.
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