“Slavery was introduced for economic rather than political reasons.” Discuss.

Candidates will offer a considered and balanced review of the statement. Both political and economic factors must be assessed, although some imbalance in their treatment is allowed. Issues that may be addressed include the role of cash-crop agriculture and natural resource extraction that led to the enslavement of the indigenous population in some parts of the Americas, the decline of the indigenous population due to disease and unhealthy working conditions that led to the introduction of African slavery, the profitability of the slave trade as a motive unto itself, the European argument of alleged “superiority” to provide both legal and moral grounds for slavery, the viewpoint that African slaves were less likely to rebel than indigenous people and the perspective that religious conversion justified enslavement of both indigenous and African people.