Excerpt from The American Race Problem: A Study of the Negro The status Of slavery lies well within the mores Of the Negro races. In the ancient world they appear to have been reduced to slavery by every people with whom they came into contact, and the institution was usual in many Of the African tribes. At the time Of the African exploration it was generally prevalent except among the hunting tribes, and there was a general in heritance Of the Slave status. The extent and nature of the sys tem varied with different regions but the demand for slaves was active and the native economy and social order were kept more or less chronically deranged by the trading in captives and the raid ing expeditions incident thereto. From the eighth century, the Arabs, incident to their trade relations with Africa, engaged in the capture, purchase, and distribution Of African Slaves. In the latter half Of the fifteenth century the Spanish and Portuguese merchants developed an active trade in African Slaves. The first Shipload, 225 Negroes captured on the African West Coast, was taken to Portugal in 1444. There proved to be a demand for them as domestic servants in the towns and as laborers on the estates from which the Moors had been recently expelled. Others were sold into Spain where they were similarly employed. The Spanish merchants also engaged in the traffic and at the time Of the discovery Of America there was a considerable Negro population in the peninsula and the system Of Negro Slavery was well established in both Spain and Portugal. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.