European ambivalence toward African slaves
England ambivalently involved in slavery
Many English are early abolitionists -- wish to abolish the slave trade
Works such as William Blake’s (at right) reveal inhumane treatment of slaves as human beings
Some groups in later United States opposed to slavery not always in terms of human equality, but because they thought Africans incapable of being sufficiently “civilized”
Position of Africans in the Americas very different from that of displaced indigenous tribes: while culturally marginal, African slaves remain central and essential to American economies -- working land taken from the indigenous tribes