Question

Define slaves as property that could be bought or sold; maintained that masters could force slaves to work; and forbade slaves from owning property, making legal marriages, teaching slaves to read or write, testifying against whites in court, or making contracts.

Answer 1

Slavery in the Americas was a form of chattel slavery where slaves were considered property, completely devoid of rights, could be bought and sold, and had their status imposed on their descendants.

Step-by-step explanation:

The deplorable institution of slavery in the Americas was marked by the practice of chattel slavery, where individuals were legally considered property with no rights. Unlike other conditions of servitude, American chattel slavery was a perpetual and inherited state. Slaves could be bought and sold, forced to work without pay, denied legal marriages, and had no right to own property or make legal contracts. The cruelty was compounded by the fact that slave families could be torn apart if members were sold separately. This property status under legal frameworks highly contradicted with norms elsewhere, for instance, in Africa and in certain time-frames of Roman rule, where slaves could accumulate wealth or secure freedom, and their children were not automatically enslaved.