In the book The Origins of American Slavery, Betty Wood made use of a series of published sources to demonstrate that the system of slavery instituted in British colonies in the seventeenth century, did not begin because of racial prejudice alone but because of economic ambition and racial prejudice. Around the late fifteenth century the English did not show signs of slavery similar to Spain and Portugal. In the beginning of chapter one, page nine, it explains how although they had not yet taken up West African American or native American slaves they did have an idea of what slavery was. “What they did have, though, were well-defined concepts of slavery and freedom, of the circumstances under which individuals might be justifiably deprived of their freedom and designated slaves.” Showing us how although in the beginning they did not have a system of slavery they did had already considered the concept, and found the terms on where one would be considered a slave. Betty Wood’s also explains in her book that race at first was not an issue for the English, meaning that the race was not sufficient justification for but…show more content… When the English had their plans for the New World colonies they did not plan on endorsing slavery but found it more economically helpful to take in the idea of slavery rather than having servants. They also feared that once they moved to the new world colonies the servants will refuse to work which will cause a challenge to establish hierarchy. The settlers then decided that buying a person over buying a persons labor was a better decision. On page fifty-two, Wood’s explains how the Civil War interrupted flow of contracted servants, leading the Barbados’s to take in the West African American as slaves, they were then delighted with the idea of cheap labor and how the African Americans could not demand any rights or