Black people are the most expensive among all slaves. Why are Europeans rushing to buy black slaves?

Perhaps everyone is familiar with the notorious slave trade. During the Age of Discovery and Colonization, Europeans, in order to develop the newly discovered American continent and supplement the shortage of local labor force, sold black slaves from Africa to the Americas and made huge profits through the slave trade. In fact, at that time, Europeans had many cheap labor options to choose from, and the most expensive among them was black slaves. Black slaves were more expensive than white indentured servants. During the Civil War, the price of a male black slave was about 25 pounds, while the price of a white indentured slave was about the same as that of an Indian, about 10 pounds. The price of a Chinese slave was even cheaper, only 5 pounds, which was half cheaper than that of an Indian. So black slaves are expensive, so why are Europeans rushing to buy black slaves?

First, compared to whites, Indians and Asians, blacks are physically stronger, hard-working and very suitable for high-intensity manual labor. At the same time, blacks have a very poor sense of resistance, so although Indians and Asian indentured workers The prices were cheaper, but farmers still preferred to use black slaves for labor.

Second, the main demand market for slaves is tropical areas such as the southern United States and the hot Caribbean, where the main job is to work on plantations. Due to the local heat and humidity, there are more mosquitoes, and tropical diseases are very prevalent. Only black people can resist tropical diseases such as smallpox, cholera, and malaria, and their mortality rate is low. Slave owners spent large sums of money to purchase labor, and naturally preferred black slaves who had a lower mortality rate.

Third, Africa is a backward region, the slave trade is legal, and they do not have the backing of a strong country. Therefore, slave traders went to Africa to sell slaves, which were not only cheap but also easy to obtain. In comparison, white indentured slaves were very difficult to deal with. Once the oppression was severe, they would easily be condemned by mainstream white society. As for the Asian slaves, they would not work hard if they were captured, but they would always think of uprising. In addition, Asia has a high level of development, and most of them are unified feudal empires. Catching slaves in the empires can easily trigger wars. Therefore, European colonies often use deception to lure Asians to work as coolies by making money. However, the slave trade seriously violated the principles of humanitarianism and was notorious, so it was eventually abandoned by history. European countries enacted laws to abolish the slave trade and put an end to this dirty trade.