A black American writer, J. Saunders Redding, describes the arrival of a ship in North America in 1619: Sails furled, flag falling on its rounded stern , she rode the tide coming from the sea. She was indeed a strange ship, in every way, a fearful ship, a mysterious ship. No one knows if she was a trader, privateer or warship. Through its bulwarks, black-mouthed cannons yawned. The flag she flew was Dutch; its crew is motley. Its port of call, an English colony, Jamestown, in the colony of Virginia. She came, she traded and shortly after she left. Probably no ship in modern history has carried a larger cargo. Its cargo? Twenty slaves. There is no country in the history of the world where racism has been greater, for as long, as the United States. And the problem of “the color line”, as WEB Du Bois says, is still relevant today. It is therefore not enough to ask a purely historical question: how did it begin? – and an even more pressing question: how could this end? Or, to put it another way: is it possible for whites and blacks to live together without hatred? If history can help answer these questions, then the beginnings of slavery in North America, a continent where we can trace the arrival of the first whites and blacks. the first black people – could provide at least some clues. Some historians believe that these early black Virginians were considered servants, similar to white indentured servants brought from Europe. But it is quite likely that although they were listed as "servants" (a category more familiar to the English), they were considered different from white servants, were treated differently, and were in fact slaves. Regardless, slavery quickly grew into a regular institution, middle of paper...... better characteristics – a community spirit, more kindness in the law and in punishments – still existed. And because the lords did not have the weapons that European lords had, they could not enforce obedience as easily. In his book The African Slave Trade, Basil Davidson contrasts the law of the Congo at the beginning of the 16th century with the law of Portugal and England. In European countries where the idea of ​​private property was becoming strong, theft was severely punished. In England, even in 1740, a child could be hanged for stealing a cotton rag. But in Congo, community life persisted, the notion of private property was strange and thefts were punished with fines or various servitudes. A Congolese leader, informed of Portuguese legal codes, once asked, in a teasing tone, to a Portuguese: “What is the sanction in Portugal for anyone who sets foot on the ground? ??"