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The first slaves here were Irish (indentured servants) and they were never "freed".
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Yeah. But indentured servitude was generally timebound: either a specific number of years service, or service to pay off a specific amount. African slaves were simply property, with no future manumission in sight for most, and certainly no rights as people in court(many southern states actually outlawed the freeing of slaves). Their children were also property. Indentured servitude shared certain characteristics with slavery (e.g masters using coporal chastisement and limited right of movement), however in several very fundamental areas there was no comparison.