When slavery was being practiced in Colonial America and subsequently the United States were there any rules regarding who could be a slave? Could they be anyone or did they have to be African? Are there any examples of non-African slaves?
EDIT: Just to clarify a bit. If I was living in colonial America, could I own a white slave?
There were many Indian slaves in America. Some were owned by white settlers. Others were owned by Indians of different tribes. It was very common for Indian tribes to take captives during battles and keep them as slaves. It was a measure of wealth and bravery in some cases.
Ken Burns "The West" covers this topic fairly well. He is focusing on the western territory of course, but it still gives some interesting insight into slavery outside of Africans.
The Gallay's book discusses the South Carolina slave trade in some detail- South Carolina was a net slave exporter into the early 18th century according to him. To over generalize, the trade was somewhat similar to the African trade in terms of the actual acquisition of victims. The English engaged local allies to capture slaves from other groups, Spanish and French colonies primarily. The Spanish and French responded in kind. A great many of these captives were sold into the Caribbean, while African slaves tended to be used in the Carolina's- this was to avoid the problem other commentators have already made regarding people trying to take leave of slavery.
There is a nice recap of the Gallay book from 'Common-Place! At http://www.common-place.org/vol-03/no-01/reviews/hall.shtml
Could you define what you mean as slaves. Up until the revolution about half of immigrants were indentured servants. That's a far cry from chattel slavery but also a bit different from a free man. The time period of "colonial America" is a bit broad as well. Indians were certainly enslaved in Colonial America but it's more a matter of a time-line than anything else.
Hmm, most likely, no. Though as others have pointed out indentured servitude was highly common at that time period, and could in some ways be rather gruesome.
In the Caribbean and French colonies, there could be slaves that were predominantly white, even visibly appearing to be European ethnically, but with some black heritage. Predominately slaves were of African heritage, mostly western African. (Ned Sublett's, The World that Made New Orleans)
Can anyone bring light to what happened to the Acadians in the US just after they were deported? Weren't they basically used as slaves for a time?