Why American colonist didn't use native American as slave?

by Windnay

Isn't it much more easier to take them as slave than to transport slave from across the ocean? Is there anything stop them from doing so?

silverappleyard

Not to discourage further discussion, but you might be interested in these previous threads on Native American slavery:

drylaw

I'm guessing you're asking about British America - in case you're interested in Spanish America also I'm adding this older answer of mine to /u/silverappleyard 's great suggestions:

So there was definitely native slavery in British America, as well as between Spain and the Americas in early modern times. It's much less well-known than the African slave trade for a number of reasons, incl.

  1. In Spanish America the major indigenous demographic crisis meant that African people were increasingly brought in for labor; and 2) while in British America there was a similiar development, in addition the resistiance of African people to malaria meant that they were increasingly brought in instead of using indigenous people for labor (which in both cases did not necessarily mean an improvement for the native populations, with e.g. labor conditions at least in 16th c. Spanish America coming pretty close to those of slavery). Plus 3) native slaves in Spain probably numbered in the thousands, so comparatively much lower numbers, and the field is still under-researched and quite recent.