Final answer:
North American slavery was based on chattel slavery, making it inheritable and race-based, unlike other forms of slavery in history.
Step-by-step explanation:
The system of slavery that developed in North America differed from slavery in the ancient world in that it was based on chattel slavery. This form of slavery viewed enslaved people as property without personal rights, contrary to other forms of slavery where individuals retained some personal rights and the status was not necessarily hereditary or lifelong.
In North America, African slaves were subjected to violence, exploitation, and were used as a workforce to fulfill the labor needs, particularly on large plantations for cash crops. Unlike previous systems of slavery, race was a fundamental aspect, where primarily Africans were enslaved and the condition was inheritable, meaning the children of enslaved people were also born into slavery.
By the end of the seventeenth century, the English colonies heavily relied on African slavery, and by the time of the American Revolution, slavery had spread across the continent, although the Northern states began to gradually abolish it soon after. In the South, slavery became deeply entrenched, with numbers growing rapidly as the demand for labor to sustain agricultural operations and international trade increased.