Final answer:
In North America, slavery was based on chattel slavery, where enslaved people were treated as property without any legal rights, and this status was heritable. This contrasted with African and ancient forms of slavery, where slaves were not necessarily considered property and their status was neither lifelong nor inheritable. The American system supported a heritable and permanent labor force for large-scale agriculture.
Step-by-step explanation:
Comparison of New World Slavery and Ancient Slavery Systems
The system of slavery that developed in North America differed significantly from that in the ancient world. In North America, slavery was based on chattel slavery, a system in which enslaved people were treated as personal property with no legal rights. They could be bought, sold, inherited, or gifted. This differed from slavery practices in Africa, where slaves retained some personal rights and were not necessarily considered property. Furthermore, another fundamental difference was the hereditary nature of slavery in the Americas, where the child of an enslaved woman was automatically born into slavery.
Traditionally, global instances of slavery had been a more fluid condition, sometimes occurring due to war capture, crimes, debts, or for domestic services and was not necessarily lifelong or inheritable. In contrast, the American slavery system was rigid and lifelong, designed to support large-scale agrarian economies that demanded a permanent and heritable labor force.
In comparison to the serf system in Europe, the enslaved individuals in the New World had no semblance of personal freedom, as those in serfdom could at times own property and had some personal rights. The American slaves were also subjected to unprecedented levels of violence and exploitation, particularly with the growth of cash-crop plantations. This was driven heavily by the demand for labor, which was a byproduct of the Columbian Exchange and its subsequent agricultural expansions in the Americas.