Final answer:
Indigenous peoples were the first slaves in the Americas, but due to disease and resistance.
Step-by-step explanation:
The initial group of people who were enslaved in the Americas were the Indigenous peoples. However, this source of cheap labor was unsustainable as Indigenous people often resisted enslavement to the point of preferring death, coupled with substantial death rates due to infectious diseases introduced by the Europeans. Hence, this left a void in the labor force which was filled by Africans.
Substantially more Africans were transported across the Atlantic and were used to perform difficult labor mainly in extraction and farming, e.g., sugar and tobacco plantations. One advantage Africans had over the indigenous peoples was their perceived resilience to diseases like malaria and yellow fever, and they were believed to be better-acclimated to hard labor.
Furthermore, Africans could be enslaved for a lifetime, providing a continuously replenishing labor force. In stark contrast to slavery in Africa where enslaved individuals could regain their freedom, have legal rights, and even own property, chattel slavery in the Americas treated individuals as property that could be bought, sold, and inherited.
Learn more about Slavery in the Americas