When did slavery start in US?

Answer 1

It began, ironically enough, in Rhode Island, one of the founding colonies of the United States, where slavery as defined by law began in 1676.

Roger Williams and others signed legislation defining the Indigenous peoples (native tribes) of the area as 'product' and enslaving them. Prior to this time the same Indigenous peoples had provided sanctuary to Roger Williams when he was banished from the Bay Colony (what is now the state of Massachusetts) to perish. He relied on their generosity and goodwill for decades thereafter. That sanctuary ultimately provided the genesis point for the state of Rhode Island to exist. Had that generosity not occurred, what is now Rhode Island would have likely been either Massachusetts or Connecticut. The recompense for Indigenous generosity was slavery.

The practice of enslaving Indigenous peoples in America began with Columbus, as Europeans had practiced enslaving one another long before they came to the New World. The depth and breadth of the practice expanded as they brought their value systems and practices to their new lands. Enslavement of Native American peoples began in Rhode Island in the 1600's and then was supplemented by a profoundly profitable slave trade centered in Newport and Bristol Rhode Island later with the expansion of slavery via the importation of African peoples. By the mid 1700's the ratio of enslaved African Americans to European residents of Rhode Island was nearly 8:1. Yet none of the area was yet the United States. In 1776 when the United States came into being - the opportunities enjoyed by its founding fathers rested in large part on a minimum of many 100 years of enslavement practices by their forebearers, to their own peoples in their own lands, to the Indigenous peoples they later encountered here, and then finally to the African peoples they imported.

Additionally the Spanish "mission systems" of the Southwest, prior to the creation of California as a state, utilized Native peoples as slaves to the church. This also occurred prior to this territory being formally a part of the United States. Once the area now known as California became a state, one of the first laws the new state passed was for the 'care and protection' of Indian peoples. These laws provided for the enslavement of any Native person by any white person if the Native person was not found already actively engaged in work for another white person. The emancipation of slavery did not apply to Inidgenous peoples in California until the late 1890s.

Answer

Columbus captured many hundreds of Native American peoples living in the Caribbean during his second trip to the Americas for the purpose of selling them into slavery in Europe. The first Europeans in America included indentured servants, who worked for a period of time to offset the costs of coming to the colonies). And technically Native Americans had slaves on this continent (captives from other tribes) long before the Europeans came here.