Slavery in the colonial United States December 1865. Slavery in the colonial United States Slavery in the colonial area which later became the United States (1600–1776) developed from complex factors, and researchers have proposed several theories to explain the development of the institution of slavery and of the slave trade. Slavery strongly correlated with Europe's American colonies' need for labor, especially for the labor-intensive plantation economies of the sugar colonies in the Caribbean, operated by Great Britain, France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic. Most slaves who were brought or kidnapped to the Thirteen British colonies - the Eastern seaboard of what later became the United States
United States Declaration of Independence the Declaration had been signed on July 4, pointing out that some signers were not then present, including several who were not even elected to Congress until after that date. The Declaration was transposed on paper, adopted by the Continental Congress, and signed by John Hancock, President of the Congress, on July 4, 1776, according to the 1911 record of events by the U.S. State Department under Secretary Philander C. Knox. On August 2, 1776, a parchment paper copy of the Declaration was signed by 56 persons. Many of these signers were not present when the original Declaration was adopted