While this democratic spirit attracted many European immigrants, it only served to increase the burden of slavery for the African.

Instead of being at the bottom of the social ladder, the slave in America was an inferior among equals.

A society which represented itself as recognizing individual worth and providing room for the development of talent, rigidly organized the entire life of the slave and gave him little opportunity to develop his skills.

In America, a person's worth became identified with economic achievement.

To be a success in Virginia was to be a prosperous planter, and white individualism could easily become white oppression leaving no room for black individualism.
The existence of slavery in a society which maintained its belief in equality was a contradiction which men strove diligently to ignore.
Perhaps this contradiction can be partly understood by seeing the way in which individual rights had come into being in English society.