Instead of springing from a belief in abstract human rights, they were an accumulation of concrete legal and political privileges which had developed since Magna Charta.

Viewing it in this light, it may have been easier for the white colonists to insist on their rights while denying them to the slaves.

Nevertheless, the existence of slavery in the midst of a society believing in individualism increased its dehumanizing effects.
The third characteristic which set American slavery apart was its racial basis.

In America, with only a few early and insignificant exceptions, all slaves were Africans, and almost all Africans were slaves.

This placed the label of inferiority on black skin and on African culture.