<P> Many groups of colonists went to the Americas searching for the right to practice their religion without persecution . The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century broke the unity of Western Christendom and led to the formation of numerous new religious sects, which often faced persecution by governmental authorities . In England, many people came to question the organization of the Church of England by the end of the 16th century . One of the primary manifestations of this was the Puritan movement, which sought to "purify" the existing Church of England of its many residual Catholic rites that they believed had no mention in the Bible . </P> <P> A strong believer in the notion of rule by divine right, Charles I, King of England and Scotland, persecuted religious dissenters . Waves of repression led to the migration of about 20,000 Puritans to New England between 1629 and 1642, where they founded multiple colonies . Later in the century, the new Pennsylvania colony was given to William Penn in settlement of a debt the king owed his father . Its government was set up by William Penn in about 1682 to become primarily a refuge for persecuted English Quakers; but others were welcomed . Baptists, Quakers, German and Swiss Protestants and Anabaptists flocked to Pennsylvania . The lure of cheap land, religious freedom and the right to improve themselves with their own hand was very attractive . </P> <P> Slavery was a common practice in the Americas prior to the arrival of Europeans, as different American Indian groups captured and held other tribes' members as slaves . Many of these captives were forced to undergo human sacrifice in Amerindian civilizations such as the Aztecs . In response to some enslavement of natives in the Caribbean during the early years, the Spanish Crown passed a series of laws prohibiting slavery as early as 1512 . A new stricter set of laws was passed in 1542, called the New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment and Preservation of Indians, or simply New Laws . These were created to prevent the exploitation of the indigenous peoples by the encomenderos or landowners, by strictly limiting their power and dominion . This helped curb Indian slavery considerably, though not completely . Later, with the arrival of other European colonial powers in the New World, the enslavement of native populations increased, as these empires lacked legislation against slavery until decades later . The population of indigenous peoples declined (mostly from European diseases, but also from forced exploitation and atrocities). Later, native workers were replaced by Africans imported through a large commercial slave trade . </P> <P> By the 18th century, the overwhelming number of black slaves was such that Amerindian slavery was less commonly used . Africans, who were taken aboard slave ships to the Americas, were primarily obtained from their African homelands by coastal tribes who captured and sold them . Europeans traded for slaves with the slave capturers of the local native African tribes in exchange for rum, guns, gunpowder, and other manufactures . </P>

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