>Go back 400 years: native americans (indiands) made poor slaves, while blacks were extraordinarily suited for hard labor.
>
>Why do you say that? (especially the 2nd part)

'cause that's what they taught me in school: The first settlers drove the natives into slavery, but indian slaves would die en masse or succumb to disease, not to mention that they were rebelious, so, in a nutshell, they made lousy slaves.

Someone then thought about african natives and those poor people were found to be quite suitable for the "job", hence, the slave trade was born.

That's how I was taught about slavery back around the 5th grade.

alex