In a few islands, including Barbados there was initially some resistance to the importation of slaves, but the trade was too profitable to stop. From the middle of the 17th century to the end of the 18th, millions of slaves were bought, bartered or kidnapped from bases in West Africa and transported to the Caribbean and the American mainland. In the British West Indies, this resulted in enslaved Africans soon making up the overwhelming majority of the population. Early in the 19th century, for instance, in Jamaica the population ratio was 35,000 European whites to 320,000 enslaved Africans and their descendants.

Slavery was, first and foremost, an important engine of Britain's economy, and the most important issue for the slave owners was how to get the largest profit out of the slaves. So decisions about the treatment of slaves would have been taken with an eye to securing the best returns rather than with any humanitarian considerations. By its very nature, slavery was inhumane, because treating the slaves as property was a denial of their humanity. On top of the difficult and dangerous work they were forced to do, slaves were routinely beaten, tortured and killed for the slightest infraction, real or imagined, or simply on the whim of their masters and mistresses.

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