Sub-Saharan Africans have replaced native Americans, for…

Sub-Saharan Africans have replaced native Americans, for a variety of reasons, as the main population of enslaved people in the Americas.

In some cases, as on some of the Caribbean Islands, warfare and Old World diseases such as smallpox have eliminated the natives completely.

European colonists had initially practiced systems of both bonded labor and "Indian" slavery, enslaving many of the natives of the New World until a large number died from overwork and diseases.

Alternative sources of labor, such as indentured servitude, have failed to provide a sufficient workforce.