How did slavery shape the American colonies from the 1600s to the 1850s?

During the colonial period of United States history, which occurred between 1607 and 1776 (when the colonies declared independence from Great Britain), slavery impacted nearly every area of American culture. Slavery would affect the US in the post-colonial period too, leading to the Civil War in 1861. But it was in the colonial period when the foundations of the slave system and its influence on American society were laid.
The most evident impact of slavery was on the economics of the American colonies. It is not an exaggeration to say that a great deal of the wealth of this country was built on the backs of African slaves. As the southern colonies formed, they quickly adopted the plantation system of agriculture to produce a large quantity of cash crops for the European market, especially tobacco, indigo, rice and later, of course, cotton. The plantation system was labor intensive, and cheap labor was a necessity for landowners. Although the first slaves arrived in the colonies in 1619, after indentured servants in Virginia revolted in what is known as Bacon's rebellion in 1676, white indentured servitude was replaced by African slavery as the main source of labor. All of the major cash crops, the key sources of wealth for southern colonies, were largely produced by slave labor. The economy of the North also benefited from slavery. Slavery existed in the northern colonies until after the revolution. Banks and insurance companies were specifically formed to finance the international and internal slave trade and to protect slave owners' investments in slaves. In addition, the North got raw materials from southern plantations when it started to industrialize in the 19th century.
Another key influence of slavery on the colonies was the development of racial ideologies and racism. As African slavery became more important to the southern economy, a system of race-based ideology developed. Prof. Audrey Smedley of Virginia Commonwealth University, an expert on American social anthropology, studied the link between the slave system and the evolution of racism. Racism in America, she argues, developed directly out of the system of slavery.
Smedley further argues that racial ideology developed due to two key points: to keep poor whites and African slaves apart, and to justify the cruelty and violence of the slave system. Poor white servants and African slaves working side-by-side on plantations usually led to a large degree of cooperation between the groups, which included intermarriage, challenging the work system, running away from plantations, and even revolts. Consequently, beginning in Virginia and then spreading to other southern colonies, a system of laws and cultural practices developed to identify the races as separate and to keep African slaves at the bottom of the social structure. In addition, the system of slavery adopted on southern plantations used violence as a way to stem revolts and to keep control. For a nation who considered itself Christian, their cruelty was in part justified by creating a system of racism that portrayed blacks as inferior. Smedley notes:

Race ideology proclaimed that the social, spiritual, moral, and intellectual inequality of different groups was, like their physical traits, natural, innate, inherited, and unalterable. ...Thus was created the only slave system in the world that became exclusively “racial.” By limiting perpetual servitude to Africans and their descendants, colonists were proclaiming that blacks would forever be at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

Lastly, African migrants from the slave trade, as any other immigrant group, left lasting impressions on other areas of American culture. Food was one area directly affected by slavery. Africans frequently worked as domestic slaves who were in charge of duties such as cooking. African influences can be directly seen in what we call "soul food" today. Music was another area of influence. African rhythms and drumming began to develop in American music, as did instruments such as the banjo. After slavery was outlawed in northern cities like New York, many runaway slaves would list their primary occupation as "musicians." Other arts such as quilting, furniture making, and even elements of architecture that became popular in the South have direct roots in African influences.