Slavery And The Practice Of Slavery

For over 2,000 years, slavery has been conducted in various parts of the world. From year 1500 to year 1900, Europeans stole individuals from West Africa, West Central Africa, and Southeast Africa and shipped them to the different parts of the Atlantic. This process dehumanized them of their identity. Europeans stole husbands, wives, merchants, blacksmiths, farmers, and even children. They removed them from their homelands and gave them new names: slaves. European slaveholders never thought to take ownership of their actions by killing humans with brutality and degradation. Slave trade was considered popular in England and soon after more countries began the process of taking slaves to newly claimed territories. These countries include

Virginia: was chartered in 1606 to the Virginia Company. The Company decided to attract colonists by awarded land in exchange for indenturing themselves to be a servant for four-seven years. A booming cash crop of tobacco and the possibility of owning land sent a flood of between 130,000 and 150,000 immigrants, mostly young men, to Virginia. Tobacco was a monoculture, however, and little else was cultivated. Malnutrition and exhaustion resulted in extreme death rates. If you happened to live to age 20, your life expectancy was only 48 years. Additionally, four in ten servants

Other Europeans, Native Americans and West Africans were the groups thought to be most suitable for the economic demand of labor. Many of the early views of West Africans were received through the bible until written accounts of encounters with these people were made. These written accounts of the encounters of West Africans led to the idea West Africans could be brought over and sold in the Americas to work in chattel slavery. This in turn made them the ultimate choice for the labor force of the English. However the famous sale of twenty Africans to the colonists at Jamestown in 1619 by Dutch slave traders did not equate to the introduction of chattel slavery just yet. Many early African slaves were treated similarly to indentured servants brought in from England. They could work the land for a set number of years then after their term was up be freed and given a piece of land. Indentured servitude was not hereditary but their contract could be sold, bartered, given away or gambled away. These contracts gave away the servant’s labor but it did not give away the servant’s person. Despite this African presence, slavery was slow to arrive in Virginia because the mortality rate for indentured servants was so high during the first decades of the Virginia colony. Indentured servitude remained the primary source of labor in Virginia through the 1680s, until economic considerations made slaves the cheaper alternative.

One of the major causes for emigration from England to North America was religious persecution. Religious tolerance in Britain for other Christian sects besides the Anglican church was virtually nonexistent, resulting in many members of other sects to seek religious haven in the colonies. The vast majority of immigrants coming to New England were followers of

In 1619, Virginia was an isolated British settlement on the Chesapeake Bay. It was sparsely populated by men trying to make the colony profitable for England. But the colonists were devastated by hunger, disease, and raids by Native Americans. So when the White Lion, a badly damaged Dutch slave ship arrived, carrying 20 kidnapped black Africans, the colonists bartered food and services for the human cargo. The Africans started working for the colonists. They would work 7 years of hard labor in exchange for land and freedom. But when colonies started to prosper, the colonists were reluctant to lose their labor. Since the Africans did not have citizenship, they were not subject to English common law. They were workers with no rights.

Africans were always seen as slaves rather than free people. It came to a point were generation from generation, people with African ancestry were legally enslaved for life. European colonists’ even committed to legalizing enslavement of hundreds and thousands of people, but it led to Africans being slaves based on race. Slavery was a big part in Virginia and South Carolina. The history of slavery in Virginia first appeared in 1619 where the Africans were indentured servants. As for South Carolina, majority of their population were African Americans. 65% of their population of about 18,000 people were African American slaves. Upon the social, economic and political development of slavery in Virginia and South Carolina, it impacted their race, class and gender.

it was declared in Virginia that it would not be a crime to kill a disobedient slave while punishing him/her. Moreover in 1669, slave masters were banned from emancipating slaves. Slaves that were given their freedom could not stay in the colony. Furthermore, Virginia voted to banish Europeans who marry a black, mulatto, or Indian person. It can be concluded that these laws fashioned the chattel slavery in the United States

The populations of blacks in the Chesapeake area remained relatively small for the most part in the seventeenth century. It constituted just five percent of the population in 1675. In 1619, the Africans arrived in Virginia most likely via the Dutch. The Dutch dominated the slave trade until the middle of the eighteenth century. The lives of the Africans were similar to those of white servants whom they worked with sharing the harsh work routines and living conditions. Through working together and living together, the white and black laborers formed relationships. More than often, together they would conspire to steal from their masters and run off together. If caught, they would receive similar harsh punishments. They also had much more in

Why didn't Virginia turn to slavery as a system of labor immediately upon the arrival of African slaves in 1619? What factors led to the more gradual introduction of slavery into Virginia?

In the article “The Root of the Problem,” Orlando Patterson describes the historical events that leads Jamestown, Virginia from a slave owning state to the birthplace of a new era. One of the events began near the mid-16th century. White indentured servants and African slaves worked with each other in the same field as a mixed population. According to Patterson, the idea of letting slaves free was a common idea that some freed slaves were able to prosper as other African slaves and white indentured servants fell in love. The matter of letting slaves free never occurred to the white elites, because they believed in their own indentured servants. Before the 1660s, white indentured servants were bought by the white elites to help support the labor force, because they were cheaper. Then not long after, the order of things

Religious freedom is one of the main motivations for settlers coming to the New World. Settlers evaded religious persecution in the Americas. Most of the settlers were Anglican or Congregational. The colonies (apart from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island) did not separate church and state. The majority of churches levied taxes in order to support the ministers. Ironically, the colonists were intolerable of other religions; Jews and Catholics were ineligible to hold public office and vote. During the Great Awakening, immigrants broke into their own congregations; creating the Methodist, Baptist,

The economic advantages in Virginia certainly gave rise to the demand for labor. Tabaco being the sole export material out of Virginia became the upmost part of maximizing the colonies income. Therefore, the use of servants became essential because this entitled the colonizers to maximize profits at a low cost rate for workers. “The first Africans to be landed in Virginia had probably been captured in wars or raids by enemy tribes before they were sold”. Although these individuals were sold, they were not entirely considered slaves, being there were no official laws legalizing slavery in Virginia. Many were considered to be indentured servants, “bound by contract to serve a master for four to seven years in order to repay the expenses of their

When the servants arrived in Virginia, the indentured servants were given the same opportunity and freedoms as the colonial white people. However, their lives were harsh and restrictive but were not treated as slaves. There were many restrictions and such as women were not allowed to be pregnant, running away or breaking the laws. The growth of tobacco, cotton, indigo in South America raised the country’s economy.

Though Virginia was only intended to be a money source for young, single men, it eventually became America’s earliest slave society. This all started with the fact that the men who came over to Jamestown were all gentry, and refused to get their hands dirty. For a while, they simply didn’t bother working, but when things got bad, they turned to indentured servitude. The indentured servants were primarily English for most of the seventeenth century, with a splash of Africans, Irish and Indians here and there. When the Headright system stopped working, the Virginia Company actually tricked people into coming to America to work to death. They’d offer the common people a contract, confirming they would work for a set amount of years in exchange for transportation to Virginia from England, as well as food, clothing and shelter when they arrived. But they’d work them so intensely during servitude, the number of people who made it to freedom was miniscule.

In order to talk about the abolition of slavery it is necessary to know the meaning of slavery and abolition. According to Dictionary.com the word “Slave means: a person entirely under the domination of some influence or person and abolition means: “the legal prohibition and ending of slavery, especially of slavery of blacks in the U.S.” Now that both words were defined we can begin. “It is said that the first African slaves were brought to the United States near the English Colony back in 1619 to Jamestown, Virginia by some Dutch traders. If we were to discuss the origins of slavery we would have to start not in the United States, but we would have to shift gears to Brazil were they were the biggest slaves traders of all times” according to History.net