Slavery And The Practice Of Slavery

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?

Contrary to the pilgrims of New England, those who settled in the Chesapeake area colonized the region for more economic purposes. Many people who settled in the Chesapeake were down-on-their-luck English citizens living in swamps and slums hoping to stake it out in the New World, because it couldn’t be much worse than the conditions they faced back in England. Most received their tickets to America through indentured servitude, paying for their trip with a few years of free labor for a wealthy master. Document C is a roster of indentured servants bound for Virginia who are all set to work for the same master. Indentured servitude had long lasting effects on the colonies, the most impactful being Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 (Document H). This uprising was caused former indentured servants who had no land or property of their own once their work contracts expired. Because the land westward was populated by Natives and therefore almost impossible to acquire, the dissenters focused against the rich and powerful members of the colonies. The successful uprising led to reforms such as work regulations explained in Document E, as well a shift away from indentured servitude and towards slavery of blacks. Other settlers besides indentured servants were aspiring traders and gold-hunters mentioned in Document F. While traders had little success early on and treasure hunters definitely didn’t find their fields of

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

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

In 1625 and according to the British historian Betty Wood, 23 Africans lived in Virginia. This number had increased thirty five years later to 950 representing three or four percent of the whole colony population. This number rose and the colony had more indentured servants. Some historians such as Edmund Morgan said that the treatment of the indentured servants was mysterious from that of slaves. During this period of time, white indentured servants and black servants met each other, worked and even escaped from their holders together. Yet, there was a big difference between European and black indentured servants. The European could demand the help of his governments and ask for his freedom but the Africans could not because their are blacks

The first twenty Africans to arrive in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 were eventually traded by the Dutch for food and supplies. A point worth noting, the first twenty Africans were not identified as legal property(slave). The former Spanish owners had baptized and given each a Christian name. In fact, Africans worked as indentured servants for a specified time because English law disallowed the enslaving of Christians. Africans became landowners and were of equal standing with the poor English Pilgrims. However, by 1640, Virginia court documents started displaying verdicts for a life of servitude. These were verdicts given to runaway indentured servants. African indentured servants to be exact. Between 1661 and 1662, a child’s status in the colonial United States depended on whether the mother was free or a slave.

Slavery was caused by economic factors of the English settlers in the late 17th century. Planters primarily relied on indentured servitude, in order to facilitate their need for labor. Before the 1680's, Indentured Servitude was the primary source of labor in the newly developed colonies but after the 1680's, the population of the Indentured Servants decreased, exponentially. The Seventeenth century in Virginia was an unruly and rebellious time as the labour force, being both white and some black servants, was becoming more and more disloyal.

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.

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.

During 1619 where slavery fist appeared in Virginia, a Dutch warship brought more than twenty African men and women that were obtained as slaves in the Caribbean. There were many laws that Virginia created restricting freedom of African slaves. For example, Virginia passed a law that restrained Africans from carrying weapons (Jones, 82). It seemed as if Virginia created laws year after year restricting African men and/or women into doing/not doing particular things. During 1643, a law had passed that taxed productive field hands of African American women but not white women. Again, in Virginia, planters passed a set of laws that improved differences between slaves working for a specific period and they consigned to

During the establishment of the Virginia colonies, the ownership of indentured servants became popular. In Document 1, during years 1645 and 1657 the number of indentured servants per probate inventory increased from about 0.6 to about 2.1 showing that Virginia preferred them probably because of their low cost. Although they were

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,

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 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

In the primary source document “Virginia slave laws” it mentions how slavery began, “Historians now know that small numbers of Africans lived in Virginia before 1619, the year a Dutch ship sold some twenty blacks (probably from the West Indies) to the colonists.” With the introduction of slavery was the main source of cheap labor, indentured servants were no longer needed. It soon became very common and normal for The English and other European powers to own slaves. Such as the Spanish, the famous conquistador Hernan Cortes who created the encomienda system. This was a grant of Native American labor and he received about 1000,000 to work on his estate.