Slavery In The Late 17th Century Virginia

Possibly the Virginia colony was uncomfortable with owning slaves but economic factors changed this idea. At first, Virginia colony wasn’t successful until they were introduced to tobacco. Virginia turned to slave labor for economic growth. As tobacco increased, they needed for cheap labor to increase as well. Indentured servants did do the intensive labor in the beginning but as time passed by they decided to go the cheaper route and use African slaves.

Additionally slavery stemmed from the need of a large labor force in the southern colonies. “Growing tobacco was labor intensive, and colonial planters soon found that immigration from Europe and natural population increases were unable to supply the numbers of laborers needed to work the tobacco fields... By 1700, Virginia was importing huge numbers of slaves to provide the labor“ (“Chesapeake Bay - Economy”. 2) The lowering of slaves rights and the increase of Chesapeake area’s dependence on slaves was due to this switch and all white classes forming closer

The system of institutionalized slavery in the Virginia and South Carolina colonies is the marker point in history of the fearsome dissemination of racial and class stratification. Through the events and laws leading up to the 1760s, Virginia and South Carolina pave the way towards formation of our modern day concepts of "race" and "class". Daniel Noel, creator of the Noel hypothesis, identified the inevitability of racial stratification given that three requirements: ethnocentrism, competition, and a difference in power. The enslavement of Africans during the 1600-1700 's is a prime example of what happens when all three requirements are fulfilled.

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

The main point of this article is that slavery had a lot more to do with West Virginia secession than what historians tend to think. Historians tend to think that western Virginia had no contact with the institution of slavery so therefore slavery had nothing to do with the succession of West Virginia. The problem with this notion is that western Virginia did have a slave presence and that was mostly in the Kanawha Valley. Slaves were used to work in the salt industry. This was different from how the slave institution looked in the South. Slavery in the south was based around plantation work and this differed from the work done in the Kanawha Valley. The Kanawha Valley relied a lot on the work of slaves in the salt industry. Even though Kanawha

The demand of tobacco cultivation in the Chesapeake resulted in an increase of the slave trade. Unlike indentured servants, Africans was not protected by English law, and was accustomed to intensive labor as well as resistant to many diseases. And because the Native Americans were more familiar with the land which in turn made running away easier, it was hard to keep Indians as slaves. Authorities wanted to improve the status of white servants thus taking away the perception that Virginia was a death trap. In the 1660s, Virginia and Maryland laws referred explicitly to slavery. As Tobacco cultivation continued to increase so did the condition of black and white servants divided. The laws became more stricter and freedom for blacks became nonexistent,

The historical records of the 1640s show the beginning and growth of African slavery in the Chesapeake area. The constantly growing of tobacco planting caused a higher demand for labor, resulting in an increase in African slavery and indentured servants. The condition for black and white servants varied sharply. The white indentured servants started getting an improved status while the black servants began losing more freedoms. A Virginia law of 1662 also caused a rise in the number of slaves because it stated that the status of the offspring followed that of the mother. This means that any children of a slave woman and a white man would live as a slave, which led to an increase in the sexual abuse of slave women. The shift from white indentured

Slavery became an established activity in America by 1600’s. The slaves were mostly to provide free and cheap labor. Apart from America, slavery was practiced in other parts of the world throughout history, and in fact it can be traced back to the time of the ancient civilization. With industrial revolution especially with the rise of sugar plantations, the slaves were used to grow sugar in the periods from 1100. This intensified between 1400 and 1500 when Portugal and Spain ventured into sugar growing in the eastern Atlantic regions. The growth of the plantations required labor, hence African slaves were bought from Africa, to provide labor.

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.

Many colonies would not have survived if it wasn’t for the discovery and growing of tobacco, as this plant enabled the colonies to thrive, and even have a surplus of profit, therefore they could afford more servants, thus, creating a continuous travel of immigrants into the colony, overall creating stable colonies.

A plantation economy, an economy founded on an agricultural mass production like tobacco, sustained the source of income of the Chesapeake regions, consisting Virginia, Maryland, and northern North Carolina. The early settlers soon realized the urgent need for labor in the New World. Due to the fact that many potential immigrants could not afford an expensive trip across the Atlantic, the Virginia Company developed the system of indentured servitude to attract common laborers. Since tobacco required intensive hand labor all year round, indentured servants have become vital to the colonial economy. "Virginia Servant and Slave Laws" represent the elaborate efforts of masters' to profit from indentured servants and slaves against runaway and

A key development for the south to rapidly develop their economy was the shift in the labour force from indentured white European servants to black African slaves. In 1609 the Virginia Company used their own resources to pay for European servants to migrate to America and become part of the labor force. The demand for labor rose sharply during the tobacco boom of 1619 . As a consequence of the tobacco boom the Virginia indenture system was created. English skilled migrants were transported at the Virginia Company’s expense from England to Virginia were bound to work a fixed terms of years, were sold outright for the duration of those terms to planters when the servants arrived in the colony . These contracts typically sold for £10 to £11 in the eighteenth century, nearly double the cost of passage . Indentured servants, thus bound, performed any work their employers demanded in exchange for room, board, and certain “freedom

Despite being held at the bottom of the social pyramid for throughout colonial times, the labor of the colonies would prove to be far from useless. While vast, open land was turned into numerous plantations in the colonies by rich planters, the plantations could not purely be run by their owners, creating a great need for labor. This lack of labor would eventually be solved through the use of African slaves, but after the first shipment of slaves to Jamestown in 1619, few were purchased due to high prices for an extended amount of time. The planters, however, would be able to fulfill their need for labor through English indentured servants. Through the use of indentured servants, basically free labor was provided to land owners, while

While slavery was a horrific thing that led to the mistreatment of millions of black people, it had the power to last for centuries. When looking closely at historical accounts it becomes easier to see why this horrible practice was able to sustain for so long. One of the reasons was because the economy of Colonial America relied heavily on the labor of slaves. Farming, the slave trade itself, and the harsh treatment of slaves were all driven by the greed of slave owners. Another reason that slavery lasted so long was racism. During this time, the black population was considered inferior to the white population. This helped to promote the cruel behaviors that occurred in slavery. Lastly, many whites actually felt that the slaves were treated

During the development of the colonies and the nation as a whole, slaves were utilized in order to produce the crops and perform laborious tasks that were “below” white people. In the 1660s, there was an increased demand for tobacco products as well as indigo and rice in England (“African American Slavery in the Colonial Era, 1619-1775”). In order to fulfill the demand, there was a spike in interest in purchasing slaves. More and more slaves were needed to produce larger amounts of crops for the plantation owners.