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The rise and fall of indentured servitude
Indentured servants in the colonial era
Indentured servants in the colonial era
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The unstable tobacco culture, the rarity of women, and aggressive diseases in early Maryland and Virginia severely affected the social and political life of the two colonies. Consequently, the excessive planting of tobacco depleted the soil of nutrients, creating a need for more fertile land. As the colonists took land, which caused many attacks from the Natives, they began to realize that the expanding land demanded more workers; this leads to the increase of indentured servants or people who give up their rights to master in America for several years in exchange for passage to the New World and a few necessities for when they are freed. In addition, the headright system promised the freed servants fifty acres of land, which then led to Bacon’s
In the Chesapeake region, Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676 led to major changes. This rebellion involved indentured servants revolting against the system, which put an end to indentured servitude and nearly annihilated the city of Jamestown. The servants believed their natural rights had been violated, so they rose up in revolution. As landowners began to fear mutinous servants, the plantation system expanded significantly. This relied heavily on the use of slaves from Africa, and greatly sped up the production of cash crops in the region.
Looking at the early English colonies in the Chesapeake Bay region, it’s clear that the English had not learned any lessons from their experiences at Roanoke. Poor planning, a bad location, unrealistic expectations, flawed leadership, unsuccessful relations with the local Indians, and no hope of finding the mineral wealth the Spanish found in Mexico, all contributed to failure. The first colonists in the Chesapeake region were not only ignorant, lazy and unambitious, but their attempts were hampered before they had begun. However, a solution to these problems was found in a single plant: tobacco. Nevertheless, this cash crop ultimately created numerous problems for the colonists. The ignorance and indolent acts of the Chesapeake colonists to unsuccessfully restore the colony by themselves led to the demise of the colony as a whole especially regarding the planting of agricultural goods for food.
Early Virginia's flourishing cultivation of tobacco drew a diversity of people, from fresh war veterans and former soldiers, to adventurers and ordinary people looking to recoup from former monetary losses. However the tobacco did not only alter the country culturally and economically, but it “ threw more wood into the fire.” It strengthened the infamous individualistic attitude the colonists had. The advent...
The use of labor came in two forms; indenture servitude and Slavery used on plantations in the south particularly in Virginia. The southern colonies such as Virginia were based on a plantation economy due to factors such as fertile soil and arable land that can be used to grow important crops, the plantations in the south demanded rigorous amounts of labor and required large amounts of time, the plantation owners had to employ laborers in order to grow crops and sell them to make a profit. Labor had become needed on the plantation system and in order to extract cheap labor slaves were brought to the south in order to work on the plantations. The shift from indentured servitude to slavery was an important time as well as the factors that contributed to that shift, this shift affected the future generations of African American descent. The history of colonial settlements involved altercations and many compromises, such as Bacons Rebellion, and slavery one of the most debated topics in the history of the United States of America. The different problems that occurred in the past has molded into what is the United States of America, the reflection in the past provides the vast amount of effort made by the settlers to make a place that was worth living on and worth exploring.
Since it was easier to grow grain and livestock in the Mid-Atlantic region, there was a diverse group of farmers, fishermen, and merchants who worked in those colonies. The environmental conditions were ideal for farms of various sizes and the Middle colonists could trade in market areas where the colonial regions met. Although a lot of money could be made by growing tobacco (in Maryland especially) and other cash crops, they were bad for the soil and people needed more land. However, this resulted in a newfound lack of labor, which was an issue. For instance, families procreated too slowly, there was a high infant mortality rate, African slaves cost too much, and, according to the colonists, Native Americans didn’t make good slaves. Eventually white indentured servants from Europe were recruited to work on plantations, but it was a difficult life for them- even after they were freed they continued to earn low wages. This high demand of cash crops in Maryland and other Middle colonies led to an overall decline in the wellness of the
stated: “...it was thought that women had no place in the grim and often grisly business of subduing a continent.”2 But the first arrival of women in 1608 and their subsequent followers proved to be indispensable to the settlement's future. The necessity of women proved Lord Bacon true,when in 1620 he commented: “When a plantation grows to strength, then it is time to plant with women as well an with men, that the plantation may spread into generations, and not be ever pieced from without.”2.
...owners holding too much political and economic power, as personified by Governor Berkeley. Thus the landless, freed indentured servants revolted in 1676 in Bacon's Rebellion, as is stated in Bacon's Manifesto symbolizing the conflict in Virginia between its aristocratic and poor inhabitants of the back county over the aristocracy's concentration of power and refusal to help those living in the frontier.
Unlike the well-defined social classes of England, the colonies had a streamline class structure, which gave individuals the chance to rise on the social latter. New settlers living on the coast could become rich by fishing and selling what they caught. If fishing was not a settler's strong point, then they could try their hand at farming. Getting the land to farm on was the easy part. The 'head right' system gave each male 50 acres, and 50 acres to each indentured servant he might bring over. England could not do this because England so defined the social classes and they did not have enough land that they could give to every male and his indentured servant.
Indentured servants rarely reached full church admittance or received grants of land after finishing their period of service. Many turned into disenfranchised wage earners. Escalating numbers of Europeans liked smoking and claimed the tobacco plant had remedial aids. As a product with an increasing mass market in Europe, tobacco became Virginia’s alternate for treasure. It not only enhanced a rising group of tobacco planters but also affiliates of the colonial government who allotted adequate land to themselves. The expansion of tobacco cultivation made a discrete community with few villages and little social unity. It enthused a get-rich-quick mindset and a frantic rush for property and employment. Maryland was founded in 1632 as a proprietary colony, a concede of land and administrative rule to a solitary individual, in the Chesapeake town. This was Cecilius Calvert, the son of a lately departed favorite of King Charles I. The charter allotted Calvert landlord of the colony and allowed him “full, free, and absolute power,” with regulator of commerce and the merit to initiate all legislation, amid a designated council limited to approving or vetoing his
When America was first founded the colonists believed that they could do one of two things. They could either ask for entire families and groups of people to come over from England to start family farms and businesses to help the colony prosper. The other option was to take advantage of the lower class people and promise them land and freedom for a couple of years of servitude (Charles Johnson et al, Africans in America 34). Obviously the second option was used and this was the start of indentured servitude in colonial America. The indentured servants that came from England were given plenty of accommodations in exchange for their servitude. They were also promised that after their time of service was complete that they would receive crops, land, and clothing to start their new found lives in America. Men, children, and even most criminals, rushed to the ports hoping to be able to find work in America and soon start their new life. However, a large quantity of them either died on the voyage over, died from diseases, or died from the intensity of their work, before their servitude was complete (Johnson et al, Africans, 34). America finally began to show signs of prosperity due to the crop, tobacco. The only problem now was that the majorit...
Slavery was the main resource used in the Chesapeake tobacco plantations. The conditions in the Chesapeake region were difficult, which lead to malnutrition, disease, and even death. Slaves were a cheap and an abundant resource, which could be easily replaced at any time. The Chesapeake region’s tobacco industries grew and flourished on the intolerable and inhumane acts of slavery.
Some of the earliest records of slavery date back to 1760 BC; Within such societies, slavery worked in a system of social stratification (Slavery in the United States, 2011), meaning inequality among different groups of people in a population (Sajjadi, 2008). After the establishment of Jamestown in 1607 as the first permanent English Chesapeake colony in the New World that was agriculturally-based; Tobacco became the colonies chief crop, requiring time consuming and intensive labor (Slavery in colonial America, 2011). Due to the headlight system established in Maryland in 1640, tobacco farmers looked for laborers primarily in England, as each farmer could obtain workers as well as land from importing English laborers. The farmers could then use such profits to purchase the passage of more laborers, thus gaining more land. Indentured servants, mostly male laborers and a few women immigrated to Colonial America and contracted to work from four to seven years in exchange for their passage (Norton, 41). Once services ended after the allotted amount of time, th...
Believed by the colonists, animals were a staple of their personal property and in essence, transformed people. In the Chesapeake region, the staple crop, tobacco, caused many unexpected problems for both sides. Due to minimal man-power, expense, and time, colonists in the region were unable to devote the necessary means of keeping track of their livestock. They accommodated this issue by relinquishing their fauna from an enclosed pen and allowed them to roam freely. With the newfound freedom, the animals would wander far from the plantations in which they originated, into native lands and often precious cornfields. When in contact with the cornfields, the instinctually wild animals would rampage the land, and cause havoc on Indian crops. This initiated justified retaliations from the Indians by killing the livestock; however, colonists deemed the backlash unjustified on the principality of the hierarchical status their animals still had. In the New England region, the nature of geography and closer sense of community due to lack of a vital crop allowed the colonists to keep better track of their valuable animals. However, with the influx of fresh immigrants and compounding livestock, the colonists scarcity and expense of labor due to long-fallow farming and free-range husbandry, drastically increased the unanticipated growing demand for land. In response to the rapidly expanding colonial boundaries, Indians “scrambled to mount a defense,” as Anderson writes (218). “Colonists coveted land around as well as within the boundaries of Indian settlements,” and were in essence unstoppable (219). During this time, Indians recognized that their bartering goods were becoming less and less valuable, essentially causing diplomatic relations with the colonists to deteriorate. Coinciding with the shift in diplomatic attention, colonists in both regions devoted less
The hot summers with allowed diseases not only to exist, but it allowed the diseases to thrive and become a huge setback for the settlers, because it resulted in numerous deaths. "For we came but with twenty for the merchants, and they are half dead just; and we look every hour when two more should go"(2-1). All of the deaths resulted in a domino effect. With everyone either sick and weak or dead, there was no one to plant crops on the plantation. The weak were becoming weaker due to the famine. In addition to this, the healthy survivors had to worry about the attack by the Native Americans. Tobacco was the colony's staple crop. However, tobacco requires a lot of land and which at the time was claimed by the Native Americans. The English settlers were clearly outmanned and in no condition to fight. They lived in terror, not knowing if or when the Native Americans were going to attack again. With all the death, Jamestown was in desperate need to
The tobacco industry is a very unethical industry, due to the long term effects of tobacco on humans. The industry also does not assess the ethical and social responsibility the best way that it should. There are many factors that make the industry unethical; some of the reasons are the way the cigarette companies around the world Advertise, the way governments and cigarette companies make a huge profit from the sales of cigarettes, and the labeling health risks. I do believe however that there is something that the tobacco companies can do to better their strategy as far as their ethics go. I think that they should, always be looking for the best interest on their consumers, as well as advertise strictly on the effects that the cigarettes and what the people are getting for their money.