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Indentured servants in colonial era
Indentured servants in colonial era
Indentured Servants role in the colonial time period
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In the early 1600s, Britain had managed to establish colonies on the coast of the present day United States. After the Spanish had settled North America in the 1500s, Britain became increasingly interested in what lay in the New World. The first successful group of aristocrats to make it to the New World had established a settlement at Chesapeake Bay, present day Virginia. The Chesapeake colonies ruled the East Coast until 1629 when the Puritans arrived. The Puritans were a group of religiously persecuted individuals who had broken away from the Anglican Church. These two groups hoped to find a new sense of peace in the New World that England could not provide them with. Despite the difference in purpose and religious views, both the Chesapeake …show more content…
and New England colonies faced the struggles of starvation and disease, along with the rewards of economic success. The major difference between the two colonies was their original purpose for settlement. The original colony, the Chesapeake, was made up of gentry men who wished to find a new source of earnings and a sense of adventure. These men would set up large plantations in order to produce rice, indigo, and their most successful crop: tobacco. These southern colonies also became a hot spot for indentured servants who wished to create a new source of income and a better life for themselves. However, the quality of life wasn’t as good as originally intended [Doc 2] and the colonies often came into conflict with Native Americans who did not share their views [Doc 4]. The Puritans, on the other hand, saw the New World as an escape. They believed in creating a perfect society where, “the eyes of all people are upon [them],” [Doc 2] that focused on their newly found religious freedom. With this, they also spread beliefs contrary to those of the Anglican Church, the religion of their neighboring colony. The Puritans also brought their entire families over to the newly established colony. Emphasis was quickly put on marriage [Doc 6] in order to keep the colony growing as opposed to the Chesapeake colony whose plan was to be in the New World temporarily. Given that both colonies were settling in a completely new part of the world, they had to endure the struggles of starvation and disease.
Since gentleman were unaccustomed to labor, there were very few men who could raise crops for the colony. In 1609, the Chesapeake colony had lost three-quarters of its population due to famine during the winter. The Native Americans’ refusal to trade with the Chesapeake colonists also took a heavy toll on their food supply. The colonists had to turn to other sources of food such as mice, horses, and dogs. For they claimed that they had eaten more in one day back in England than they had in one week in the New World [Doc1]. In 1610, a terrible drought and another series of summertime illnesses had set in. The colonists were plagued with fevers, diarrhea, and swellings which caused their numbers to go down by another 50% [Doc 7]. The Puritans had a diet which was high in sea salt which weakened their immunity system and made them more vulnerable to diseases. They encountered cold related diseases such as pneumonia, frostbite, and scurvy. Within the first of two months of their arrival, two to three Puritans died every day. The climate of the New England colonies did not serve them as well. The land was too stony and sandy for them to plant many crops, and the growing season was only five months long because of the long, cold winters. These difficulties put a wall between the colonists and their goals for creating a society whether it was …show more content…
short term or long term in the case of the Puritans. Despite the hardships they faced, the New England and Chesapeake colonies were greatly rewarded because of their economic success.
The cash-crop industry in the Chesapeake colony was booming, and the South proved to be an ideal place for the farming of plants with its rich soil and warmer climate. Tobacco soon became the top export in the colony along with maize. Due to the increased demand for these cash-crops, indentured servants soon flocked to the colony in order to aid the labor intensive economy which thrived on their cheap labor. Eventually, indentured servants were replaced with African American slaves [Doc 5] which caused a dramatic increase in the colony’s population [Doc 7]. The Chesapeake colony’s economic success was attributed to their focus being primarily secular as opposed to religious as the Turkish were in the time of the Gϋlen Movement in the mid 1970s. However, the Puritans proved that that was not necessarily the case. Though the climate proved to not be ideal for farming, the Puritans made use of the rich amounts of lumber in the creation of the top shipbuilding industry. They also became experts in fishing cod, halibut, and whales which they would later sell to Caribbean slave owners. The Puritans had also developed a strong relationship with the Native Americans who would trade them the food they needed for new supplies and European furs. Both the Chesapeake and New England colonies had overcome their struggles to become one of the top locations
for trade around the world until Britain restricted their trading boundaries with the creation of the Navigation Acts. Overall, the the Chesapeake and New England colonies were established in the early 1600s for those who looking for a new start whether it was financially or religiously. As the 1600s progressed into the 1700s, the population of the colonies increased rapidly [Doc 7] as did the count of indentured servants and African American slaves. Along with economic growth, the New England colony also provided a good example for the religious groups, such as the Quakers and Baptists, that were looking to settle in the New World in order to protect their religious freedom. The Chesapeake colony became a permanent settlement with the arrival of women. Despite the difference in original motive and religions, the Chesapeake and New England colonies endured the hardships of starvation and disease, and celebrated their economic success in the end.
The four groups of colonies were distinct from one another in the labor systems that they used. In New England, there were small farms that allowed a much bigger manufacturing and merchant class to arise. This was very different even from the middle colonies, where larger family farms and indentured servitude were prefered. In the Chesapeake and southern colonies, plantations were the most profitable economic choices. However, in the Chesapeake colonies these plantations were smaller and relied more on indentured servants than the slave heavy large
The Chesapeake and New England regions were settled by people of English descent, but by 1700, they had become two distinctly different societies. They had evolved so differently, mainly because of the way that the settlers followed their religion, their way of conducting politics and demographics in the colonies. Even though the settlers came from the same homeland: England, each group had its own reasons for coming to the New World and different ideas planned for the colonies.
In the first shipload of people they had about 104 people on board that ship. Many of those people died from diseases they picked up from exploring. In the summer of 1607 a sickness kills half the people that settled there. (Document E) This was a major downfall for the colonies because most of those people were Probably gentlemen and labourers (Document C). Also in the summer of 1609 and 1610 60 settlers died from a disease. Many of these people who died were laborers and gentlemen. Many of these people speaded these diseases to other people and food they shared (Nightmare in Jamestown.). I think some of these diseases could be the Bubonic plague or the black death. These diseases returned in Nov.-May 1610 when 110 colonist die from famine and diseases.
The Crusades of the middle ages introduced much innovative and formerly unheard of merchandise into Western Europe; however the scarcity of these luxury goods instilled Europeans with drive to find easier access to the Far East. Although desired "Northwest Passage" never was found, joint-stock companies, like the Virginia Company of London, settled colonies in the New World for untapped resources such as silver and other tradable goods. Many more corporations followed suit, settling mainly in the Chesapeake Bay area, their small settlements eventually developing into the Chesapeake colonies. The Chesapeake colonies were focused primarily on profitable enterprises. At the same time, the New England colonies were being settled with a whole different set of initiatives, principally religious freedoms and family. Governing bodies were established, with their success dependent on the quality of the settlers the colony attracted. The different motives for settlement affected the routine events in such a way that the New England and Chesapeake colonies differed very greatly from one another even though they were both mainly settled by the English.
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.
The colonists had different reasons for settling in these two distinct regions. The New England region was a more religiously strict yet diverse area compared to that of the Chesapeake Bay. The development of religion in the two regions came from separate roots. After Henry VIII and the Roman Catholic Church broke away from each other, a new group of English reformers was created called the Puritans. The Puritans came from protestant backgrounds, after being influenced by Calvinistic ideas. When their reforms were thwarted by King James I of England, they fled to the New World in what is now known as the "Great Migration". The Puritans were then joined by Quakers, Protestants, and Catholics in the religiously diverse New England area. These diverse religious factions were allowed to live freely but under the laws of New England. It was due to this religious freedom that these people came to escape religious persecution back home. The New Englanders had a religion-based society and religion was based on family. As the Bible highly regarded family, it condemned adultery. Adultery was considered a punishable crime. Adulterers were marked as impure by a letter "A" stitched on their clothing, as in the book "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. As religion was a very high priority in New England, it was very much less severe in the Chesapeake Bay region. The one established church in the region, the Anglican Church of Jesus Christ, was only then established in 1692, more than 70 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.
While residing in England, the Puritans and faithful Catholics faced prosecution, which led to their immigration to the New World. Most left England to avoid further harassment. Many groups and parishes applied for charters to America and, led by faithful ministers, the Pilgrims and Puritans made the long voyage to North America. Their religion became a unique element in the New England colonies by 1700. Before landing, the groups settled on agreements, signing laws and compacts to ensure a community effort towards survival when they came to shore, settling in New England. Their strong sense of community and faith in God led them to develop a hardworking society by year 1700, which Documents A and D express through the explanation of how the Pilgrims and Puritans plan to develop...
Chesapeake district was for the most part swampy and not reasonable for average product developing exercises. However 5 years after their entry in the land saw the revelation of tobacco which really did well. In such manner, it is essential to take note of that because of the tobacco developing in the land, Chesapeake pilgrim utilized and utilized shabby work in their fields. They actually built up a contracted bondage framework in which people who wanted free entry to America had offer their administrations as far as work for a few years previously being permitted to go into America. Then again, New England locale was not portrayed of huge homesteads thus the vast majority of them essentially relied upon little ranches and other locally established sort of enterprises, for example, carpentry and printing. Because of the locally situated industry organizations, the New England pilgrims did not have to procure work as their families were sufficient to give the required work power to their
Throughout the late 16th century and into the 17th century two colonies appeared from England. In search of glory, gold, and God (religious freedom), England started to discover and surmount North America. The two colonies were called the Chesapeake and the New England colonies. Although the areas were governed by the English, the settlements had similar potential as well as different. The Chesapeake and England colonies cultivated into visibly different establishments. The difference was the colonial motive, religion, political structure, socio-economic, and race relation, these are what were accountable for creating these territories. In the Chesapeake, the motivation for colonization was mainly due to the economic issue that the colony was
Though the Puritans, as well as some later groups, fled to the American colonies to escape religious persecution or restrictions, the fact remains that the Puritans had been granted "a charter from King James" for their settlement. Thus, the colonists who came to America for religious reasons were serving the primary purpose of generating profits for the Mother country of England (Boorstin et al.
He strongly believed in his words, "He that will not work shall not eat". Even though Captain Smith did a good job, in 1609, a new agreement replaced the unsuccessful council with an all-powerful government. In Maryland, they were able to prosper quickly economically because of their ability to grow tobacco. By having a long coastline along the Chesapeake Bay, it was easy shipping for the tobacco planters. New England's male settlers were small farmers, merchants, seamen, or fishermen which made a very good way of living. ON the other hand, the New England founding fathers had very high expectations for their region and they were fulfilled. Their economy was based on individual accomplishments of the towns’ farmers. They were able to harvest enough crops to feed their families, as well as, trade for things that they couldn’t make themselves. The New England region’s living standards were much higher than those of the Mid-Atlantic. The New England region became an extremely important factor in merchant and shipbuilding. They grew so much that they even served as the center for trading between the South and
The diversity between the original colonies of Eastern North America is displayed in several different ways, whether it be the literal diversity seen between the immigrants of the regions or the different types of economic, social, and political structures that had developed between the time of first discovery and the liberation of America as a nation. These distinctions are very significant in that they indicate a schism between the New England and the Chesapeake regions which leads to the tension of the Civil War.
Virginia’s main crop and economy was based on tobacco, whereas New England’s economy was fishing and lumber. Tobacco became very popular among Europeans and was soon high in demand. The colonists soon realized that tobacco ruined their soil, so they were constantly looking for more land for plantations. Virginia also did not have many slaves until around the end of the 17th century. The first slaves arrived in 1619, but they were too expensive so the colony mostly used indentured servants. New England was near the coast so they did not have as much area to grow crops, but there were able to fish and chop lumber. There was a lot of slavery, especially in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. For every one slave for every four white families within these three colonies. New England colonists each held some portion of the land they had received. As it is stated in the Articles of agreement, “4. That everyone shall have a share of the meadow or planting ground….”(document 4). New England and the Chesapeake Bay area had plantations and slaves, but they were used in two different
Elbert Hubbard once said “Truth is stronger than fiction”, the truth about Jamestown, It was fated to be unsuccessful. In 2014, 320,090,857 people lived in the United States; in 1607, a sum of 100 men from England occupied the same land. Aspiring to be the first permanent English settlement in The New World colonist filled three boats and set sail up the Chesapeake Bay and landed in Jamestown, Virginia. The settlers had a problematic start to their journey causing almost 805 of the population to die in the initial stages of Jamestown. So many people died in the early days of Jamestown colony because the settlers’ went ready for the challenges yet to come in the New World.
It was a difficult life for the first colonists; they had limited labor and were constantly raided by Native Americans. Colonists tried to use the Native Americans as a source of slavery. Most of the colonist’s farms were in forest areas so Native Americans would just leave in to the woods. Colonists were afraid of pressuring them from the fear of getting ambushed by gangs of Native Americans. Another reason Native American men made bad slaves was because the women in the tribes did the agricultural work in the Native American villages.