Indentured Servants In America

Slavery has been around since Christopher Columbus's exploration. One thing that many people do not realize is that slaves were sold by their own people in the beginning. African Americans were sold by other superior African Americans, just as Native Americans were. Black slavery evolved in the Chesapeake Bay area during the 1800's. However, the earliest Africans in America were not slaves. The Africans were indentured servants. An indentured servant was a person that was between a slave and a freed men. Before the rise of indentured servitude, a huge demand for labor existed in the colonies to help construct settlements, harvest, and serve as tradesmen. Indentured servants was a good idea for America colonists because there was a need for cheap labor. Africans agreed to become a servant for exchange of costs paid to enter British North America. The

Nevertheless, racist bias based on the color of a person's skin increased. As the white man being superior, slavery was legalized. Slavery was a lifetime sentence devoted to their masters, unlike indentured servants. After the legalization of slavery, British North America was in for a change that no one saw coming. African slavery became the economic, political, and cultural stage that British North America stood on. The slave economy became everything in the colonial economy. African slavery was soon viewed as a way of life in North America. Around the eighteenth century, views on slavery began to evolve. Some Americans started ethical arguments against slavery, mostly due to religious principles. This is when the predicament occurred in America. The incline of Africans in America approximated that of whites by the end of the Colonial Era. Slaves were in demand in the South due to the plantation crops. However, many slaves were not as useful in the North because plantation crops were not as profitable in the North as they were in the