Slavery and Indentured Servitude did not only exist in the southern colonies but, in the northern colonies as well. While both jobs may seem very different they do have a few similarities. Slavery and Indentured Servitude both were common in the 13 colonies in America that were owned by Britain.
Slavery is the buying, selling and owning of other humans as if they are property, all slaves were African American. Slavery began in the early 1600’s, as early as 1619. The way enslaved Africans (slaves) got to America was through the middle passage, the stretch of ocean between Africa and the Americas. Traveling the middle passage took up 6 weeks (1 ½ months.) During the Middle passage 15%-30% of slaves died along the journey. Once the slaves got to America they were sold at an auction. Once a slave was bought they arrived at whomever bought them’s home. Slaves did a wide assortment of job which included housekeepers, plantation workers, stables boys, butchers and nannies. Although slaves did an assortment of jobs most were plantation workers. New York City had the second largest population in the 13
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colonies, behind Charleston, South Carolina. Many people called New York City the slave capital of the world, Besides slaves there were also indentured servants.
An indentured servant is someone whose passage to America was paid for by someone else and for their passage they would work for whomever bought their passage for 7 years( some may only have to serve for 4-6 years depending on the person buying.) Some masters An indentured servant did many jobs cook, housekeeper, stable boy, nanny, teach children and attend to the family. Indentured servants did most jobs that were inside the house but also ran errands for the family. Indentured servants were often lied to about they would be doing once they arrived and America. The practice indentured servitude was most common in the 17th century. In fact, one third of the immigrants to America in the 17th century were indentured servants. Once slaves arrived in America, the need for indentured servants went
down. Slaves and indentured servants are alike and not alike in many ways. First of all neither of them are paid for their service but indentured servants were released after 7 or so years. Slaves were never released and the legacy of being a slave continued on onto their children, grandchildren and so forth. Slaves were also African and Indentured servants were many different races. Both the slave and the indentured servant had to do work the owner did not want to do, otherwise known as the grunt work. While a family may own one or the other many families had both slaves and indentured servants. Slaves were treated as lower class than the indentured servants while neither of them had many rights an indentured servant had more.
Indentured servant - Someone who agreed to work for a number of years in exchange for the cost of a voyage to North America
Indentures -- is a labourer under contract of the employer in exchange for an extension to the period of their indenture, which could thereby continue indefinitely (normally it would be for seven years). In other cases, indentured servants were subject to violence at the hands of their employers in the homes or fields in which they worked.
During the 1600’s people began to look for different types of work in the new world. As cash crops, such as tobacco, indigo, and rice, were growing in the South, there became a need for labor. This got the attention of convicts, debtors, and other people looking for new opportunities and money. Indentured servitude was vastly growing during the 17th and 18th centuries. Approximatively 10 million men, women, and children were moved to the new world. Women during this time found themselves being sold to men for these cash crops. A commonly used term during this time for these women was tobacco brides. Almost 7.7 million of the slaves captured and moved to the new world were African Americans. Slaves and indentured servants had it rough for
During American colonization, the economy of the south became predominantly dependent on the tobacco plant. As the south continued to develop, they shifted their focus to cotton. Indentured servants as well as African slaves were used for these labor-intensive crops because their labor was decent and cheap (Shi and Tindall 39). Young British men were promised a life of freedom in America if they agreed to an exchange between a free voyage and labor for a fixed number of years. Many willing, able-bodied, and young men signed up with the hopes of establishing a bright future for themselves in America. Unbeknownst to them, indentured servitude was not as easy as it was made out to be. Many servants endured far worse experiences than they had ever imagined. The physical and emotional conditions they faced were horrible, their masters overworked them, and many had to do unprofessional work instead of work that enabled them to use their own personal skills. Young British men felt that because they faced such horrible circumstances, the exchange between a free voyage to America in exchange for servitude was not a proper trade.
Before the 1680's, indentured servitude was the primary source of labor in the newly developed colonies. There were both white and black indentured servants. White servants had even outnumbered black servants three to one. Some black indentured servants were able to complete there time of service, and even had land and servants of their own. After the 1680's, the population of white indentured servants decreased exponentially. There were a number of different reasons why the population of indentured servants had decreased. For whatever reason, indentured servitude was a form of labor that was declining, and the need for labor increased rapidly. #
There are many aspects contributing to the rise of slavery and decline of indentured servitude. The beginning of slavery started when Columbus invaded Hispaniola and enslaved the Arawaks . This was the first time people thought to enslave people against their will for labor. Hard labor and diseases nearly killed off their race, essentially concluding that they were no longer available candidates for labor. Indentured servitude was used as bait to lure people into enslavement and eventually began to fade due to multiple historical events, such as The Bacon Rebellion . African Americans became an easy target because they were less prone to diseases and their bodies were capable of such intense and difficult labor. As slavery began to rise in popularity certain laws were passed through Congress that supported slavery.
Using of slaves began in New York when the Dutch West India Company imported 11 African slaves to New Amsterdam in 1626, and the first slave sale being held in New Amsterdam was in 1655. The company imported slaves to New Amsterdam in order to clear the forests, lay roads, build houses and public buildings, and grow foods. It was company-owned slave labor that developed the foundations of modern New York, and made agriculture flourish in the colony so that later white traders turned from fur trapping to farming. Later,the British expanded the use of slavery and in 1703, more than 42 percent of New York City households held slaves, often used as domestic servants and labors. However,the treatments to the slaves were always inhumane and cruel,but slaves were finally obtained the rights through the manumission.
Before the American Revolution, slavery existed in every one of the colonies. But by the last quarter of the 18th century, slavery was eventually abandoned in the North mainly because it was not as profitable as it was to the South (where it was becoming even more prevalent). Slavery was an extremely important element in America's economy because of the expanding tobacco and cotton plantations in the Southern states that were in need of more and more cheap labor. At one point America was a land of 113, 000 slaveholders controlling twenty million slaves.
The slave trade into the United States began in 1620 with the sale of nineteen Africans to a colony called “Virginia”. These slaves were brought to America on a Dutch ship and were sold as indentured slaves. An Indentured slave is a person who has an agreement to serve for a specific amount of time and will no longer be a servant once that time has passed, they would be “free”. Some indentured slaves were not only Africans but poor or imprisoned whites from England. The price of their freedom did not come free.
Indentured Servants helped the colonies progress their population. England at the time was over populated, and jobs were hard to find. So many people that could not afford the boat trip over to America offered themselves as to be an indentured servant for a period of time. This contractual term can last from between four to seven years. Many colonists preferred having indentured servants over slaves, cause they also helped ward off Native Americans from attacking settlers. The one big draw back of indentured servant was that they usually did not make it pass the first year of their contract.
Slavery is a form of forced labor in which people are taken as property of others against their wishes and will. They are denied the right to leave or even receive wages. Evidence of slavery is seen from written records of ancient times from all cultures and continents. Some societies viewed it as a legal institution. In the United States, slavery was inevitable even after the end of American Revolution. Slavery in united states had its origins during the English colonization of north America in 1607 but the African slaves were sold in 1560s this was due to demand for cheap labor to exploit economic opportunities. Slaves engaged in composition of music in order to preserve the cultures they came with from Africa and for encouragement purposes..
African Americans were taken from their homeland and sold in slavery in a process known as the Atlantic Slave Trade. African American slaves sold into the colonies would work different jobs. Because the South was more farmland, the slaves sold to the southern colonies worked on farms and plantations. The North however, was more industrial, so many slaves worked in factories producing materials and goods. Although slavery in general was bad, in the South slavery was much worse. Slaves in the South suffered harsher treatment. They would be whipped, beaten, and in some cases even murdered. Slavery was seen as a big economic contributor to the colonies so many opposed its banishment. Many slaves tried to run away and escape their captors. Those who fled sought freedom in the North. Some escaped while others weren’t so
Slavery has been a main problem in the world for centuries. Slavery goes back to Babylon over 2,500 years ago and it is still a growing problem in the modern society. Slavery is not just one dimensional; it involves gender, race and physical appearance of a slave. In this paper, I am going to compare and contrast David Brion Davis’ view of ancient slavery along with modern day slavery by Ryan J. Dalton, and discuss why they are not similar with each other. In Modern Day Slavery by Ryan J. Dalton, discuss the problem of human trafficking in Tennessee. Dalton mention that women and children were forced into prostitution by gangs and other organized crime groups to earn money. This is different from ancient slavery discussed by David Brion Davis in Inhuman Bondage, slaves were captured and they could be raped and quickly sold. The difference between modern and ancient slavery in sex are modern slave trafficking’s main goal is to earn profit by the owner while ancient slave owner rape their slave without profit.
For Edmund S. Morgan American slavery and American freedom go together hand in hand. Morgan argues that many historians seem to ignore writing about the early development of American freedom simply because it was shaped by the rise of slavery. It seems ironic that while one group of people is trying to break the mold and become liberated, that same group is making others confined and shattering their respectability. The aspects of liberty, race, and slavery are closely intertwined in the essay, 'Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox.'
Slavery was the practice of taking a human being and making them do the work of another by force. This was practiced through out the ancient world and especially in Rome and Greece. Slaves were nothing more than just property to the ancient peoples. They didn't have the rights of citizens nor were they able to do what they want in most cases. Slaves had many tasks that they had to do, many of which included taking care of the masters house and kids, cooking and cleaning that house, herding the cattle for the farming families, being guards for some prisons, fighting for entertainment of the masses, and more common was sexual activities with the slaves.