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Effects of slavery in american colonies
Effects of slavery in american colonies
The rise of indentured servants
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Some Europeans either chose to be indentured servants, or were born into it as children. It was not a lifetime commitment. In exchange for their services, the indentured servants were provided passage to the colony (which they could not afford to pay for themselves), and were given food, clothes and shelter. After 1619, anyone paying for their own or another’s passage was given 50 acres of land – as a headright. This meant that people received 50 acres of land for each “head” they paid to have brought to the New World. The intention was to encourage people to come to the colony, but the system was a bit flawed. Wealthy people could travel ‘back and forth’ to England and, in turn, claim another headright – or 50 acres – each time they paid to
They preferred African slaves to European or Native American slaves because they "could be held for unlimited terms, and there was no means by which word of harsh or arbitrary treatment could reach their homelands" (Wood, 43). The ability of the Englishmen to hold slaves for an unlimited amount of time and to use any methods of punishment gave them all the power. The indentured servant only worked to fulfill the previous contract as part of the headright system. Colonists "complained of the 'servants that dayley become free"(41). Since the servants had varying terms of service, it made it difficult to keep enough workers. Native Americans were cheap and did not have to be imported, but knew the land better than the Englishmen and could easily escape. There was also a language barrier and they died relatively quick, which made them not worth the investment. This shows some insight into how the African population started to become
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
Physical abuse by plantation owners towards both their servants and slaves was common. One account by Thomas Gates in a General Court of Colonial Virginia document about Elizabeth Abbot, an indentured servant, stated that “she had been sore beaten and her body full of sores and holes very dangerously raunckled and putrified both above her wast and uppon her hips and thighs” (General Court of Colonial Virginia). In fact, such abuse towards servants and slaves was so common that the state of Virginia had to make laws for such cases. Unfortunately, colonial governments did not consider corporal punishment illegal. Thus adding to the brutality endured by persons in captivity and servitude during the colonial era. “Moderate corporal punishment inflicted
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...
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.
The role of an indentured servant in the 1700s was not a glamorous one. They came to the New World knowing that, for a time, they would be slaves for someone they did not know and the risk of disease and death was high, but the opportunity that laid ahead of them after their time of servitude was worth everything to these settlers of the New World. They came to America for the same reasons as all of the other settlers. Religious freedom, land, wealth, and a new start were motives for both settlers and indentured servants but the one thing separating most settlers from the indentured servants was that they could afford their voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Indentured servants couldn’t buy their ticket to the New World, but that didn’t stop
In many ways the lives indentured servants led in the colonies was seemingly privileged compared to that of a slaves. An indentured servant was an individual who had exchanged a predetermined number of years in servitude to their new masters (Faragher 2009, p. 55). Some indentured servants worked out the terms of their agreement prior to arrival. While some of the less fortunate servants were sold in a fashion similar to that of a slave (cummings, 1995). The servants who had pre-established contracts were transferred to their new masters after payment was rendered for their passage to the New World (Faragher 2009, p. 55). The term in which the servant was indebted was usually two to seven years (Faragher 2009, p. 55). However, the Masters had the upper hand because they could expand the length of servitude in accordance to bad behaviors, such as running away or becoming pregnant ("Colonial america,").
The typical life of an indentured servant was not a convenient one. Their journeys to the Americas were miserable. The servants were packed into large ships carrying thousands of people as well as, tools, food, etc. Not only were the people densely packed, there were various diseases flooding the ships, and many people would die from them. “I witnessed . . .
Reparations Although the talk of reparations of slavery has been in discussion for over a hundred years, it is beginning to heat up again. Within these discussions, the issue of the form of reparations has been evaluated and money has been an option several times. However, reparations in the form of money should not be obtained for several reasons. Firstly, it is not a solution to the problem, secondly monetary reparations have the ability to worsen discrimination, thirdly, who gets paid, and how is it regulated, and lastly, the money can be misused.
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.
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.
Any slave, or a person who feels they are slaving to survive, would desire to be free from chains of bondage. Through out history you find present a “class” of people, such as pharaohs, kings, queens, clergyman, then those who are not born into or of “royalty” working for the them. They work and are heavily taxed, forced into servitude, or slavery, and then their children are born into that life. Karl Marx speaks to and wants those that were in his present and even those who would read his material in the future to take notice that slavery is not just in the past, but also still in present. Marx tried desperately to promote and persuade others that, if the lower class never revolts they will remain laboring earning little to nothing while making those above them prosper. While his argument about their being different classes in society and one reaping plentifully from the laboring of the lower class, is strong, there are some fallacies in his argument about the lower class revolting and how to live there after. In reality they will be going from one form of slavery to another.
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...
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 an indentured servant for a period of time. This contractual term can last from four to seven years. Many colonists preferred having indentured servants over slaves, because they also helped ward off Native Americans from attacking settlers. The one big drawback of indentured servants was that they usually did not make it past the first year of their contract.
As the New World started to grow and the colonies grew bigger in numbers the country truly started taking its shape. While the country grew bigger we saw a change in the type of labor needed for some of the crops that America was producing. Things have shifted when indentured servants were finishing their sentences and the landowners were required to provide them land as a “freedom due” (Alan Taylor). As time went on landowners needed a more efficient form of workers and required someone more skilled in farming than some of the indentured servants. This would lead to slave labor becoming more of an option in America.