How Slavery Changed Indentured Servitude?

641 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Indentured servitude in colonial america

How Slavery Replaced Indentured Servitude

Colleen Lynch
Pluralism and Diversity PDA 101
May 6, 2014

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 trap 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.
John Rolfe played a major role in history in 1614 when he found a way to harvest tobacco. The tobacco crop is what restored Jamestown, Virginia and it would not exist today without this cash crop. Restoring Jamestown is not the only significance the tobacco crop holds; it is also responsible for the early stages of slavery. Since tobacco became the cash crop of Virginia, it was more in demand. There was a shortage of laborers to plant and harvest the tobacco crop and as a result settlers were unable to meet the European quota for tobacco. Since it was increasing in demand more laborers were needed to maintain these large plantations; therefore more indentured servants were needed. The higher the demand for tobacco, the higher demand for laborers. Company agents advertised a few years of labor bondage and exchange would receive a new and better life in America. In 1619, the first Africans came to Jamesto...

... middle of paper ...

...e to come to the colonies for a better life.
Nathaniel Bacon was another significant person throughout history. He was the leader of the Bacon Rebellion. This was a major turning point for indentured servitude. “Their alliance became both easier and more essential at the turn of the century, when the great planters switched their labor force from white indentured servants to enslaved Africans.”
It was more economically efficient to own slaves as opposed to indentured servants. At the end of the contractual period indentured servants were entitled to land, food, clothing, and money, whereas slaves are “property” and they do not have a contract that ends. Slaves did not get paid and the only thing needed was clothing and food, of which they did not receive much of either. In conclusion, it was much cheaper to own a slave as opposed to having an indentured servant.

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of First Slavery First Hope By David Nicholson

    629 Words  | 2 Pages

    John Rolfe, English entrepreneur, was one of the only men to write about the first Africans brought to Jamestown, Virginia. Only little was known about those Africans. Rolfe brought sweeter

    Read More

  • Indentured Servitude and Slavery in the New World

    1072 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Essay On Trans-Atlantic Interactions

    526 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Virginians became greedier for land and started to grow tobacco all over Jamestown. This encouraged the wide use of plantations that required surplus labor. Seven years later, in 1619, a Dutch warship sold the Virginians African slaves, creating the seed of slave trade. Thus the use of indentured slaves decreased and was replaced with African slaves as triangular trade (trans-Atlantic slave trade) increased.

    Read More

  • Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox by Edmund Morgan

    1667 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • How Slavery Replaced Indentured Servitude

    1265 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Why Is Slavery In America Inevitable

    609 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slavery coming to America was inevitable because so many explorers traveled to American and brought their various customs and practices with them. The rise of slavery in America was largely due to agriculture because slave were property and a commodity and from the tobacco plantations to the cotton fields slavery helped boost the economy of both the north and south because it was so profitable and they had the supply and the supply was in demand. There was a lot of racism that was inherent in slavery in America and the whites wanted it to be that way because it gave them power, even the poorest of whites had power over slave making them aspire and socially powerful, more importantly they felt it was justify and would ensure self-preservation.

    Read More

  • Did Gender Make a Difference within Slavery?

    789 Words  | 2 Pages

    Did Gender Make a Difference within Slavery? Within slavery there were harsh conditions which Frederick Douglass tries to convey in his biography "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass." Within this narrative he dezribes how men and women slaves were treated differently by their masters. Women were abused by their master, physically, sexually, and mentally, while men were mostly abused physically and mentally.

    Read More

  • Slavery In Colonial America Essay

    791 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first arrivals of Africans in America were treated similarly to the indentured servants in Europe. Black servants were treated differently from the white servants and by 1740 the slavery system in colonial America was fully developed.

    Read More

  • Has Slavery Changed since Ancient Times?

    928 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slavery has always been a large issue and possibly always will. The issues of today are often negative but did you know that back in ancient Roman times they were all for it? Well they were! The question that will be answered in this assessment is "In what ways, if any, has slavery changed from ancient to modern times?" I believe that slavery has changed very much from the past. Not that there may be more or less of it, but that it may be harsher and have worse conditions.

    Read More

  • the development of slavery in America

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    Colonists started to import slaves from South America in hopes that they would live longer and be more manageable to control. The slaves that were imported were trained past their first year of slavery, so that they would not die as fast. The first imported slaves came to America in the early 17th century. When they received the slaves, they found out some of them were baptized, and were under the Christian religion. So they could not be treated as slaves under the religion, so they were turned into indentured servants.

    Read More

  • Indentured Servants In America

    214 Words  | 1 Pages

    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 . . .

    Read More

  • The Real Heroes of Slavery in the United States

    1983 Words  | 4 Pages

    I want to start with the history of slavery in America. For most African Americans, the journey America began with African ancestors that were kidnapped and forced into slavery. In America, this event was first recorded in 1619. The first documented African slaves that were brought to America were through Jamestown, Virginia. This is historically considered as the Colonial America. In Colonial America, African slaves were held as indentured servants. At this time, the African slaves were released from slavery after a certain number of years of being held in captivity. This period lasted until 1776, when history records the beginning of the Middle Passage. The Middle Passage showed the increased of African slaves were bought into America. The increase demand for slaves was because of the increased production of cotton in the south. So, plantation owners demanded more African slaves for purchas...

    Read More

  • Slavery by Another Name

    584 Words  | 2 Pages

    For most American’s especially African Americans, the abolition of slavery in 1865 was a significant point in history, but for African Americans, although slavery was abolished it gave root for a new form of slavery that showed to be equally as terrorizing for blacks. In the novel Slavery by Another Name, by Douglas Blackmon he examines the reconstruction era, which provided a form of coerced labor in a convict leasing system, where many African Americans were convicted on triumphed up charges for decades.

    Read More

  • Slavery By Another Name Essay

    1108 Words  | 3 Pages

    First, after emancipation, federal laws revived slavery into new form. After slaves were freed during post- civil war, the whites especially those in the south faced problems in running their plantations; since there was no free labor force from slaves, and also some whites who had never owned slaves saw the African Americans as undesirable competition. I think the laws enforcements eventually became the method through which slavery of blacks take its new form. Under these new laws, a lot of African Americans were arrested with no reason and were given harsh fines and later they were charged with the costs of own arrests. This is because majority of the Africans were poor and good number of them who were arrested could not afford to pay fines. With no means to pay fines most of the prisoners accumulated debts as a result they were sold a forced labor to industries and farm

    Read More

  • Why Was Slavery and the Slave Trade Abolished?

    413 Words  | 1 Pages

    In 1807, the slave trade was abolished by the British Parliament. It became illegal to buy and sell slaves, but people could still own them. In 1833 Parliament finally abolished slavery itself, both in Britain and throughout the British Empire. Why, when the slave trade and the plantations in the West Indies seemed to be making so much money, were they abolished? It was due to a mixture of white campaigners, slaves and economics of the slave trade which finally brought slavery to an end.

    Read More

More about How Slavery Changed Indentured Servitude?

Open Document