Morgan Hicks
November 18, 2015
Introduction to Colonial Slavery
HIST 2210
“Slavery in Colonial Virginia”
The purpose of this paper is to explain the history of slavery in Colonial Virginia. Between 1670 to 1775, slaves from Africa were transported to Colonial Virginia from three main points on the Atlantic route; Africa, the West Indies, and other British colonies. Most of the slaves were expected to already know how to perform hard labor, speak English, and have the skills valued by the Europeans. Virginia and South Carolina were the two most receiving states in America. They only had a few slave trades during this time period.This paper discusses 17th century history of slavery and the impact of the slave trade in Virginia.
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In many ways the two were very similar such as having most of their slaves imported from Africa, and arriving to the port with a substantial amount of slaves. Even though the African Virginia route required slaves to carry cargo, the slaves only had one part of the cargo coming to the same colony. Shipping from West Indies could have been easier to carry double the amount of slaves, but it did not do that. Although the African and West Indies routes produced more than 90 percent of slaves, it changed the pattern in delivering cargo. One major formation that occurred in Virginia was having slave laborers produce tobacco which boosted the economy, gained power and wealth, and increased the social status of slavery and exportation of tobacco. Tobacco was the most successful crop in the British Colony and took over commerce in the Atlantic through the colonial period. By the eighteenth century, the production of tobacco had been taken over by wealthy planters and merchants of the Chesapeake region. The Chesapeake region took an interests in the economy of the British. This interests worked well with the planters. The use of enslaved laborers in Virginia expanded slowly into the seventeenth century. Slaves only made up about 20 percent of taxable labor. The evidence reflects the population and statistics, and it is known that over 30 years of historians have recognized half of the seventeenth century when slavery occurred. This concludes that timing eventually led to a
The land became rapidly exploited and cultivated to produce tobacco. After the establishment of this cash crop, tobacco was glorified and largely advertised in both the colonies and England. As well as its large cultivation of tobacco, its connection to what became known as the Chesapeake Bay served as a prominent economic aspect to Virginia. By mid-century, the establishment of indentured servants had been regulated and used frequently by plantation owners. This being a prominent factor to Virginia's social development, its downfall and rise of slavery also played a prime role in social transformation.
The origins and development of slavery within Britain’s North American colonies in the period 1607 to 1776 was majorly in part by the English need for economic power. England had just arose as the strongest naval of the North Atlantic had they had to keep their high standing in the world. Bacon’s Rebellion, the profit received by cash crops, and the ability to easily purchase slaves through trade highly boosted Britain’s economy. The colonists within the British colony kept through economic standing and power by making themselves higher than any other through slavery.
The demand of tobacco cultivation in the Chesapeake resulted in an increase of the slave trade. Unlike indentured servants, Africans was not protected by English law, and was accustomed to intensive labor as well as resistant to many diseases. And because the Native Americans were more familiar with the land which in turn made running away easier, it was hard to keep Indians as slaves. Authorities wanted to improve the status of white servants thus taking away the perception that Virginia was a death trap. In the 1660s, Virginia and Maryland laws referred explicitly to slavery. As Tobacco cultivation continued to increase so did the condition of black and white servants divided. The laws became more stricter and freedom for blacks became nonexistent,
In the 1600's, tobacco became the main source of income for most of the colonists. The economic prosperity of the colonies was primarily dependent on the amount of tobacco produced. The growing of tobacco needed large amount of land, with a large stable work force. The increased demand for a large, stable work force combined with the availability and low price of African slaves, led to the use of slavery in the colonies. To the planter, slavery was the ideal form of labor that would be most beneficial to productivity of his crop.#
In Virginia, the Chesapeake Bay area during the 1600s the slave community evolved over a long period of time. Problems occurred regarding their labor that had an important influence on the switch to a society dominated by slave labor. During the 1600s labor in the Chesapeake shifted to slave society because of a shift in culture, economic issues, and frustrations of the tobacco market boom. Each of these reasons all relates back to the labor problem the colonists were facing in Virginia.
Throughout the book, The Origins of Slavery, the author, Betty Woods, depicts how religion and race along with social, economic, and political factors were the key factors in determining the exact timing that the colonist’s labor bases of indentured Europeans would change to involuntary West African servitude. These religion and racial differences along with the economic demand for more labor played the key roles in the formation of slavery in the English colonies. When the Europeans first arrived to the Americas in the late sixteenth century, at the colony of Roanoke, the thought of chattel slavery had neither a clear law nor economic practice with the English. However by the end of that following century, the demand for slaves in the
The introduction of Africans to America in 1619 set off an irreversible chain of events that effected the economy of the southern colonies. With a switch from the expensive system of indentured servitude, slavery emerged and grew rapidly for various reasons, consisting of economic, geographic, and social factors. The expansion of slavery in the southern colonies, from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to just before America gained its independence in 1775, had a lasting impact on the development of our nation’s economy, due to the fact that slaves were easy to obtain, provided a life-long workforce, and were a different race than the colonists, making it easier to justify the immoral act.
A plantation economy, an economy founded on an agricultural mass production like tobacco, sustained the source of income of the Chesapeake regions, consisting Virginia, Maryland, and northern North Carolina. The early settlers soon realized the urgent need for labor in the New World. Due to the fact that many potential immigrants could not afford an expensive trip across the Atlantic, the Virginia Company developed the system of indentured servitude to attract common laborers. Since tobacco required intensive hand labor all year round, indentured servants have become vital to the colonial economy. "Virginia Servant and Slave Laws" represent the elaborate efforts of masters' to profit from indentured servants and slaves against runaway and
Chesapeake and the other Southern colonies were agrarian societies. The main crop in Chesapeake and North Virginia was tobacco, while in the Deep South, mainly in Georgia and South Carolina, the main crops were rice and cotton. The expansion of these crops led to an increased demand of a large force labor. At the first they hired indentured servants. These were young people who paid for their passage to the American Colonies by working for an employer from five to seven years. Unlike slaves, Indentured servants could look forward to receiving payment known as "freedom dues" upon their release (Foner 2005). These freedom dues included things like new clothes and perhaps a bit of land. However, many died before the end of the.ir terms, and freedom dues were so meager that did not enable recipients to acquire land (Ibid.). Despite the hard conditions of work, a high death rate and
Though Virginia was only intended to be a money source for young, single men, it eventually became America’s earliest slave society. This all started with the fact that the men who came over to Jamestown were all gentry, and refused to get their hands dirty. For a while, they simply didn’t bother working, but when things got bad, they turned to indentured servitude. At first, the indentured servants were primarily English for most of the seventeenth century, with a splash of Africans, Irish and Indians here and there. When the Headright system stopped working, the Virginia Company actually tricked people into coming to America to work to death. They’d offer the common people a contract, confirming they would work for a set amount of years in exchange for transportation to Virginia from England, and food, clothing and shelter when they arrived. But they’d work them so intensely during servitude, the number of people who made it to freedom was very small.
During the 1600s, a developing Virginia experienced a severe labor problem resulting in a societal shift from a limited number of slaves to a society that became predominately powered by unpaid slave labor. The three factors associated with the shift in labor in the 1600s were attributed to the necessity for labor, cultivation of cash crops, and politics. Due to the major shift in the colonial workforce, the Chesapeake and Southern colonists with European and African descent became accustomed to extreme prejudice and divide.
While slavery was a horrific thing that led to the mistreatment of millions of black people, it had the power to last for centuries. When looking closely at historical accounts it becomes easier to see why this horrible practice was able to sustain for so long. One of the reasons was because the economy of Colonial America relied heavily on the labor of slaves. Farming, the slave trade itself, and the harsh treatment of slaves were all driven by the greed of slave owners. Another reason that slavery lasted so long was racism. During this time, the black population was considered inferior to the white population. This helped to promote the cruel behaviors that occurred in slavery. Lastly, many whites actually felt that the slaves were treated
Document #1 depicts Virginia Plantation life in 1800. Detailed in this painting is the master slave relationship. It shows a white master having power over his African American slave – one female and one male. This painting is called Luxuries which in this depiction shows luxuries related to sex and power. That is, a white master, having sexual relations with black female and discipline African American man without any impediments. It can be inferred that that white master or white overseer is in complete control.
By 1651 there were about 300 Africans in Virginia’s population of 15000. By 1640 some black servants were forced to serve their indentures for life. Slaveholders were given increasing control as the personal and civil freedom of black people, which was more and more restricted. Finally, as the 1700’s opened, the English were becoming heavily involved in the profitable slave trade, until then a monopoly of Spain.
Tobacco emerged as a profitable commodity throughout the 13 colonies between the 1670s and the 1750s. A decrease in the indentured servant migration and the decline of the Native American population led colonial planters to search for a new source of labor, African slaves, to harvest tobacco leaves. The incoming slaves endured horrible treatment, including strenuous labor, cruel chastisement, and sub-human judicial processing. Subsequently, the inundation of slaves created normalized, widespread apathy toward the mistreatment of slaves and a disproportionate justice system.