History Of Slavery During Colonial Virginia

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,

Other Europeans, Native Americans and West Africans were the groups thought to be most suitable for the economic demand of labor. Many of the early views of West Africans were received through the bible until written accounts of encounters with these people were made. These written accounts of the encounters of West Africans led to the idea West Africans could be brought over and sold in the Americas to work in chattel slavery. This in turn made them the ultimate choice for the labor force of the English. However the famous sale of twenty Africans to the colonists at Jamestown in 1619 by Dutch slave traders did not equate to the introduction of chattel slavery just yet. Many early African slaves were treated similarly to indentured servants brought in from England. They could work the land for a set number of years then after their term was up be freed and given a piece of land. Indentured servitude was not hereditary but their contract could be sold, bartered, given away or gambled away. These contracts gave away the servant’s labor but it did not give away the servant’s person. Despite this African presence, slavery was slow to arrive in Virginia because the mortality rate for indentured servants was so high during the first decades of the Virginia colony. Indentured servitude remained the primary source of labor in Virginia through the 1680s, until economic considerations made slaves the cheaper alternative.

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

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.

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.

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.#

During 1619 where slavery fist appeared in Virginia, a Dutch warship brought more than twenty African men and women that were obtained as slaves in the Caribbean. There were many laws that Virginia created restricting freedom of African slaves. For example, Virginia passed a law that restrained Africans from carrying weapons (Jones, 82). It seemed as if Virginia created laws year after year restricting African men and/or women into doing/not doing particular things. During 1643, a law had passed that taxed productive field hands of African American women but not white women. Again, in Virginia, planters passed a set of laws that improved differences between slaves working for a specific period and they consigned to

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.

           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

In 1619, slaves were brought to the colony of Jamestown in Virginia, which led to the beginning of slavery in America. The main purpose of bringing slaves to America was to get cheaper help from them in developing the fields of tobacco, cotton, rice, etc. Since the labor was scarce in the colonial times, slavery became rampant in America. By 1700, the African slaves made up about 11% of the total population and by 1770, they were about 20% (Shi & Tindall, 2016). In fact, some historians have estimated that around 6 to 7 million slaves were brought to Colonial America during the 18th century alone (“Slavery in…”, n.d.). The slaves were mainly used for the work in plantation fields such as sugar cane plantation in the Caribbean and rice plantation in South Carolina. In addition, the enslaved people were forced to perform domestic work in the houses as well as carry out other jobs such as carpentry, blacksmithing, cooking, etc. Moreover, the type of the allotted work was different in the different regions of America. For example, plantation work was widely common in southern colonies, whereas slavery work in houses was more common in the northern colonies due to the absence of plantation fields over there. Gradually, the type of their work changed with the advancement in the technologies. As a matter of fact, due to an extensive use of slaves by the colonies in America, directly or indirectly their economy was depended on slavery. Hence, it can be asserted that slaves were

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.

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.

The Atlantic Slave Trade, also generally referred to as the "Transatlantic Slave Trade" took place between the 16th and the 19th centuries. The slave trade performed as the cause for bringing in twelve to fifteen million slaves throughout the 16th century to mid 19th century. Dominantly bringing slaves in from parts of Africa to the Western Hemisphere of the world, the slave trade was indeed a very "white" revolved trade. Although initially made to serve the South American regions of the world, the slave trade slowly but surely made its way to different parts of the world. In this essay, the origins of the slave trade, the slave transport route, and the types of slavery within this period of time will be discussed.

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.

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.