How Did Slavery Occur In Colonial America

The historical records of the 1640s show the beginning and growth of African slavery in the Chesapeake area. The constantly growing of tobacco planting caused a higher demand for labor, resulting in an increase in African slavery and indentured servants. The condition for black and white servants varied sharply. The white indentured servants started getting an improved status while the black servants began losing more freedoms. A Virginia law of 1662 also caused a rise in the number of slaves because it stated that the status of the offspring followed that of the mother. This means that any children of a slave woman and a white man would live as a slave, which led to an increase in the sexual abuse of slave women. The shift from white indentured

While the first two sections of the book provide the historical context of the settling of the Virginia colony, the last two demonstrate Morgan’s theory of how racism was developed to ensure a sustainable workforce. The rise of the labor theory demonstrates how slavery itself became a necessary business venture in Virginia while at the same time justified the Revolutionary concepts of liberty and equality for all white men. The belief that only the men, or white Englishmen

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 English colonies in present day America used slavery as a form a cheap labor, but it wasn't until the seventeenth century that the view of slavery became racial based. Slave labor on Chesapeake was thought as beneficial because slaves never became free and their children were born into slavery.“Species in which a distinction is already marked immediately at birth, between those of it members who are intended for being ruled and those who are intended to rule.” Many poor farmers that lived on Chesapeake felt that they were intended to rule because they could get married and have families, property, move and associate with other people, be a jury, vote and hold office. “They could also work and sleep as they pleased.” When the English started expanding and looking for land one of their rationales was that they could put the land to better use by employing European-style agriculture and livestock. Many of the English policies towards the Indians were based on segregation. In order to continue segregation, the English came to develop the notion of “race”: they began to view race as an imperative that justified English rule. “Greeks regarded themselves as well born into their own country but absolutely and in all places.” The English thought of themselves the same way. Aristotle’s views were present in the English justification for supporting that slavery and the taking of lawns justified and therefore it was natural because they were

The first African Americans that were put to work in Jamestown were not treated in the way that people traditionally think of early slavery. In fact they were treated just as the indentured servants that had come from England were treated. This does not mean that they were treated with any sympathy or given easy work, but that they just were not discriminated by the color of their skin. In the beginning of the 1600s all servants had the same dream, to one day be free. In 1641, a black slave by the name of Anthony Johnson, was freed and given his own land to start his new life as an American (Johnson et al, Africans, 39). At this point in time the only things that separated people were if you were an owner or a servant and if you were a Christian or not. At some point in the mid 1700s something changed the way that the colonists saw things. All of a sudden there was no longer equal treatment of white and black slaves, the darker the color of ones skin was the worse off their life became. In 1640, three slaves tried escaping to Maryland but were unsuccessful, when they were brought upon the court two of the

The key factor to the shift to African chattel slavery was the revolt known as Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676. Bacon was an English aristocrat who just came to Virginia Due to a disagreement with royal governor William Berkeley, he gathered support from both white and black indentured servants and began a series of revolts against the governor and the landowners. These revolts just added to the preference for black labor and slavery. Even though Bacon died before anything could happen, the threat of such a biracial alliance challenging the power of the master class prompted the colony’s elite to switch to an enslaved black labor force. The demand for black slaves rose and this caused an increase of Africans into the colonies. By the 1700’s, slavery was deep-rooted in the colonies’ government.#

“Racism was used aggressively to divide poor white southerners from slaves. The relationship between the wealthy and the poor was aggressively exploited by the rich white slave holder to ensure the poor whites non-slave holder that they had a similar cause” (Shaping America: Lesson 16). This caused non-slave holding whites to have a similar view as latter. Non-slave holding whites were in direct competition with slaves and more often than not were forced out of work due to the free labor slavery had offered.

Economic, social, and cultural factors all played roles in the expansion of slavery in America. Economically, Africans became free laborers by substituting the position of indentured servants and Native Americans. Socially, blacks were considered outcasts and was treated as property instead of human beings. Culturally, slaves were discriminated against because of their skin and were treated dishonorably wrong. This concludes that "prejudice itself did not create American slavery." (Foner 132,

Africans were always seen as slaves rather than free people. It came to a point were generation from generation, people with African ancestry were legally enslaved for life. European colonists’ even committed to legalizing enslavement of hundreds and thousands of people, but it led to Africans being slaves based on race. Slavery was a big part in Virginia and South Carolina. The history of slavery in Virginia first appeared in 1619 where the Africans were indentured servants. As for South Carolina, majority of their population were African Americans. 65% of their population of about 18,000 people were African American slaves. Upon the social, economic and political development of slavery in Virginia and South Carolina, it impacted their race, class and gender.

The labor force provided powerful economic tools for colonial success. The need for field workers exceeded the supply of people in the colonies. The solution was to get laborers from another source, which was slaves from Africa. The request for labor in Virginia surpassed the supply of indentured servants from England after the end of the Civil War there. The Virginia colony reconsidered it’s laws to create a rule that blacks could be kept in slavery permanently for generations.

Slavery was practiced throughout the thirteen colonies during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. African slaves helped with the lucrative business of crops such as tobacco and cotton to help make the new nation an economic powerhouse. For some time, all blacks were not slaves or servants, some blacks were free men in the new world. Authors Thomas Breen and Stephen Innes of “Myne Owne Ground” used interactions between free blacks and the rest of society along Virginia’s eastern shore during the early seventeenth century. They were able to show that skin color wasn’t the most influential aspect in the treatment of blacks during this period. Blacks were able to accomplish great things and gain wealth equal to the average wealthy white man,

The shift from indentured servitude to racial slavery in the British North American colonies didn 't occur all at once. Instead, the transition was much more uneven, spreading across different colonies at different times, and triggered by various unique historical incidents. However, two themes show up consistently in the transition from indentured servitude to race-based slavery. First, as more and more indentured servants became free, the wealthy planter class began to perceive these newly freed men as a threat. Indentured servants acquired land at the end of their term, and were able to compete economically with their former masters. To quell this economic threat, the wealthy class began to prefer a system of lifelong servitude, e.g. slavery.

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

Slavery provided the Virginians with a labor force that would not leave, thereby never needing to earn their own living and perpetuating the undesired poor; and they would, as a consequence, help to bring up those poorer white farmers to a position that relaxed the tension in the air created by economic burden. Once this formula was established the political uniting of economic classes served to solidify the system and helped to lower those burdensome taxes; and the way to this unification was through the reinforcement of racism.

The Americans and Europeans really treated their slaves unfairly. Racism in the Americas really started when the missionaries brought their religion to the slaves. The reason for this is that the missionaries