Importance Of Indentured Servants In The Colonies

In the 1500 English poor laws allowed people to make children indentured servants until they became adults and were able to live alone and be free. This event ended up coming to the united states and they decided to put those kids in foster care. Even though indentured servants were looked down upon they thought it was better than putting them in almshouses where kids were abused unhygienic and didn't learn trade or any basic knowledge that they will need for when they become adults

Indentured servitude was the institutional arrangement devised to increase labor mobility from Europe (particularly England) to America, and it was the labor system that preceded American slavery. Its emergence in Virginia in the seventeenth century can be seen as a development expedient to the circumstances surrounding the colony. Indentured servitude was practically the only way in which a poor person could get to the colonies and planters could be supplied with cheap labor. Richard Frethorne's document written in 1623, The Experiences of an Indentured Servant, legalized the master-servant relationship, specified the kind of labor to be performed, the length of time to be served, and the dues owed to the

It was the constant trade to get slaves which made the colonists depend on slave labor. Slave labor was so profitable, most slave owners treated their slaves as property. Beatings, starvation, and overworking were common practices on the plantations. The slave owners didn’t care because they were making money from the

Soon this need for cheap labor was replaced with a need for even cheaper labor. Slavery filled this need, but when Africans arrived to America in 1619, the colonists initially treated them as indentured servants. It was not until 1641 that the first slave codes were passed in the colony of Massachusetts and 20 years later in Virginia, marking the

During the 18th century, indentured servitude had become very common in British North America; this was one way many poor Europeans could come to America for a “better” life. In order to emigrate to the American colonies, they would sign long-term labor contracts, to pay off the debt they picked up when they wanted to come to the American colonies. The primary source, “Gottlieb Mittelberger on the Trade in Indentured Servants” is written by Mittelberger himself in 1750, who was an emigrant that arrived in British North America as an indentured servant. In this source, he explains the negatives of coming to British North America; the ups and downs he faced, for instance: the long and horrible voyage conditions, and the sale of human beings once they had landed.

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.

Before the 1680's, indentured servitude was the primary source of labor in the newly developed colonies. There were

Slavery and indentured servitude were the primary means of help for the wealthy in America. Either as a slave or as an indentured servant a person was required to work in the fields maintain crops, as a house servant or as the owner of debtor so chooses. The treatment of both was very similar, but the method and means to which they came to America were uniquely different as the following examples will illustrate.

"Once a man has tasted freedom, he will never be content to be a slave." (Disney, 2016) Laborers were needed for the cultivation of crops in America so that the British empire could expand and remain victorious. The Bacon's Rebellion was a prominent event; Africans took the place of indentured servants and became the only laborers in America. Slavery has been in existence since the beginning of the history of humans. North American slavery was based on agricultural endeavors. This resulted in large numbers of laborers under the power of one person. "Prejudice by itself did not create American slavery" (Foner 132, 2014). Economic, social, and cultural factors played pivotal roles which created slavery in America.

Colonist 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 treat as slaves under the religion so they were turned into “indentured servants”. There weren’t many laws on slavery, but there was no way

In 1607, Jamestown was founded by English settlers. (Chapter 2, page 42) This expansion led to a demand of labor on the new land. Growing numbers of indentured servants, European and African, continued to grow as they crossed the Atlantic for an opportunity to work. Indentured servants were workers who worked for a minimum of seven years

Before the 1680's, indentured servitude was the primary source of labor in the newly developed colonies. There

Indentured servants were used in early colonial times as a means of passage to the new world. The cash crops of the early settlers were exhaustingly labor intensive. In fact, U.S. History (2015) indicated that “the growth of tobacco, rice, and indigo and the plantation economy created a tremendous need for labor in Southern English America” (p. 1). The technology did not exist at the time for machinery that clears the ground and works the land as it does today. The work had to be done by hand; from clearing and prepping the fields to harvesting the crops, it was all manual labor for which the new land did not have ample supply of.

Despite being held at the bottom of the social pyramid for throughout colonial times, the labor of the colonies would prove to be far from useless. While vast, open land was turned into numerous plantations in the colonies by rich planters, the plantations could not purely be run by their owners, creating a great need for labor. This lack of labor would eventually be solved through the use of African slaves, but after the first shipment of slaves to Jamestown in 1619, few were purchased due to high prices for an extended amount of time. The planters, however, would be able to fulfill their need for labor through English indentured servants. Through the use of indentured servants, basically free labor was provided to land owners, while

One huge part of the slave business was the use of indentured servants. These people were not total slaves. In fact, they were just working to gain citizenship in the states. In the seventeenth century, they were relied on heavily for labor. In fact, they were relied on more than actual slaves. However, about three fifths of the way through the century, plantation owners quit using them. They figured out that people did not want to do