Indentured Servants Essay

According to Beverly, what were the most important differences between servants and slaves? Male servants and slaves’ differences include clothing and food. White female servants do not put in work out doors. They have a law that make working in the ground tithables. That means you have to pay one tenth tax on them. On the other hand, female slaves do work out doors also, they do not have a law stating anything about taxes.

After the indentured servants had did their time depending how long their contract was, they were given money, land and often a sustainable job. Black slaves were permanently slaves and didn 't have as much hope as indentured servants because they had no family and they knew that they were stuck living their life the way it was forever. Also, indentured servants often had learned some economically valuable skills, so when their contract was up, they were more prepared for the outside world, while black slaves were not usually and were not let out. Indentured servants were slaves and dehumanized during their time of their contract, but often had a better life because of what they learned from being a servant and their reward.

Slavery and indentured servitude was the backbone of the Virginia economy. Slaves were considered an investment in the planter’s business and a necessity for success. The treatment of slaves was much the same as owning a piece of property or equipment. Slaves were not viewed as fellow human beings, quite the opposite they were of lesser status. Slaves and indentured servants grew tired of their treatment and responded with acts of rebellion. One such act was for the slaves and servants to run away. Indentured servants and slaves both made the incredibly brave decision to risk fleeing and capture in the hope of finding a free and better life, as opposed to continue living in their oppressed conditions. Runaway slave advertisements became

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.

Planters in the Chesapeake region had an insatiable need for new labor, and in the beginning, they preferred using indentured servants, who were men and women who would serve for a fixed term, and in return the indentured servants would receive passage to America, food, and shelter. Indentured servants were an appealing solution to their severe lack of workforce, however once the indentures finished their service, they would end up joining the growing population of unemployed free laborers. This large floating population was full of social unrest which would sometimes become rebellions, as seen in Bacon’s rebellion. During Bacon’s rebellion they all united under Bacon’s leadership, in an effort to gain land, and they would have toppled the Virginian government, had Bacon not suddenly died. The governors and landowners realized the danger of indentured servants, so they decided to move on to slavery instead. Slavery offered cheap labor, and the new African slaves had a lower social status than the indentured servants which helped calm the unemployed, and landless white men. One of the causes for the beginning of slavery in North America was the need for cheap labor. Rebellions revealed the danger of the indentured servants, which led to the need for a new form of labor, which was found in

Advertisements represented the increasing for owners to insure the slaves of their poor treatment. The advertisements were the slave owne r’s resource in the return of their property. When you analyzing the advertisements, it is clearly show that the attitudes towards the slaves were more of a piece of property than that any humans beings. Slave’s owners list such suitable descriptions like physical descriptions, and rewards for their capture and return.

After slavery came to an end in the 1800s, the rise of a new source of labor that became known as indentured servitude began. Indentured servitude is a system of labor where people serve under a contract, to work for a certain number of years, with pay along with food and housing. As the Industrial Revolution continued to grow, the demand for cheap labor increased, and due to the abolishment of slavery, the request for a cheaper sources of labor also increased. Indentured servitude replaced slavery, behind the scenes it was technically slavery. Although it was not referred to as slavery, indentured service was a resolution to the abolishment of slavery, where employers could get workers to sign a contract and have them agree to all their conditions. Is the end of slavery caused laborers to engage in various extreme conditions, the

Indentured servants were a limited resource as they would eventually become free. The non-slaves became more intransigent and apt to resist the efforts of the ruling class’s economic and political subjugation upon them. Southern planters began to look toward the African slave trade as a reliable source of controllable labor. The economic power of England was rising and helped to increase the level of slave purchasing and selling. The influx of white indentured servants from England into Virginia drastically decreased which only accelerated the adoption of slavery. African slaves were a more easily controlled and exploited labor pool. “By the 1730s, the number of white indentured servants had dwindled to insignificance” (Nash, 60). When considering the legacy of Bacon’s Rebellion upon the transformation of Virginia, and beyond, this event in history “demonstrated that poor whites and poor blacks could be united in a cause. This was a great fear of the ruling class – what would prevent the poor from uniting to fight them? This fear hastened the transition to racial slavery” (Africans in

Indentured servants where men and women who signed a contract to work for a certain number of years, usually between four and seven, in exchange for transportation to the colonies. The Chesapeake Bay colonies, Virginia and Maryland, where especially condition to use indentured servants. During this essay I will explain why the Chesapeake Bay colonies were in such need of the servants and why eventually they turned to slavery to fill the void left by the indentured servants.

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.

“Indentured servitude declined over the century, and most of these domestic servants were now either free women or slave women” (Coryell, pg. 104). Those who worked in a servitude role were indentured servants, who had the ability to work a number of service years in order to earn their freedom and they would be given a small plot of land, afterwards, to continue to thrive. Eventually, in order to compensate for the growing American need of lower overall costs to purchase labor workers, longer time in servitude, and to decrease the need to give land lots, the term of indentured servant changed to slave, which limited potential freedoms and humanity. This demand for labor changed the owner and slave relationship. “Owners began providing minimal clothing and food. Owners viewed all of slaves’ labor as their own” (Coryell, pg. 105). By forcing a dependent relationship, owners were able to maintain their

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

In the American colonies, Virginians switched from indentured servants to slaves for their labor needs for many reasons. A major reason was the shift in the relative supply of indentured servants and slaves. While the colonial demand for labor was increasing, a sharp decrease occurred in the number of English migrants arriving in America under indenture. Slaves were permanent property and female slaves passed their status on to their children. Slaves also seemed to be a better investment than indentured servants. Slaves also offered masters a reduced level of successful flight.

Slavery is different from indentured servitude because in slavery the victim is viewed as property instead of as a worker. Another way is because indentured servants can become free after they work off their part of the “deal”, whereas in slavery the

One may ask, how could anyone benefit from being a servant? Even though this may seem like a very logical question, to those involved in this life style, it all made sense. Let?s take a look at it from their point of view. When early settlers were attempting to colonize here in the new land, the first successful colony wasn?t actually established by the English government. In fact, it had been the successful venture of a privately owned business, The Virginia Company of London. This company was actually comprised of investors with seemingly good intentions. Their end goal was to extend