Indentured Servants vs. Black Slaves

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

Planters preferred slaves to indentured servants because they could have more control over them. The slaves were used to do the labor needed to harvest the cash crops which sustained the colonies economies. Towards the end of the period, slave owners realized that slaves were a much better investment than indentured servants. The number of slaves throughout the period increased because plantation owners and farmers realized how much profit they could get by owning slaves and using them to harvest the cash crops. It was a very slow moving development, but once it was widely known, slaves were used much more than indentured servants.

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

Economically, slavery allowed for an increased source of income that indentured servitude could not compete with. Shortly following the founding of Jamestown, indentured servants paid their way to the colonies with the promise of a designated time of labor upon arrival.

In the essay "The Evolution of Slavery in Colonial America," author Jon Butler examines the growth of the slave practice in the land which would become the United States. As the European nations began exploring North America, they overtook the native populations of the areas and turned them into unpaid laborers. However, these people were not enough to supply landholders with sufficient aid. To make up the necessary numbers, plantation owners utilized indentured servants and then a number of slaves imported from Africa. Indentured servants were people who would be taken from the Old World to the New in order to start a new life. However, since they would not have the necessary funds to pay for their transportation, their journey would be funded by either a manufacturer or a plantation owner and their debt would be paid off by working for their benefactor. Slaves were not given this opportunity. These were people who were taken from their homes and families and forced into labor by threat of violence or death. This practice did not begin in the United States, but America was still allowing slavery well into the 19th century, long after other nations had come to the conclusion that slavery was inhumane and brutal.

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.

Slavery is a system in which human beings can be owned by other people and are treated effectively like property in the eyes of the law. Slavery was introduced to the colonies in 1619, at Jamestown, Virginia, where unskilled workers were needed to farm tobacco (“Slavery(Issue)”) . The South needed slaves more due them having a more agricultural lifestyle. However, the North, which was based upon manufacturing and trading and basically no slaves by the time of the Constitution. During that time, indentured servants were more popular due to less expense and danger than the slaves. However, after the invention of Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, which established cotton as a lucrative

They had all this land and nobody to care for it. They need cheap labor so they developed indentured servitude, travel from Europe to America was very expensive not everyone could afford it. In exchange for their labor they were granted travel, room, board and in some cases promise of land. Most indentured servitude lasted 4-7 years. Popularity of black slaves grew, creating an expanding trade in slavery. The expansion of black slaves resulted in lowering the price of slaves, therefore replacing white indentures with black slaves. The slaves were servants for life, instead of 4-7 years like the indentured servants. Slaves were treated like property. They also because the darker color of their skin, it was harder for them to

Slavery existed heavily in the South by the 1700’s. What started out with indentured servants, quickly but slowly, became slavery in a more brutal and disheartening way. European colonists turned to slavery because for every one indentured servant there were 17 slaves. (Chapter 2, page 46) This made it easier for European colonists to be able to replace slaves rather than waiting for indentured servants. Also, during Bacon’s Rebellion, Europeans quickly learned that servants were dangerous, because they had a right to fight back. Servants expected to be free within seven years in exchange for working the Europeans land. This also created the image that slaves would be easier to control simply because they had nothing to look forward to, once a slave always a slave. Once the Virginia slave law came out, it initially separated blacks and whites by skin color thus beginning the road to the new definition of “race.” In the south, slavery was in higher demand due to the increase of land to grow crops, indigo and tobacco. The more land you had, the more slaves you needed to pick and grow these crops which increased your money value.

The free laborers weren 't treated wonderfully but when was the last time you heard of a free laborer stripped naked and put on display at fairs and auctioned like an animal. The slaves were treated a lot worse than free laborers. The laborers were not put in the same situations as the slaves.

Slaves could not claim the protections of English common laws, the term of service never expired, their children were also slaves and the color of their skin made it harder for them to escape. Furthermore, unlike indentured servants, slaves were used to intense labor and had developed antibodies to many diseases known in Europe and so they were less likely to get sick. (Foner 2012, pgs. 96-97). As slaves reproduced, the dependence on importation of expensive labor from Africa stopped and American born slaves worked in the plantations.

The first is that these slaves had prior farming experience, knew how to grow crops unfamiliar to the colonies, and they could teach these skills to their masters. The second advantage is that Africans tended to be immune to malaria and yellow fever meaning they found a more efficient way to grow rice. The last advantage was that slavery was like a disease. Enslavement laws stated slaves were purchased once and then “owned” for their entire life. (Teaching U.S History) If a slave had a child, that child would be enslaved for the rest of his or her life leading to multiple generations of slaves. Slavery proved to be a plentiful investment for plantation owners. The slave trade itself brought in a great amount of money to the colonies. For the areas that weren’t thriving off crops, they could just import or export slaves. Slavery proved to be a plentiful investment for plantation

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

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

During the colonial era, was it better to be an indentured servant, or a slave? In current day, one could argue that both are preposterous notions, however for the time, was either beneficial for anyone? Looking back on how to country developed following this time, through the years of slavery in the civil war, it may look like the only people to benefit from slavery or having an indentured servant, is the owner. Despite how either has looked throughout many of the eras of this country, being an indentured servant had very good potential for benefiting the servant.