Plantation Colonies: The Headright System

The English Colonies diversified greatly in their social surroundings throughout the Northern and Southern territories due to the differences in economic productivity, infant mortality, and marriage. The economies of the colonies widely differed from North to South. Southern colonies that included the Chesapeake colony especially, had the large scale farm as the main backbone for profit. Soil was rich and the temperature change was not as rampant as the North. Sugar and Tobacco demand in Europe allowed much of these large farms to expand and become extremely common in the South. Poor soil quality in the North pushed colonists to do lumber, furs, and fishing to stimulate their economy. Soil and weather allowed these colonies to have these stark

At first Africans were not slaves but servants. Anthony Johnson is an example of African servant who acquired lands and servants (even white servants) after he managed to become free. Due to development of famers in America tobacco in particular settlers needed more labors, and since lands were limited and most of former indentured servants were not able to receive a land, so they were did not want to go back to work, settlers saw African as a good opportunity for cheap labors. Since Africans were not England citizen, they had no rights to claims, as a result, settlers were able to work them for their whole life. Slavery became profitable especially in Virginia, soon rules were made to make slavery legal, and took away any rights that slaves had. Based on the documentary, for a Virginia plantation it was more profitable to work a slave to death and buy a new slave than let slaves to work in a humane condition. Another reason for development of racial slavery was Englishmen projected slaves as aliens and inferior, as Blight stated “as an outsider”, in different factors such as: color, religion, and

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.#

In colonies, such as the ones in Chesapeake Bay, their entire economy was based on the production of cash crops. The plantations had a huge quota for cheap labor. As their own southern labor supply was scarce, the plantation owners often used black servants to get cheap labor. As the economy grew, so did the slave trade, and by the late 17th century, the supply of African laborers in North America was plentiful and extensive. Another way that economics had a huge impact on the development of slavery is through the Atlantic slave trade. The first slaves arrived before 1620, but until the mid-1690s there were a small group. This was because of the monopoly that the Royal African Company of England had, which allowed them to keep the prices high and the supplies low. However, when the monopoly was broken, prices fell and the amount of slaves arriving in North America grew exponentially. The need for labor to sustain their plantation-centric economy led to the origin of slavery, and the prices and monopoly of African slaves helped develop slavery into the basis of the southern work

On a cotton plantation, the slave and the plantation owner harbored their own views of society. The plantation owners viewed themselves as the elite of society while the slaves viewed society as oppressive. In order to endure their ordeal, slaves formed stronger communities and rebelled against their masters. The struggle between the two perspectives would continue until the end of the American Civil War.

For example, in the New England colonies they had very little farming due to poor soil and had poor conditions for hunting, because of the weather the colonies had small scale-farms. In contrast, the south had rich fertile soil and a warmer climate which meant they had a longer growing season. The south had the opportunity to have plantations because of this weather, so the people often had these estates where they could have cash crops, which required a large workforce. Slave labor was used to grow crops like tobacco, rice, and indigo. The New England colonies had long winters and the temperature was not as warm as it was in the south; their terrain was rocky, hilly , and they had forests.

The farmers, for lack of a better word, did not do the farm work themselves but reaped the benefits on the enormous amount of wealth they gained from it while the servants, and eventually slaves only, performed the labor. Although slavery was practiced in every colony but it was much more prevalent in all of the southern colonies from Maryland downward to Georgia. Those farmers who own the most land, the largest plantations and harvest the most crops held most of the political power in the southern colonies, making the region an oligarchy. The wealthy farmers controlled the government because they were the only ones in the south who could afford

The southern colonies were mainly controlled by an elite class of planters that owned the most land and had the most slaves. Below them were the small farmers that had a few slaves and much smaller plots of land and at the bottom were the landless white people. This social ladder made up the economic and political worlds in the south. The planters were the most powerful politically and the most wealthy.

Privatizing slavery triggered the growth of African slave population in the South. Between 1690 and 1750 the African slave population in the South grew from 7 percent to more than 40 percent. Slavery in Colonial America is the pillar that helped America grow and remain on the map. African slaves replaced the labor force that was once composed of indentured servants. First, slavery allowed for the South to transition from an unstable social organization to a plantation society. In a plantation society the main goal for a planter was to become a thriving planter were slaves would bring huge profits to their master’s table. The number of slaves that a planter owned determined their success. Planters owning hundreds of African slaves became prosperous farmers as the production of their cash crop grew into big numbers. By 1740 slaves composed close to 90 percent of the South’s population. Planters became an emerging elite group that learned to manage and discipline slaves. The characteristic of the planters would be passed on to their sons and many into taking leadership roles during the American

The weather and land in the southern colonies was ideal for growing crops and ideal for farming. The climate in the southern colonies had plenty of rain and the weather was warm most of the time. Slaves were able to work all year long due to the climate. The plantation owners were able to produce large amounts of tobacco and cotton. Having slaves do the work gave plantation owners free labor, which made them rich Southern plantation owners. Without slavery the plantation owners would not have become rich and they would not have had the money to purchase more slaves. In the Northern Colonies the climate did not allow for farming all year long. The North needed slaves with multiple skills that for slave labor was much less due to the type of work that was being done in the North.

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

The Chinese and African people began to see a shift in how they were used for labor or what type of labor they did. Due to the dwindling white indentured servants in Virginia, and an increased demand for tobacco, Africans became a key source for labor for plantation owners. (Sweet, 2004) During this time, punishment for Africans began to show more severity. Another trend showed how plantation owners valued African workers over the white workers. This value however, was demonstrated by much higher work quotas as well as longer times of required service. These trends humiliate the Africans into enslavement. Slaves’ resistance to slavery came in many forms. Resistance is

More recently, historian Edmund S. Morgan has confirmed Williams's essential conclusion, while extending his analysis far beyond Williams's original formulation. The excessively high mortality rates that prevailed in Virginia until the 1630s made labor a scarce and valuable commodity. For those who could afford to do so the opportunity to enlarge their labor supply proved an irresistible temptation. As Morgan showed, in the Chesapeake region wealth and status early became synonymous with the extensive use of bound, but not necessarily slave, labor. White indentured servitude was legal everywhere in colonial society. Most servants were young men between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five. Some were kidnapped or otherwise coerced, but most voluntarily entered into their contracts, hoping to begin life anew and, after a relatively few years of service, to become independent and acquire land.

By 1750, about 200,000 slaves lived in the colonies and most of them in the south, where the warm climate and good soil permitted the great development of plantations such as rice, tobacco, sugar cane and cotton among others. Slaves therefore played a big role in these plantations working directly in the fields, though some others worked as servants craft workers, etc. In the northern colonies, slaves worked in factories, homes, and shipyards.

Plantation owners in the slave trade played a major role as they used slaves to grow their crops whilst gaining immense profits through the use of unpaid workers. They were the perpetrators of the slave trade and made their living by abusing the work done by the slaves. The plantations grew in popularity when moved from Europe to America, particularly sugar, tobacco and cotton. The rise of cotton initiated towards the end of slavery in the 1800’s in the United States. It was a huge success with over 60 percent of the four million slaves across America working in cotton from sunrise to sunset. The slaves that worked in fields were usually labelled as ‘unskilled’ with ‘skilled’ slaves being responsible for the crucial judgements such as when cane was ready for harvest. When tobacco leaves were right for picking or when sugar juices were ready were among the responsibilities of ‘skilled’ slaves. Plantation owners were well known for treating their slaves as property or commodities. Visitors to plantation crops were often shocked at how many times they saw the physical abuse of the slaves which was often a whipping if they did not perform their jobs to a high standard. Female slaves were also known to have been frequently sexually abused. Violence was the greatest threat and the foundation to a successful system.