Role Of Indentured Servitude

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

For a long time, Jamestown, VA took in many indentured servants—a worker who is under contract of an employer for up to seven years in exchange for transportation and many necessities (clothing, food, drink, and lodging)—in order to fulfill the duties that the owners couldn’t. Though employers made Jamestown seem like a loving and welcoming place, it was just the opposite. These indentured servants were treated equally to slaves, but many were willing to risk their lives in order to gain their own land. Once they obtained land of their own, they could grow their own tobacco and become extremely wealthy.

Other Europeans, Native Americans and West Africans were the groups thought to be most suitable for the economic demand of labor. Many of the early views of West Africans were received through the bible until written accounts of encounters with these people were made. These written accounts of the encounters of West Africans led to the idea West Africans could be brought over and sold in the Americas to work in chattel slavery. This in turn made them the ultimate choice for the labor force of the English. However the famous sale of twenty Africans to the colonists at Jamestown in 1619 by Dutch slave traders did not equate to the introduction of chattel slavery just yet. Many early African slaves were treated similarly to indentured servants brought in from England. They could work the land for a set number of years then after their term was up be freed and given a piece of land. Indentured servitude was not hereditary but their contract could be sold, bartered, given away or gambled away. These contracts gave away the servant’s labor but it did not give away the servant’s person. Despite this African presence, slavery was slow to arrive in Virginia because the mortality rate for indentured servants was so high during the first decades of the Virginia colony. Indentured servitude remained the primary source of labor in Virginia through the 1680s, until economic considerations made slaves the cheaper alternative.

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

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.

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

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.

Life in England during the early 1600’s was harsh for a multitude of the poor. The country was just coming out of the Thirties Year’s War with a flood of citizens and laborers displaced. In fact, PBS (2015) indicated that “the timing of the Virginia colony was ideal.” The Thirty Year 's War had left Europe 's economy depressed, and many skilled and unskilled laborers were without work. A new life in the New World offered a glimmer of hope; this explains how one-half to two-thirds of the immigrants who came to the American colonies arrived as indentured servants” (para. 3). This opportunity for those willing to receive free passage to the New World and start a new life was enticing. Granted, the work was difficult it was not without reward.

Therefore, creating a growing class of men who were landless and jobless. All the indentured servants that outlived their contracts had the knowledge to create and run their own plantations to make a profit of their own, whether they were provided freedom dues or not, this created more tension and competition in the new world economically. Freed indentured servants started to cause more problems with Native Americans and in the colony as a

Indenture is a system originated in England and used by colonial American settlers to help solve work shortage problem in late 17th and early 18th century. Differences of treatment towards indentured servants could be found between regions, ages and genders. One of the most distinct difference was the relationship between gender and education. More female indentured servants had an education than male indentured servants because of the difference of their roles within the colonial American society. This evidence appeared in two places: first, in the “care and necessaries” clauses as a term of indenture; second, in the proportion of female educated indentured servants and the male educated indentured servants.

“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

This allowed the freed servants to be self sufficient, and in some cases, these servants would even hire their own indentured servants. However, when these dues were not sufficient and did not include land, some servants had no choice other than continue in servitude. As such, the “freedom dues” would directly affect the colonial economy, determining whether or not there would be additional land owners. The indentured servants would also prove to help the already existing landowners to gain more land. The head right system, implemented in southern colonies such as Virginia and Maryland, gave a landowner or planter 50 acres of land for each servant he paid for to come with him to live in that colony. Here, the indentured servants helped the economy by allowing landowners to expand their territory, and produce more goods/crops. While at work, the servants also had a major and direct effect on the economy. From the early 1600s to the early 1700s, indentured servants comprised the majority of labor on the plantations and farms of the colonies. Without the use of indentured servants, the colonial economy would have crashed, as there would have been no labor to work on the vast plantations. Until African slaves became a more cost-efficient option for colonial landowners, the use of indentured servants was a very much viable alternative.

In the Renaissance, slaves were starting to be used in plantations, mostly in America, but also in plantations in Italy and off the coast of Africa (Gascoigne). So, in both the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution, at least some slaves were used for hard labor. The Portuguese were the first to put slaves to work in plantations, and slaves soon came to be used on plantations in the Americas by nations such as Spain, Holland, France, England, and the Netherlands. The first slaves they enslaved in these colonies were the native peoples, but soon, the native population began to dwindle. Since Portugal had been exploring the coast of Africa and since Africa had a booming population of people, Africans became the people they predominantly enslaved (Guild). Thus, racial slavery was started. Blacks came to be viewed as lower than human, and this view spread to all the nations which came to have plantations in America. Millions of blacks were imported to plantations for sugar, spices, tobacco, coffee, etc. during the span of the Renaissance (Hornsby).