Slavery In Colonial America

Virginia: was chartered in 1606 to the Virginia Company. The Company decided to attract colonists by awarded land in exchange for indenturing themselves to be a servant for four-seven years. A booming cash crop of tobacco and the possibility of owning land sent a flood of between 130,000 and 150,000 immigrants, mostly young men, to Virginia. Tobacco was a monoculture, however, and little else was cultivated. Malnutrition and exhaustion resulted in extreme death rates. If you happened to live to age 20, your life expectancy was only 48 years. Additionally, four in ten servants

He created a small armed force and conducted two attacks against the Native Americans. The Native Americans conducted these attacks because England was doing unfair trades with their tribes, as well as, because the farmers in Virginia wanted to get rid of them.The Governor got really furious because Bacon became a popular hero and got elected to the House of Burgesses, where the governor lives and does his job. When Bacon tried to take his seat, he got arrested by the secret agents of Berkeley. Once he got out, he raise another small army and went to a town called Jamestown. Bacon wanted to burn down Jamestown, but Berkeley also went to Jamestown with his soldiers. Bacon’s Rebellion was really successful, although, he became violently ill and died. Once he died, the rebellion collapsed immediately. When the rebellion collapsed, Berkely returned to power and hunted down the rebels before being recalled to England. England’s spies told that Berkeley wasn’t doing a great job and become over powerful. It has been stressful after these events happened. I really don’t recommend you to come, even though I miss you so much. I don’t think I could live knowing that you have died because of the arguments between the Natives

Sir William Berkeley arrived in Virginia in 1642 to act as the Colonial Governor of Virginia. He was the King’s envoy in Virginia, though he was a selfish royalist who believed in himself before the King. He brought together some

Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676 was major weight added to the scale that shifted Virginia’s plantation labor from indentured servitude to African slaves. Confrontation between the Native Americans and settlers in western Virginia spearheaded an uprising that demanded Governor Berkeley to provide more land to the poor whites. Berkeley stood by his decision to maintain peaceful relations with the local Native American population, which sparked a series of uprisings and massacres that grew into full rebellion against Berkeley and his men. Berkeley fled when Nathaniel Bacon and his ranks burned Jamestown to the ground, which led to Bacon’s rule over Virginia for a short while until England sent warships to regain control. This conflict altered the planter’s view on indentured servitude, understanding that slaves could never become free men, demanding land and creating successful rebellions. For fear of civil war among whites, the elite planters helped launch us into a racially divided slave society.

Bacon’s Rebellion and its aftermath transformed Virginia’s social and economic order by speeding along the adoption of slavery as a primary means of labor. Nathaniel Bacon rallied ex-indentured servants and poor frontiersman against the colonial government. These people were forced to take less desirable land on the outskirts of the colony where “[…] they lived under the constant threat of potentially hostile Native Americans” (Bacon’s Rebellion NBC). Bacon, frustrated with the apathy of the government to address Indian aggression, lead his band of followers and indiscriminately attacked Native Americans. “Royal Governor Sir William Berkely refused to sanction these attacks and declared Bacon a rebel, sending 300 militiamen to drag him to Jamestown for trial” (Nash

In Document 5 it explains why Bacon’s rebellion began and what actions Bacon took to form his forces to rebel against Governor Sir Wm. Berkeley. Bacon’s rebellion consisted of free Africans, slaves and poor whites. They marched together into Jamestown and set it on fire. This rebellion later failed but was a wakeup call for the wealthy landowners.

In New England, a sense of community and equality was established. “2. We intend that our town shall be composed of forty families, . . . rich and poor. 3. That every inhabitant shall have a convenient proportion for a house lot, as we shall see [fit] for everyone's quality and estate. . . . 5. That everyone shall have a share of the meadow or planting ground. . . .” (Document D) this document is proof that the people of the region believed in equality and sharing fairly. They believed in protecting and looking out for each other. “Whereas a great cry of oppression is heard among us, and that principally pointed at workmen and traders, which is hard to regulate without a standard for pay, it is therefore ordered that, . . . [prices and wages] be duly set at each of our General Courts annually,” (Document E) the information here also supports that this region believed in fair work for its people. On the contrary, Virginians did not see themselves as one team. “The rest of us patiently obeyed our] vile commanders and [bought] our provisions at fifteen times the value…The worst [among us were the gold seekers who] with their golden promises made all men their slaves in hope of recompenses,” (Document F) this excerpt describes how the Virginians were cheated by their own men. They also were forced to work, or sobeit they’d starve. This created an unbalanced power

Regarding the economic sphere, the tobacco plant was important for helping for establishing an economic hierarchy early in Virginia’s colonial history. Tobacco brought a significant amount of wealth to a small number of people in the Chesapeake region. Because there was a high demand for it in Europe (Foner 61), it was an ideal opportunity for those who were unable to become wealthy landowners in England to do so in the Americas. This resulted in immigration of two types. The smaller of these immigration

In the Chesapeake Bay colonies the English colonist found that tobacco grew very well in the warm environment, but it was a very labor-intensive crop and they did not have the resources to keep the growing need for the crop at bay. “While slaves existed in the English colonies throughout the 1600s, indentured servitude was the method of choice employed by many planters before the 1680s.”(1) The colonies used the indentured servant system and it was their hope that it would help increase their population in the Chesapeake Bay colonies.

The Chesapeake region developed an agricultural system that revolved around tobacco by the mid-17th century. Tobacco even functioned as a source of currency in the Chesapeake region when a slave named Francis Payne was valued at 2,400 pounds of tobacco when his owner died (Franklin & Higginbotham, 51). Since tobacco cultivation required intense labor, colonists actively looked for sources of labor. At first, Chesapeake planters hired white indentured servants–men and women from Europe who sold their labor for a certain amount of years in return for freedom–as the source of labor to harvest tobacco (Franklin & Higginbotham, 51). Indentured servitude

This paragraph focuses on the growing economic ties with slavery. The importation of slaves was not truly essential to the colonists economy until the 17th century. Slavery had existed in north america before the colonists arrived but it was not as popular as it would soon become. As colonists began to settle the western lands of the atlantic ocean, the space for plantations to expand became possible and having indentured servants as workers was popular. Indentured servitude was preferred over slavery until Bacon 's Rebellion of 1676, which is the first rebellion in the colonies. When Governor William Berkeley of Virginia denied the access of colonists moving westward onto indian lands, Nathaniel Bacon and a group of formerly indentured servants took it in their own hands to drive out the indians living in the

Bacon even burned Jamestown down in September 1676, forcing Berkeley to the Eastern Shore (Revel.pearson.com). In October 1676, Bacon died due to dysentery, a type of infectious diarrhea (“Summary of the Bacon Rebellion”). Berkeley defeated the group at Chesapeake Bay, and was able to remain as governor when he returned to Jamestown. He treated the rebels poorly and had 23 hanged. Berkeley was sent back to England and replaced. (“Summary of the Bacon

This surplus was forced to beg in the cities until the idea of an indentured servant became popular. During the seventeenth century,”only a quarter of the Chesapeake immigrants arrived as freemen..... three quarters of the immigrants arrived as indentured servants” where they signed a contract to work for four to seven year and then become a free man and be granted fifty ares of land. While sounding like the perfect solution, eventually the good land was used up and the dead land was given to the poor, keeping them poor. After years of oppression and being ignored, Bacon's rebellion was ignited.

In 1676, the Doeg Indian tribe attacked the plantation of Thomas Matthews. Matthews was said to have stolen many different items from the Doeg Indians which was the said to be the cause of this raid. Even though many of the Indians lost their lives in this invasion, the settlers felt that more should be done to the Doegs as punishment. Governor Berkeley did not approve of the settlers taking action against the Indians. Going against Berkeley’s wish to stand down, the settlers turned to Nathaniel Bacon, Berkeley’s cousin by marriage, to lead them in their attack against the Doegs.

During 1739, the Stone rebellion was the most prominent in the colonial period. It was considered the largest rebellion in British North America. In South Carolina, a slave named Jemmy, also known as Cato, gathered blacks