What Are The Characteristics Of The Slave From The American Colonies In The 1700s

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.

Often times when talking about the institution of slavery in the United States of America, men are at the center of the discussion; whether they were owners or slaves, men are presented first. Black women are pushed in the background except for the most famous like Harriet Tubman and Sally Hemings. In North America, specifically the United States, more than six hundred thousand slaves were brought in from Africa and the Caribbean between 1620 and 1865, the laws regarding slaves were condensed into slave codes that varied from state to state. Female slaves usually received the worst of it. Abusing them was legal, since the were considered property and as long as the owner wanted, he could have his way with any women he chooses on the plantation. Female slave were subject to harsh punishment for refusing the advances of the master. As one of, if not, the most vulnerable group in America at the time, female slaves had more threats to their existence than black men.

Slaves in the colonies during the revolution were faced with no real options and little liberty. The slaves’ lot in life varied greatly between individual experiences. Those slave owners who had only a few slaves generally treated their slaves better than those with large numbers of slaves. Even if they were treated well, the slaves had little in the way of freedom. They would be required to work throughout the day at the bidding of their masters and had no recourse to whatever punishment was given at their master’s hands. The slaves also had little hope of ever obtaining freedom for themselves and their children (Pavao, n.d.).

The conditions for slaves in the 1730’s were abhorrent. Slaves were not seen as people and had little to no basic human rights. The Africans brought in for slavery were treated like cattle, and were herded towards farms and plantations where they would spend the rest of their days working for their owners. Slaves could not travel, meet in groups, grow their own food, or hunt game. If they wanted to participate in any of these activities they had to do them in secret. The slaves became tired of being mistreated by the white southern slave owners, which eventually led them to start uprisings and rebellions like the Stono Rebellion.

The two ideas have several similarities, but they also have differences. Indentured servants during the 1600 and 1700s were Europeans, whereas slaves were from Africa. The indentured servants willingly signed contracts to work for colonists in return for basic living needs like food, shelter, clothes, etc. Needless to say, the type of treatment given to the indentured servants depended on the colonists they were working for. Slaves, on the other hand, were taken away from their African homeland and put on ships to America unwillingly. When the slaves got here, usually the work was harsh, and the colonists were not forced to provide anything to their slaves.

A slave is a person who is property that is owned by another person. Up until 1865, slavery was legal and one of the most horrific practice in American history. Mostly from Africa, African American slaves were shipped to the American colonies in which they had no freedom or control in their lives. Treated unfairly, slaves were forcefully tied to labor for their master. If slaves were disobedient, they were abused, tortured, raped, or even killed, yet some slaves had the opportunity to escape their horrendous situations. To flee their plantations slaves had to be audacious and confident. This power of opposition is best represented in the compelling novel, The Invention of Wings. In her novel, The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd helps her

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 and slaves were treated in broadly similar ways. They were both brought to the New World in horrible conditions with many dying along the way. They were both subject to physical

whereas the lifetime of AN bound servant was harsh and restrictive, it wasn\'t slavery. there have been laws that protected a number of their rights. however their life wasn\'t a straightforward one, and also the punishments administered to folks that wronged were harsher than those for non-servants. AN bound servant\'s contract may be extended as social control for breaking a law, like deed, or within the case of feminine servants, changing into pregnant.For people who survived the work and received their freedom package, several historians argue that they were at an advantage than those new immigrants United Nations agency came freely to the country. Their contract could have enclosed a minimum of twenty five acres of land, a year\'s price of corn, arms, a cow and new garments. Some servants did rise to become a part of the colonial elite, except for the bulk of bound servants that survived the treacherous journey by ocean and also the harsh conditions of life within the New World, satisfaction was a modest life as a citizen in an exceedingly burgeoning colonial economy.In 1619 the primary black Africans came to Virginia. With no slave laws in situ, they were at the start treated as bound servants, and given constant

Indentured servants served as temporary laborers to the farmers and plantation owners in the colonies. Servants were required to work until a certain age, while slaves were bought and sold to work without an ending date. According to “An Act Concerning Servants And Slaves” [ “An Act Concerning Servants And Slaves,”Unites States History

Slavery was very common around the 1700’s. Slavery is when others (masters) people into their fields to work, even if they didn't want to. From infants to adults, masters took whoever they felt like keeping under their control. A master is the person who owns the slaves, they are the ones to decide how the slaves will be treated and what they will be doing on the plantations. To be a slave means that you don’t have any freedom what so ever, and you are controlled by another person.

“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

Slaves were considered objects that could be sold and have no freedom to be their own person. English colonists were their masters and could kill, sell, rape any of their slaves and they wouldn’t be held accountable for their actions. They were brought from Africa to the

No slave was respected or treated the same way as their masters were. For instance, Fiddler was a slave of a particular high status but Mr. Reynolds still made him perform the same chores as the others. He may have had better arrangements such as food from the actual kitchen and a bed to sleep on, but he would never be and could never be thought of as someone on the same level of his master. For enslaved women, the treatment was even worse. They were passed around and chosen by men as if they were simply items in a store.