Slavery vs. Indentured Servitude Case Study Latest Copy

1 Running Head: Slavery vs. Indentured Servitude Slavery vs. Indentured Servitude Chamberlain University HIST405N: U.S History July 2019 2 Running Head: Slavery vs. Indentured Servitude After colonization starte ...

1 Running Head: Slavery vs. Indentured Servitude Slavery vs. Indentured Servitude Chamberlain University HIST405N: U.S History July 2019 2 Running Head: Slavery vs. Indentured Servitude After colonization started to become more stable in America and the colonists began tobacco farming, they soon realized that tobacco leaves were hard to maintain. At this time, they noted that farmers couldn’t keep up with the massive amount of workload needed to turn up a decent profit, which led them to investing on indentured servants. After time, there was a shift in indentured servitude. Slowly, slavery began to become a notable institution by Plantation owners that were on the lookout for cheaper labor and more wealth (OpenStax, 2019). Thus, in this paper I will be explaining how and why slavery developed in the American colonies, ways the practice of slavery was different between each colonial region in British North America, and the differences between slaves and indentured servants. Slavery in America started when the initial slaves from Africa were taken to the North American colony. According to U.S History (2019), Virginia would become the first British colony to legally establish slavery in 1661. Maryland and the Carolinas were soon to follow. However, the primary African Americans that touched base in Jamestown in 1619 on a Dutch exchanging boat were not slaves; they were indentured servants (U.S History, 2019). Indentured servants were contracted between five to seven years and assisted in growing tobacco in the Chesapeake colonies (Openstax, 2019). In return, they “received paid passage to America and food, clothing, and lodging (Openstax, 2019).” Moreover, since the African Americans helped immensely with the economic foundations of the new nations, this led to an increase on importation of slaves (U.S History, 2019). Thus, by the eighteenth century African slaves numbered in the tens of thousandths in the British colonies. African slave labor was vital for the economic life of British North America. Rather than using slaves as primarily agricultural labor, the North trained and diversified its slave force to 3 Running Head: Slavery vs. Indentured Servitude meet the needs of its more complex economy. Slavery developed quickly in the Carolinas. Wealthy rice planters relied on slaves, however, “the Carolinas began to pass slave laws based on the Barbados slave codes of the late 1600s. These laws reduced Africans to the status of property to be bought and sold as other commodities (Openstax, 2019).” The British founders of North American colonies did not expressly intend to create slave societies. According to Neumann (2019), Puritan courts ordered that two blacks who had been seized in Africa for sale in Massachusetts be returned to their native land. In 1652, Rhode Island passed a law that “condemned the practice of enslaving Africans for life” and ordered that any slave brought to the colony be freed after a period of ten years (Neumann, 2019). Some Quakers in Philadelphia rejected the practice of slavery and engaged in efforts to abolish it once and for all (Openstax, 2019). Furthermore, slaves and indentured servants have many differences. The conditions of the slaves were more pitiful than the indentured servants. The main reason is that the slavery of a person continued lifelong for an indefinite length of time and they were properties of their owners. On the other hand, the indentured servants were granted freedom after serving a specified period of time to earn compensation in exchange of labor. They were, in contrast of the slaves, service persons (Openstax, 2019). Hence, as America first began to become colonized a lot of people from other countries came here asindentured servants, while at the same time the beginnings of slavery came into existence. Slaves in the southern colonies outnumbered the northern colonies. The northern colonies used the slaves for its economy rather than agriculture and were in efforts to abolish slavery. Lastly, there are many differences in slaves and indentured servants such as slaves were for life, but 4 Running Head: Slavery vs. Indentured Servitude indentured servants were for a fixed period and slaves were treated as property without any rights, however, it was not the case with indentured servants. Overall, the conditions of the slaves were more despicable than the indentured servants (Openstax, 2019). 5 Running Head: Slavery vs. Indentured Servitude References Neumann, C. E. (2019). "Slavery in New England (CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT). Retrieved from Gale Library of Daily Life: Slavery in America: https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/applied-and-social-sciencesmagazines/slavery-new-england-ct-me-ma-nh-ri-vt OpenStax. (2019). U.S. history. OpenStax CNX. Retrieved from https://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]:gMXC1GEM@7/Introduction U.S History. (2019). The Growth of Slavery. Retrieved from U.S History: http://www.ushistory.org/us/6c.asp .