Indentured Servants Dbq Essay

Words: 1112
Pages: 5

The traumatic experience of being a slave drastically changes the lives of enslaved Africans who were brought to the 13 English Colonies in the early 1600’s and 1700’s against their will. These enslaved people had to endure a long voyage to the Americas and the noisy auctions while being sold. They were important to the economy of the 13 colonies, but many died due to poor living conditions. Cramped and squeezed, the crowded conditions of the slave ship was one of the causes of many enslaved people dying during the Middle Passage. Document 2 is a diagram of a slave ship named Brookes, and View D of this ship shows the slaves tightly packed together in one area. This lack of space and air while on board causes many enslaved Africans to suffocate and die. Not only did these packed conditions cause suffocation, it was also the reason for disease to spread from a lack of sanitation. Bacteria and Viruses were able to disperse themselves amongst the slaves. Finally, the miserable conditions on board the slave ship and being treated …show more content…
The benefits of slave owners are described in the second paragraph of Document 5. In this document, it says, “At first, the tobacco planters had indentured servants do the work. It was not long, however, before they decided that it would cost them less to have slaves do the work.” Slaves were more cost effective for the slave owners because while indenture servants work for 4-7 years before freedom, slaves were forced to work for their whole lifetime. Also, since any children of a slave is automatically a slave, slave owners would have gained more and more slaves, and the owners will make profit because of these slaves. The desperate need for cheap workers in the English Colonies encouraged the usage of slaves, who were more cost effective than indentured