Slavery Essay

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Rasooli 1

Slavery: From Indentured Servitude to Slavery in the Northern and Southern Colonies

Nazir Rasooli
History 17A
T,TH 12:30-1:50PM

Rasooli 2 As early as the 1700's, slaves were being shipped into the United states. As the United states began to expand westward, the cultivation of cotton, tobacco, coffee, and rice were able to be mass produced. With such vast land, more laboring workers were required. Slaves were brought from African tribes and were stuffed into large cargo ships, where they would be shipped and sold with contracts. Southern states such as Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia were the states that were slave states because that is where they mass produced trade goods. Before slaves, there were indentured servants. These were people who worked for five to eight years under harsh conditions, at the end, they were promised a few acres of land and freedom. From indentured servants to slaves, American colonies required workers, workers that would spend the last of their lives working in harsh conditions. Although the institution of slavery was a high demand in the south, the north did not have nearly as high of a demand for slave workers. With the rapid expansion of America, laboring plantations such as tobacco, rice, and indigo required labor for the plantation and cultivation of these cash crops. indentured servants seemed to be the method of choice by planters. These servants would travel along the Atlantic, where their trip cost would be covered by their master, upon arrival a contract would be written to work out a length of service. Typical length ranged from five years and could last up to seven. Upon the completion of service, Indentured servants were pronounced free and were given land or money. This was Rasooli 3 known as their "freedom dues". Most of these indentured servants came from all across Europe, primarily from Ireland, Scotland, and England. Majority of these workers were white immigrants who had debts to pay off, or came to America in search of a new start. Fewer than 40% of the indentured workers lived to fulfill their contracts, the rest of them were not able to endure the harsh living conditions. Workers had to typically work six days a week, from dawn till dusk. Because servants were deemed as property, they were often times beaten or starved. This could have lead to disease or exhaustion which could have been responsible for the high mortality rate. By the late 1660's, Expansion of Southern states such as Virginia required for labor. White elites called for a more stable workforce, one that would be less likely to threaten their own interests. Because indentured servants had a contract and could only work for a certain amount of years, southerners were more attractive to slavery because they would forced to work for life. The First people who were enslaved were Native Americans because they had a good basic farming techniques. however, these Native Americans were dying to disease, diseases that they had no immunity to such as smallpox and the fever. In the end, they proved to be unreliable, so the search for a more sustainable work force continued. All eyes were set to Africa. There they found African tribes that were willing to trade people in exchange for goods such as guns, cash crops, etc. Africans seemed as a good alternative to indentured servants and Indian American slaves because they seemed to hold some resistance to European disease. Furthermore, Rasooli 4 they were inexpensive, they were stronger than indentured servants, they were given no government protection, and to Americans there seemed to be an endless supply. As more and more African's occupied America, southern started to become more "color conscious". Church officials considered them as uncivilized and because they did not believe in the same religion they were considered as
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