The Time And Institution Of Slavery Essay

Other Europeans, Native Americans and West Africans were the groups thought to be most suitable for the economic demand of labor. Many of the early views of West Africans were received through the bible until written accounts of encounters with these people were made. These written accounts of the encounters of West Africans led to the idea West Africans could be brought over and sold in the Americas to work in chattel slavery. This in turn made them the ultimate choice for the labor force of the English. However the famous sale of twenty Africans to the colonists at Jamestown in 1619 by Dutch slave traders did not equate to the introduction of chattel slavery just yet. Many early African slaves were treated similarly to indentured servants brought in from England. They could work the land for a set number of years then after their term was up be freed and given a piece of land. Indentured servitude was not hereditary but their contract could be sold, bartered, given away or gambled away. These contracts gave away the servant’s labor but it did not give away the servant’s person. Despite this African presence, slavery was slow to arrive in Virginia because the mortality rate for indentured servants was so high during the first decades of the Virginia colony. Indentured servitude remained the primary source of labor in Virginia through the 1680s, until economic considerations made slaves the cheaper alternative.

The slave trade into the United States began in 1620 with the sale of nineteen Africans to a colony called “Virginia”. These slaves were brought to America on a Dutch ship and were sold as indentured slaves. An Indentured slave is a person who has an agreement to serve for a specific amount of time and will no longer be a servant once that time has passed, they would

Slave as defined by the dictionary means that a slave is a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant. So why is it that every time you go and visit a historical place like the Hampton-Preston mansion in Columbia South Carolina, the Lowell Factory where the mill girls work in Massachusetts or the Old town of Williamsburg Virginia they only talk about the good things that happened at these place, like such things as who owned them, who worked them, how they were financed and what life was like for the owners. They never talk about the background information of the lower level people like the slaves or servants who helped take care and run these places behind the scenes.

The earliest form of slavery in North America can be traced back to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. There, they were called the “Twenty and Odd” and considered servants rather than slaves. Though little is known about this infamous event, this ‘trade’ continued of capturing Africans from Africa and bringing them to the colonies of Britain. The usage of slaves increased and were often used as field laborers on plantations, house workers, blacksmiths

European nations came to the Americas to boost their wealth and expand their influence over world affairs. The first enduring British colony was established in Jamestown in the Chesapeake Bay region by the Virginia Company. To honor the memory of Elizabeth I, the never married “Virgin Queen” the company’s directors named the region Virginia. (pg.41) The Jamestown colonist had a tough time of it. They were so occupied looking for gold and other exportable assets that they could barely feed themselves. It wasn’t until 1616, that Virginia settlers learned how to farm tobacco. It became Virginia’s main source of revenue and helped the colony survive. The first African slaves appeared in Virginia in 1619.

Eighteen century was a time period when slavery took deep roots in the New World. Slavery institution deeply affected and shaped the United States in the way we know it now. It affected all aspects of an American society: politically, economically and socially. Slaves were the ones who worked on large plantations, harvesting the crops, taking care of houses, fighting for an American independence, and gave the white people a leisure time to improve their knowledge and exercise political power. From an early colonial settlement through the civil war, African-American slaves had completed a long path of oppression, abuse, and repudiation of basic liberty rights. Though the appearance of the colonial America to the end of the civil war, slavery was a foundation, that allowed the United States to appear and function.

Slavery, as an institution, has existed since the dawn of civilization. However, by the fifteenth century, slavery in Northern Europe was almost nonexistent. Nevertheless, with the discovery of the New World, the English experienced a shortage of laborers to work the lands they claimed. The English tried to enslave the natives, but they resisted and were usually successful in escaping. Furthermore, with the decline of indentured servants, the Europeans looked elsewhere for laborers. It is then, within the British colonies, do the colonists turn to the enslavement of Africans. Although Native Americans were readily available and were initially numerous, Africans became the primary slave used in the colonies because the Native American

In the late 1700s and 1800s the argument for slavery was prospered under subjection. Southern slave proprietors contended blacks did not have the mental capacity to rival different races and ought to be secured on estates and given profitable labor to do. On the ranch, slaves could be shown Christianity. What 's more, they contended that blacks living as slaves had it superior to anything blacks in Africa. In Africa, slave proprietors contended, free blacks confronted the attacks of the climate. Yet, oppressed blacks, they said had the upside of being nourished and dressed and furnished with standard work. Robert E. Lee, (General of the Confederate Army) who liberated his slaves before the Civil War he wrote of slavery in 1856 and he said , “I think it however a greater evil to the white man than to the black race, & while my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more strong for the former.’

Dutch traders brought African slaves to Virginia in 1619. These slaves were often traded for casks of rum.

The history of slavery began in 1619, when in the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, landed a Dutch ship, "White Lion", with twenty enslaved Africans who were captured in a battle with a Spanish ship. The Dutch ship was damaged, so people needed to stay and repair their ship. They also needed food and supplies. Therefore, they decided to sell Africans to the colonists as indentured slaves. In that time began a new period in colonist 's life called The Great Migration, which was a period when the population of the colony grew from 450 to 4000 people. But people faced some problems like disease, malnutrition and war with Indians. Colonies desperately needed laborers. The solution of this problem was indentured servants. Indentured servants are people, who work for food, clothes and shelter, for certain period of time. Indentured servants were not only Africans, a large majority of them were also Germans, Irish, Scottish and English. The laborers were very important, because colonists needed gather crop, build buildings and do other work to make live colonists more easy. (History of slavery in America)

Although the United States continued to grow, they grew in different directions. The North evolved into an urbanized entity which had an enormous shipping industry. On the other hand, the south did grow, but it grew around the notion of their property—slaves and the plantations. Southern society deeply depended on their production of their plantations—if not, debt was inevitable. Plantation owners began to control much of their politics throughout the south, bolstering the importance of the plantation regime. All of the aspects of the southern society revolved around the statues of the properties—the slaves. Slaves determined the political actions taken by the south, the societal attitude, and the agricultural knowledge dispersed throughout the population.

Slavery in colonial America began when a Dutch ship brought twenty Africans to the colony of Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 to support in the production of tobacco. Colonists weren’t accustomed to the thoughts of slavery and used them as indentured servants. They were given the opportunity of land and freedom in exchange for seven years of hard labor. Because Africans were not a part of British common law, they had no rights of their own hence, Massachusetts legalized slavery in 1641. As the new colony prospered in the 1650s, many indentured servants earned their freedom leaving the colonists with few workers. Virginia soon followed Massachusetts and legalized slavery in 1661. With the legalization spreading throughout the new nation, the king of England chartered the Royal African Company to bring boatloads of slaves into the trading centers consisting of: Jamestown, Hampton, and Yorktown. From the 1660s, colonies began sanctioning laws that defined and

Slavery in America began when the first African slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, because European settlers thought of them as a “cheaper, more plentiful labor source than indentured servants”. Slavery continued throughout the 17th and 18th centuries in the American colonies, helping to “build the economic foundations of the new nation”.

The labor system used in the English colonies of North America experienced developmental shifts from 1607 to 1750 as the institution of slavery became firmly established in law and in society. In 1607, English settlers founded Jamestown, in Virginia. A Dutch ship brought around 20 Africans to the colony in 1619, where they became indentured servants. Both white English people and Africans worked as indentured servants during the seventeenth century, though some Africans served for life. Slavery strengthened as an institution during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and African slaves became the dominant source of labor. The strengthening of slavery in the English North American colonies and its development into a powerful institution with criteria for determining the roles and rights of slaves were caused by the establishment of the status of slaves among whites and the decline in the popularity of white indentured servants.

In the 1800’s there was an increase soar in the use of the domestic slave trade because of the need for slaves in the tobacco planting lands. Many landowners and planters looked towards the Chesapeake area to seek for slaves. Many slave owners started looking towards that region because the International Slave Trade had been blockaded off. The domestic slave trade began something different; where African Americans were moved to a new location either through being sold or being transferred. Because of the desperate need of slaves in order to earn a profit, within that century, hundreds of thousands of slaves were transported, allowing many American traders to earn a profit.