Slavery
Joe Evancho
Dr. Tremayne
History 111
February 5, 2008
Slavery in the Early Colonies
Slavery has been in colonial America since as early as 1619. The reason for bringing slaves over to America was for profit. Tobacco was a crop that took lots of work to harvest, and with the use of slave labor the harvesters were able to have the land cultivated.
Even though slaves cost two and a half times more then indentured servants, they were worth more because their slavery was for life (Norton 79). Indentured servants completed their labor term in three to four years. In the early American colonies slave labor for tobacco was not really needed, because the colonies were supplied with English laborers. (Norton 72).
In the early colonies of America before 1650, people of African descent varied in their stature. As time passed slavery started to take hold on the American colonies, and in 1670 tobacco growing really started to take over and became a big export of the colonies. Slavery didn’t exist in the laws until the 1660s. (The Way we lived 58). In 1670 the House of Burgess stated “all slaves not being christened imported into the colony by shipping shall be slaves for life,” similar servants that “shall come by land” would serve for a term of three to four years. (Norton 72).
The ruling in the House of Burgess was a landmark decision because it was one of the first times that it was put on paper that people were able to own another person for a term of life. The first blacks who were brought to Virginia in 1619 were forcibly removed from West Africa. (The way we live 58). In 1682 Virginia decided to alter a little of what the House of Burgess had said to define who could be a slave. Declaring very bluntly that “Negros, moors, mallatoes, and Indians arriving “by sea or land,” could be held as slaves for their lifespan. (Norton 72)
Europeans viewed Africans as humans but perceived...
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