Indentured Servitude vs. Slavery

African Slaves

1670 1770

North 1,125 3,410

South 48,460 411,362

Colonial Slave Revolts• 1663 - First serious slave conspiracy in Colonial America, Sept. 13.

Servant betrayed plot of White servants and Negro slaves in Gloucester County, Va.

• 1712 - Slave revolt, New York, April 7. Nine Whites killed. Twenty-one slaves executed.

• 1730 - Slave conspiracy discovered in Norfolk and Princess Anne counties, Va.

• 1739 - Slave revolt, Stono, S.C., Sept 9. Twenty-five Whites killed before insurrection was put down.

• 1741 - Series of suspicious fires and reports of slave conspiracy led to general hysteria in New York City, March and April. Thirty-one slaves, five Whites executed.

• 1773 - Massachusetts slaves petitioned legislature for freedom, Jan. 6. There is a record of 8 petitions during Revolutionary War period.

The First Arrivals

• 1619 in Jamestown

• 20 Africans brought by the Dutch and traded to the English

• English used them as workers on tobacco plantations

• By 1660, slavery as we know it was established in Virginia

                                          

NPS image

In a detail from NPS artist Keith Rocco's painting of a Jamestown waterside scene in the 1660s, enslaved African load hogshead barrels of tobacco aboard a ship bound for England.

 

                                          

NPS Image

In a detail from NPS artist Keith Rocco's painting of a Jamestown waterside scene in the 1660s, newly-arrrived Africans are inspected by an English settler.

Where did they come from?

Western Africa• 3 influential kingdoms = Songhai, Benin, and Kongo• Future slaves taken by the Portuguese from here

Commonalities of West African culture• Small villages• Respect family and tradition• Political leaders get their authority from religion (Islam)• Everyone owns the land• Trade

Royal African Company

• English slave trading company• Founded in 1672• Has a monopoly on the slave trade in the

colonies until 1698• Agents in Virginia received a 7 percent

commission on sales• Planters complained that the company was not

supplying them with enough slaves• Stopped trading slaves in 1731 in favor of gold

dust and ivory

Triangular Trade

Where did the captured Africans end up?

Indentured Servants

                    

                            

                  

 

                    

                            

The Original Workers

• Men, women, and sometimes children from Great Britain

• Sign a contract tying you to your master for 4-7 years, no marriage and no bearing children

• Servant got: passage from England, food, clothing, shelter, (salary?)

• Master: property, could sell or transfer the rights of your servant

Indentured Servants

• If caught trying to escape, they were given a longer length of servitude

• Permission from masters was required to leave colony, work for someone else or keep money for personal use

• Approximately ½ of the European population that came to the colonies started as indentures, up to 90% of population that settled in Chesapeake area (Virginia)

• Men= bricklayer, joiner, plasterer, cook, clerk, gardener, coachman, butcher, blacksmith, and musician

• Women= performed domestic chores like laundry, sewing, and housekeeping

Reflections from a modern day about back then…

"I had not the vaguest idea of how much labor, strength, perseverance, determination, and focus was required to not only make your Colony successful and eventually thriving, but to simply survive as an individual and not be inundated by the many impasses, hardships, and setbacks that gripped early colonial settlers after venturing to the New World." – Jonathon Allen

Convicts

• Used as a labor force as well

• Ran away more frequently and not as trusted as indentured servants

• Largely male, young, poor and unskilled

• Length of servitude was longer than indentured usually

• Possibly 1/4th of British immigrants to the 13 Colonies were convicts

Questions

– The argument is often made that indentured The argument is often made that indentured servants were not the same as slaves. Is this servants were not the same as slaves. Is this statement accurate? statement accurate?

– Slavery continues to become less and less Slavery continues to become less and less popular in the north, however the concept of popular in the north, however the concept of indentured servitude remains well through the indentured servitude remains well through the 18th century. Why would slavery remain 18th century. Why would slavery remain strong in the south while in the north it strong in the south while in the north it virtually dies out?virtually dies out?

Works Cited

• http://www.stratfordhall.org/ed-servants.html

• Major revolts and escapes handout from Ms. Carter

• http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/us3.cfm