Transcript Indentured Servitude vs. Slavery

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. Twentyone 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
servants were not the same as slaves. Is this
statement accurate?
– Slavery continues to become less and less
popular in the north, however the concept of
indentured servitude remains well through the
18th century. Why would slavery remain
strong in the south while in the north it
virtually dies out?
Works Cited
• http://www.stratfordhall.org/edservants.html
• Major revolts and escapes handout from
Ms. Carter
• http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonli
ne/us3.cfm