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Life and Slavery in Early America

Pocahontas would go on to marry John Rolfe a Jamestown colonist, which would bring peace between the Colonist and Indians for years.
             In 1612, John Rolfe brought many changes one of the most important being a new type of tobacco. Tobacco made the colony thrive by it's exports bringing in a lot of wealth and attention. As the demand for tobacco grew so did the labor. "Slavery in America began when the first African slaves were brought to the North American Colony of Jamestown, Virginia, In 1619, to Aid to the production of such lucrative crops as tobacco." 1 Slavery was the backbone behind the success of the tobacco plantations. The conditions and treatment of these slaves were inhumane. The condition of the regions they were being worked in were harsh which lead to malnutrition, disease, even death. Because slaves were so easy to obtain and were cheap, the owner did not care what happened to them because they were easy to be replaced.
             At this time farmed products were in great demand, tobacco being the most sought. With such high demand slaves were not enough, which brought in "indentured servants". England in this time period was over populated. There were many people in England who wanted to make the move to America but were not able to afford it. One way they were able to make this trip were to be an indentured servant for a period of time. " Each indentured servant would have their fare across the Atlantic paid in full by their master. A contract was written that stipulated the length of service - typically five years. The servant would be supplied room and board while working in the master's fields. Upon completion of the contract, the servant would receive "freedom dues," a pre-arranged termination bonus." 2.
             A lot of colonist actually prefered indentured servants over slaves but there was a drawback to it. Roughly only one third of indentured servants would fulfill their contract.


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The Precedent to Slavery in North America tracing the origins of slavery or racism in either sense, one must keep in mind that neither is an event or circumstance that occurred in North America in the 17th through 19th centuries. ... Slavery had long since been a proactive institution in South America. ... Dorothy Snider writes, in Her book Slavery in America, "Does not slavery itself depress the mind, and extinguish all fire, and every noble sentiment?" ... By the early 1700s the status of blacks became property not people. ... Europeans indentured servants came to America voluntarily searchi...

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2. Oppressive Lifes of early americans

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  • Word Count: 1081
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4. The Contributions to the Expansion Slavery

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5. Dawn of Slavery in the South

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6. Slavery

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7. The Middle Passage and Early American Slavery

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9. The Evolution of Slavery

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