![]() The colonists created slavery to cultivate their lands and generate profits, status, and success. ![]() The colonists came to see slaves imported from Africa as the most logical, cost-effective way to solve their vexing shortage of labor. © Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010ĥ © Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010Īttempts to solve the labor supply problem by using Native Americans failed. At about the same time the plantation system began to emerge, the supply of white indentured servants from the British Isles began to dwindle, white indentured servants had to be released from their indenture every few years. As colonial society grew and developed, a specific form of agricultural production began to emerge-the plantation system. The business of the colonies was agriculture, and farm work at this time was labor intensive, or performed almost entirely by hand. © Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010 By the 1750s, slavery had been clearly defined in law and in custom, and the idea that a person could own another person-not just the labor or the energy or the work of a person, but the actual person-had been thoroughly institutionalized. In the decades before the dawn of slavery, we know that some African indentured servants did become free citizens. © Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010īritish Colonies The position of African indentured servants in the colonies remained ambiguous for several decades. At the end of the indenture, or contract, the servant became a free citizen. In 1619, England and its colonies did not practice slavery, so these first Africans were probably incorporated into colonial society as indentured servants, contract laborers who are obligated to serve a master for a specific number of years. 1 Chapter Three The Development of Dominant-Minority Group Relations in Pre-Industrial America: The Origins of Slavery © Pine Forge Press, an imprint of Sage Publications, 2010īritish Colonies In August of 1619, a Dutch ship arrived in colonial Jamestown, Virginia and the master of the ship needed provisions and offered to trade his only cargo: about 20 black Africans.
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