The Origins of Slavery

Jamestown and Indentured Servants Jamestown is settled in 1607. Tobacco is introduced by John Rolfe in 1612. It becomes a vital “cash crop” easily grown in colonial Virginia. Soon after its introduction, there comes a high demand for the product. The growth of plantations and a plantation- based agricultural economy in the hot, humid coastal lowlands based on this and other “cash crops” required cheap labor on a large scale.

Indentured Servitude Some of the labor needs, especially in Virginia, were met by indentured servants. These individuals were often poor people from England, Scotland, or Ireland who agreed to work on plantations for a period of time in return for their passage or relief from debts. This practice helped ease unemployment in England and cleared English jails (Judges sent political prisoners and debtors to Virginia as indentured servants).

Indentured Servitude (Cont’d) Indentured servants typically worked an average of 7 years. At the end of their contract, they typically received “freedom dues”: usually a certain amount of corn and clothes. Some did received land and a gun as part of their “dues.”

Indentured Servitude (Cont’d) This system worked well for many years until rifts (disputes) developed between the plantation owners and the former indentured servants. Eventually, violence in Virginia broke out between the two groups (example = Bacon’s Rebellion). This violence led the plantation owners to abandon (give up) indentured servitude and search for a new labor source – slavery.

Early African Labor The first Africans arrived in Jamestown in 1619. These and other early Africans were used and treated as indentured servants. They worked out their contracts, earned their freedom, and received their “dues.”

Triangular Trade The use of African slaves was fundamental to growing colonial cash crops, which were exported to Europe. European goods, in turn, were to purchase African slaves, who were then brought on the sea lane west from Africa to the Americas (The so-called “Middle Passage”)

Triangular Trade The classic model of triangular trade

Triangular Trade How it actually worked……….

The “Middle Passage” The “Middle Passage” refers to the forced passage of African people from Africa to the New World (Part of the African slave trade). Ships departed Europe with commercial goods and exchanged them in Africa for slaves. These slaves were then transported to the Americas where they were sold or traded for commodities (goods) such as raw materials, which would be transported back to Europe to complete the “triangular trade.”

The “Middle Passage” Diagram of a slave ship from the Atlantic slave trade. (From an Abstract of Evidence delivered before a select committee of the House of Commons in 1790 and 1791.)

The “Middle Passage”

The “Middle Passage”

The “Middle Passage”

The “Middle Passage”

Long-Term Effects The development of a slavery-based agricultural economy in the Southern colonies eventually led to conflict between the North and South (the American Civil War).