SLAVERY IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA

Slavery in Colonial Virginia

Slavery in Colonial Virginia

Colonial Slavery started back in 1619 when a Dutch ship had brought African Americans to Jamestown, Virginia to work on tobacco plantations. At this time they, also like poor Englishmen, were only considered indentured servants who would be released after they have paid off their debt to their owner. As the population in the Americas grew over time, so did the size and amount of plantations that they had. The owners could not work the plantations alone and they found out that they could get cheap labor by having a mass of indentured servants.

However, over the course of the 17th century, a race-based system formed. This led to the idea of shipping Africans over to the Americas from the west coast of Africa (Shibutani and Kwan 2005). These Africans were then the main source of labors in the Americas. They were slaves that were bound for life to there owner, and could be sold or killed as property. On the African west coast they captured Africans by kidnapping them or raiding there villages. When the Dutch ship arrived in Jamestown, they needed supplies, so they sold and traded the Africans for food.

The idea of changing to slavery of Africans was influenced by the Caribbean islands. Here they grew sugarcane, a very valuable crop, with a huge group of slaves. Life here was harsh for they were fed little and life expectation was very short. Since slaves were considered property, they figured that if a child was born from a slave, then they also owned them. This led to the idea of breeding humans for agricultural use, just like other livestock. Once the child was born, owners would feed them a little more to allow them to grow fast and stronger. This way the child would be able to work the fields at an early age, or the owner would sell the child, separating the child from its family. Another idea that influenced African slavery was color. Indentured servants could escape the plantations and get away with it (Collier and Collier 2008). There was no way to identify a free Englishman from an indentured Englishman. So having black slaves meant that they could not escape much. If a black man were walking the streets after an escape, he would be questioned and would have to show his "free papers" that would identify him as a freeman. But if he had no papers, he would be accused as that escaped slave or would be captured and become a slave.

In 1641, Massachusetts became the first colony to legalize slavery. From then on the need for workers grew. The King of England chartered the Royal African Company, which brought over 5,000 to 45,000 slaves a year to the Americas. This allowed England to pass Portugal and Spain in trafficking slaves. England built over 60 forts in western Africa that served as trading posts. Here the English would purchase slaves from the African ...