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Here is our PowerPoint for today.

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RFL Lesson: Linking Cash Crops to Enslaved Labor in Colonial America

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RFL Lesson: Linking Cash Crops to Enslaved Labor in Colonial America

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This article explains in detail the development of the Tobacco industry as a cash crop.

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The Lure of Sotweed- Tobacco and Maryland History.pdf

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A short list of laws in the Chesapeake that helped turn indentured servitude into slavery.

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Africans in America/Part 1/Colonial laws

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The shift from indentured servitude to racial slavery in the British colonies is evident in the development of the colonies' laws. * Virginia, 1639: The first law to exclude "Negroes" from normal protections by the government was enacted. * Maryland, 1664: The first colonial "anti-amalgamation" law is enacted (amalgamation referred to "race-mixing").

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Indentured Servants in Maryland Lesson (Grades 4/5)

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Indentured Servants in Maryland Lesson (Grades 4/5)

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Indentured Servants in the U.S. (Secondary)

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Indentured Servants in the U.S. (Secondary)

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This short article describes the hardships faced by indentured servants

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Indentured servants first arrived in America in the decade following the settlement of Jamestown by the Virginia Company in 1607.

The idea of indentured servitude was born of a need for cheap labor. The earliest settlers soon realized that they had lots of land to care for, but no one to care for it. With passage to the Colonies expensive for all but the wealthy, the Virginia Company developed the system of indentured servitude to attract workers. Indentured servants became vital to the colonial economy.

The timing of the Virginia colony was ideal. The Thirty Year's War had left Europe's economy depressed, and many skilled and unskilled laborers were without work. A new life in the New World offered a glimmer of hope; this explains how one-half to two-thirds of the immigrants who came to the American colonies arrived as indentured servants.

Servants typically worked four to seven years in exchange for passage, room, board, lodging and freedom dues. While the life of an indentured servant was harsh and restrictive, it wasn't slavery. There were laws that protected some of their rights. But their life was not an easy one, and the punishments meted out to people who wronged were harsher than those for non-servants. An indentured servant's contract could be extended as punishment for breaking a law, such as running away, or in the case of female servants, becoming pregnant.

For those that survived the work and received their freedom package, many historians argue that they were better off than those new immigrants who came freely to the country. Their contract may have included at least 25 acres of land, a year's worth of corn, arms, a cow and new clothes. Some servants did rise to become part of the colonial elite, but for the majority of indentured servants that survived the treacherous journey by sea and the harsh conditions of life in the New World, satisfaction was a modest life as a freeman in a burgeoning colonial economy.

In 1619 the first black Africans came to Virginia. With no slave laws in place, they were initially treated as indentured servants, and given the same opportunities for freedom dues as whites. However, slave laws were soon passed - in Massachusetts in 1641 and Virginia in 1661 -and any small freedoms that might have existed for blacks were taken away.

As demands for labor grew, so did the cost of indentured servants. Many landowners also felt threatened by newly freed servants demand for land. The colonial elite realized the problems of indentured servitude. Landowners turned to African slaves as a more profitable and ever-renewable source of labor and the shift from indentured servants to racial slavery had begun.

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Indentured Servants In The U.S. | History Detectives | PBS

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Indentured servants first arrived in America in the decade following the settlement of Jamestown by the Virginia Company in 1607. The idea of indentured servitude was born of a need for cheap labor. The earliest settlers soon realized that they had lots of land to care for, but no one to care for it.

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On the eve of the American Revolution, Maryland was a prosperous mid-Atlantic colony. Its population of about 150,000 had replaced all but a few hundred Native Americans. Tens of thousands were enslaved Africans, most of whom worked planting and harvesting tobacco grown on the Eastern and Western Shores of Chesapeake Bay.

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Court Document Regarding Anthony Johnson

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Court Document Regarding Anthony Johnson

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Click on the text link to show an example of how one African American man who achieved manumission had his property taken after his death.

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Africans in America/Part 1/Document re. Anthony Johnson

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In August of 1670, several months after Anthony Johnson's death, a jury in a Virginia court decided that, because "he was a Negro and by consequence an alien," ownership of the 250 acres Johnson once owned should be escheated, or reverted, to England.

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This image can be closely examined in terms of trade and labor.

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Africans in America/Part 1/A Tobacco Plantation Close-up

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Probate Inventory of Raphael Neale, 1745 (Excerpted)

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Probate Inventory of Raphael Neale, 1745 (Excerpted)

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Last Will and Testament of John Symons, 9 April 1636

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Last Will and Testament of John Symons, 9 April 1636

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Estimates of Enslaved Blacks as a Percentage of the Population by Colony

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Estimates of Enslaved Blacks as a Percentage of the Population by Colony

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Slavery Takes Root in Colonial Virginia (Secondary)

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Slavery Takes Root in Colonial Virginia (Secondary)

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A description of the movement from white indentured status to African Slavery. Note the description of Bacon's Rebellion.

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In 1676, friction between backcountry farmers, landless former indentured servants, and coastal planters in Virginia exploded in violence in an incident known as Bacon's Rebellion. Convinced that Virginia's colonial government had failed adequately to protect them against Indians, backcountry rebels, led by Nathaniel Bacon, a wealthy landowner, burned the capital at Jamestown, plundered their enemy's plantations, and offered freedom to any indentured servants who joined them.

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History Now: Indenture Servant Contract (1742)

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History Now: Indenture Servant Contract (1742)

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Colonial Americans engaged in many forms of unfree labor, with great numbers of youths moving away from their families to become servants or apprentices. The terms of their service were spelled out in contracts called indentures, legal agreements that were entered into by the child's parent(s) and the child's new master. These agreements varied, but certain terms were standardized enough that pre-printed forms were often used.

In November 1742, John Reid Jr. of New Jersey bound himself to Robert Livingston Jr., a member of a prominent New York family, to learn the merchant trade. Reid was to receive "sufficient meat Drink and Lodging" for five years and "be taught the Art and Mystery of a merchant." In exchange, he and his father pledged that Reid would "gladly every where obey" Livingston's "lawfull Commands" and "do no damage to his said Master," and "not Contract Matrimony" or "absent himself Day nor Night from his said Masters Service without his Leave." Servants who did leave without permission of their master were considered runaways and their master placed advertisement in newspapers. These ads are very similar to runaway slave advertisements.

Benjamin Franklin, who was treated harshly by his much-older brother when he was indentured to him, later wrote in his autobiography that his brother's treatment "might be a means of impressing me with that aversion to arbitrary power that has stuck to me through my whole life." Colonists' familiarity with servitude probably contributed to their suspicions of power and their fear that America would be subjected to Britain's arbitrary rule and autocratic trade and tax policies.

A full transcript is available.

Transcript

THIS Indenture Witnesseth, that John Reid of freedhold in the County of Monnmouth Jersey by and with the Consent of his father John Riad of S d place hath put himself, and by these Presents doth voluntarily, and of his own free Will and Accord put himself an Apprentice to Robert Livingston Jun of New York with him to live, and (after the Manner of an Apprentice) to Serve from the first Day of Novemb r: Anno Domini, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty two till the full Term of five years be compleat and ended. During all which Term the said Apprentice his said Master faithfully shall serve, his Secrets keep, his lawfull Commands gladly every where obey: he shall do no Damage to His said Master nor see to be done by others without letting or giving Notice to his said master he shall not waste his said Masters Goods, nor lend them unlawfully to any, he shall not commit Fornication, nor contract Matrimony within the said Term. At Cards, Dice or any other unlawful Game, he shall not play, whereby his said Master may have Damage with his own Goods, nor the Goods of others within the said Term, without Lisence [ sic] from his said Master, he shall neither buy not [ sic] sell, he shall not absent himself Day nor Night from his said Masters Service without his Leave, nor haunt Ale-Houses, Taverns or Play-Houses; but in all Things as a faithful Apprentice he shall behave himself to his said Master and all his during the said Term. And the said Master during the said Term shall by the best Means or Method that he can, Teach or cause the said Apprentice to be Taught the Art and Mystery of a Marchent [ sic] And also shall find an provide unto the said Apprentice sufficient meat Drink and Lodging

For the true Perfomance of all and every the said Covenants and Agreements, either of the said Parties bind themselves unto the other by these Presents. In Witness whereof they have hereunto interchangeably put their Hands and Seals this first Day of Novemb r. in the Sixteenth Year of His Majesty's Reign Annoq; [ sic] Domini, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty Two,

Sealed and delivered in
the Presence of John Reid
John Carpenter John Reid J nr:
Rich d Smith

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Colonial Americans engaged in many forms of unfree labor, with great numbers of youths moving away from their families to become servants or apprentices. The terms of their service were spelled out in contracts called indentures, legal agreements that were entered into by the child's parent(s) and the child's new master.

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This source shows the dissatisfaction of former indentured servants and rebellion

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Bacon's Rebellion: The Declaration (1676)

by Nathaniel Bacon

Economic and social power became concentrated in late seventeenth-century Virginia, leaving laborers and servants with restricted economic independence. Governor William Berkeley feared rebellion: "six parts of Seven at least are Poore, Indebted, Discontented and Armed." Planter Nathaniel Bacon focused inland colonists' anger at local Indians, who they felt were holding back settlement, and at a distant government unwilling to aid them. In the summer and fall of 1676, Bacon and his supporters rose up and plundered the elite's estates and slaughtered nearby Indians. Bacon's Declaration challenged the economic and political privileges of the governor's circle of favorites, while announcing the principle of the consent of the people. Bacon's death and the arrival of a British fleet quelled this rebellion, but Virginia's planters long remembered the spectacle of white and black acting together to challenge authority.

1. For having, upon specious pretenses of public works, raised great unjust taxes upon the commonalty for the advancement of private favorites and other sinister ends, but no visible effects in any measure adequate; for not having, during this long time of his government, in any measure advanced this hopeful colony either by fortifications, towns, or trade.

2. For having abused and rendered contemptible the magistrates of justice by advancing to places of judicature scandalous and ignorant favorites.

3. For having wronged his Majesty's prerogative and interest by assuming monopoly of the beaver trade and for having in it unjust gain betrayed and sold his Majesty's country and the lives of his loyal subjects to the barbarous heathen.

4. For having protected, favored, and emboldened the Indians against his Majesty's loyal subjects, never contriving, requiring, or appointing any due or proper means of satisfaction for their many invasions, robberies, and murders committed upon us.

5. For having, when the army of English was just upon the track of those Indians, who now in all places burn, spoil, murder and when we might with ease have destroyed them who then were in open hostility, for then having expressly countermanded and sent back our army by passing his word for the peaceable demeanor of the said Indians, who immediately prosecuted their evil intentions, committing horrid murders and robberies in all places, being protected by the said engagement and word past of him the said Sir William Berkeley, having ruined and laid desolate a great part of his Majesty's country, and have now drawn themselves into such obscure and remote places and are by their success so emboldened and confirmed by their confederacy so strengthened that the cries of blood are in all places, and the terror and consternation of the people so great, are now become not only difficult but a very formidable enemy who might at first with ease have been destroyed.

6. And lately, when, upon the loud outcries of blood, the assembly had, with all care, raised and framed an army for the preventing of further mischief and safeguard of this his Majesty's colony.

7. For having, with only the privacy of some few favorites without acquainting the people, only by the alteration of a figure, forged a commission, by we know not what hand, not only without but even against the consent of the people, for the raising and effecting civil war and destruction, which being happily and without bloodshed prevented; for having the second time attempted the same, thereby calling down our forces from the defense of the frontiers and most weakly exposed places.

8. For the prevention of civil mischief and ruin amongst ourselves while the barbarous enemy in all places did invade, murder, and spoil us, his Majesty's most faithful subjects.

Of this and the aforesaid articles we accuse Sir William Berkeley as guilty of each and every one of the same, and as one who has traitorously attempted, violated, and injured his Majesty's interest here by a loss of a great part of this his colony and many of his faithful loyal subjects by him betrayed and in a barbarous and shameful manner exposed to the incursions and murder of the heathen. And we do further declare these the ensuing persons in this list to have been his wicked and pernicious councilors, confederates, aiders, and assisters against the commonalty in these our civil commotions.

Sir Henry Chichley William Claiburne Junior

Lieut. Coll. Christopher Wormeley Thomas Hawkins

William Sherwood Phillip Ludwell

John Page Clerke Robert Beverley

John Cluffe Clerke Richard Lee

John West Thomas Ballard

Hubert Farrell William Cole

Thomas Reade Richard Whitacre

Matthew Kempe Nicholas Spencer

Joseph Bridger

John West, Hubert Farrell, Thomas Reade, Math. Kempe

And we do further demand that the said Sir William Berkeley with all the persons in this list be forthwith delivered up or surrender themselves within four days after the notice hereof, or otherwise we declare as follows.

That in whatsoever place, house, or ship, any of the said persons shall reside, be hid, or protected, we declare the owners, masters, or inhabitants of the said places to be confederates and traitors to the people and the estates of them is also of all the aforesaid persons to be confiscated. And this we, the commons of Virginia, do declare, desiring a firm union amongst ourselves that we may jointly and with one accord defend ourselves against the common enemy. And let not the faults of the guilty be the reproach of the innocent, or the faults or crimes of the oppressors divide and separate us who have suffered by their oppressions.

These are, therefore, in his Majesty's name, to command you forthwith to seize the persons above mentioned as traitors to the King and country and them to bring to Middle Plantation and there to secure them until further order, and, in case of opposition, if you want any further assistance you are forthwith to demand it in the name of the people in all the counties of Virginia.

Nathaniel Bacon

General by Consent of the people.

William Sherwood

Source: "Declaration of Nathaniel Bacon in the Name of the People of Virginia, July 30, 1676," Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 4th ser., 1871, vol. 9: 184-87.

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Bacon's Rebellion: The Declaration (1676)

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Economic and social power became concentrated in late seventeenth-century Virginia, leaving laborers and servants with restricted economic independence. Governor William Berkeley feared rebellion: "six parts of Seven at least are Poore, Indebted, Discontented and Armed." Planter Nathaniel Bacon focused inland colonists' anger at local Indians, who they felt were holding back settlement, and at a distant government unwilling to aid them.

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the Experiences of An Indentured Servant

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the Experiences of An Indentured Servant

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The Experiences of an Indentured Servant.docx

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Excerpts of this historical interpretation can show the causes and effects of Bacon's Rebellion.

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RACE - The Power of an Illusion . Background Readings | PBS

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The Jamestown settlers came here to get rich. And it takes them a while. They go through a rough time called The Starving Time in Virginia - which indeed is a rather desperate period. But eventually they discover a commodity, tobacco, which does what they hope it will do.