Jamestown Origins In The Americas Essay
Slave Origins in the Americas
10/13/13
APUSH
Alex Peasley
1 In 1609-1610 Jamestown, Virginia experienced a great famine. After this famine the settlers experimented to find a crop that would help them survive. Tobacco was the crop Jamestown found to help them survive.* Jamestown was able to grow fields and fields of tobacco, but there was not enough people to work the fields. At first, the men of the English working class supplied the labors for the fields. Indentured servants were also brought in to work the fields. But such workers were susceptible to disease and often proved unreliable as they could always choose to leave work behind and return to their people.* In 1619 Jamestown didn 't have enough white people to work the land so they bought about 20 African workers. "For the English people in the New World there was really three labor options. One is to transport people from England to the New World. Another is to employ or exploit the indigenous labor...And the third is to bring people in from Africa."* In 1619 , when Africans were first brought into Britain 's North America they were to be treated as indentured servants. Regardless of color all servants were supposed to be granted freedom after so many years of labor. In 1640 John Punch tried to runaway and his …show more content…
punishment was servitude for life. Punch was the first documented slave for life. Gradually, the law started supporting slavery. In 1641 Massachusetts was the 1st colony to legalize slavery. Massachusetts started the trend the colonies followed, Georgia being the last colony to join in 1751. Between the ten- year gap it took for all the colonies to legalize slavery, it gradually became more and more brutal. It was no longer just the non- Christian servants considered property. It was any black slave. In Sixteen sixty-Four Maryland took the lead in taking legal action in lifelong servitude for all black slaves. New York, New Jersey, the Carolina and Virginia all followed passing similar laws. Colonies even started physical punishment against the slaves. In 1703 Connecticut assigned the punishment of whipping any slaves who disturbed the peace or assaulted the whites.2 The brutal form of slavery that would develop in the Americas was vastly different from the slavery that had existed for years in other countires.* The Americas took servitude to a whole new level, they turned it into slavery. The Americas also made it racial. In a sixteen twenty-five Virginia census "Antonio the Negro" wasn 't labeled as "slave" no he was labeled as a "servant". Black and white women would work side by side, and if any white or black male servant were to break a rule, they would be punished equally.* All were indentured servants during their time.* As servants , they were fed and housed.* Afterward, their years of labor they would be given what were known as "freedom dues", which usually included a piece of land and supplies, including a gun.* Black-skinned or white-skinned they became free.* Americans began deciding a servants fate by skin color rather than whether they had Christian faith or not. It is easier to see color that faith. Black slaves became a permanent labor force.* The English saw no need to treat the black slaves as people, they were outsiders, they were strangers, they were enslaved for life. In sixteen sixty-two Virginia decided if your mother was a slave, you would be a slave too. Slavery became not only a life-long condition, now it would be passed generation to generation.* Slavery became a gene one would inherit.
Color became more and more of a factor in labor. The darker the slave the more they would work and the harder they would work. The lighter-skinned slaves, often the children of the owner or manager by a slave woman, were often given the better jobs, kept as house servants or trained in a skilled job. * A lot of colonies didn 't allow slaves to marry whites. In Virginia a law was passed that said slave women who produced children by their masters could be punished by having to do two years of servitude with the church after the expiration of the term with their masters. * These women were sometimes rapped, so on top of being rapped they would have to endure a punishment for it. Another law passed by Virginia was that Negro women 's children would serve according to the condition of the mother, regardless if the father was a white man or not. Slavery started in the Americas with just 20 slaves, by the 18th century 5,000 to 45,000 were imported a year.
Slavery started out as a small minor issue, but it grew into something huge. It was such a big deal that some colonies would even agree to independence (everyone but Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Hancock, and Thompson walked out on signing the Declaration of Independence) because they couldn 't keep their slaves. Majority of the states/colonies would rather stay under a cruel British Monarch than to give up their slaves. The African workers that were brought here as indentured servants ended up becoming
property.
3
Bibliography
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query
Thirteen/WNET New York. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/timeline/index.html
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr1.html
10/13/13
APUSH
Alex Peasley
1 In 1609-1610 Jamestown, Virginia experienced a great famine. After this famine the settlers experimented to find a crop that would help them survive. Tobacco was the crop Jamestown found to help them survive.* Jamestown was able to grow fields and fields of tobacco, but there was not enough people to work the fields. At first, the men of the English working class supplied the labors for the fields. Indentured servants were also brought in to work the fields. But such workers were susceptible to disease and often proved unreliable as they could always choose to leave work behind and return to their people.* In 1619 Jamestown didn 't have enough white people to work the land so they bought about 20 African workers. "For the English people in the New World there was really three labor options. One is to transport people from England to the New World. Another is to employ or exploit the indigenous labor...And the third is to bring people in from Africa."* In 1619 , when Africans were first brought into Britain 's North America they were to be treated as indentured servants. Regardless of color all servants were supposed to be granted freedom after so many years of labor. In 1640 John Punch tried to runaway and his …show more content…
punishment was servitude for life. Punch was the first documented slave for life. Gradually, the law started supporting slavery. In 1641 Massachusetts was the 1st colony to legalize slavery. Massachusetts started the trend the colonies followed, Georgia being the last colony to join in 1751. Between the ten- year gap it took for all the colonies to legalize slavery, it gradually became more and more brutal. It was no longer just the non- Christian servants considered property. It was any black slave. In Sixteen sixty-Four Maryland took the lead in taking legal action in lifelong servitude for all black slaves. New York, New Jersey, the Carolina and Virginia all followed passing similar laws. Colonies even started physical punishment against the slaves. In 1703 Connecticut assigned the punishment of whipping any slaves who disturbed the peace or assaulted the whites.2 The brutal form of slavery that would develop in the Americas was vastly different from the slavery that had existed for years in other countires.* The Americas took servitude to a whole new level, they turned it into slavery. The Americas also made it racial. In a sixteen twenty-five Virginia census "Antonio the Negro" wasn 't labeled as "slave" no he was labeled as a "servant". Black and white women would work side by side, and if any white or black male servant were to break a rule, they would be punished equally.* All were indentured servants during their time.* As servants , they were fed and housed.* Afterward, their years of labor they would be given what were known as "freedom dues", which usually included a piece of land and supplies, including a gun.* Black-skinned or white-skinned they became free.* Americans began deciding a servants fate by skin color rather than whether they had Christian faith or not. It is easier to see color that faith. Black slaves became a permanent labor force.* The English saw no need to treat the black slaves as people, they were outsiders, they were strangers, they were enslaved for life. In sixteen sixty-two Virginia decided if your mother was a slave, you would be a slave too. Slavery became not only a life-long condition, now it would be passed generation to generation.* Slavery became a gene one would inherit.
Color became more and more of a factor in labor. The darker the slave the more they would work and the harder they would work. The lighter-skinned slaves, often the children of the owner or manager by a slave woman, were often given the better jobs, kept as house servants or trained in a skilled job. * A lot of colonies didn 't allow slaves to marry whites. In Virginia a law was passed that said slave women who produced children by their masters could be punished by having to do two years of servitude with the church after the expiration of the term with their masters. * These women were sometimes rapped, so on top of being rapped they would have to endure a punishment for it. Another law passed by Virginia was that Negro women 's children would serve according to the condition of the mother, regardless if the father was a white man or not. Slavery started in the Americas with just 20 slaves, by the 18th century 5,000 to 45,000 were imported a year.
Slavery started out as a small minor issue, but it grew into something huge. It was such a big deal that some colonies would even agree to independence (everyone but Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Hancock, and Thompson walked out on signing the Declaration of Independence) because they couldn 't keep their slaves. Majority of the states/colonies would rather stay under a cruel British Monarch than to give up their slaves. The African workers that were brought here as indentured servants ended up becoming
property.
3
Bibliography
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query
Thirteen/WNET New York. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/timeline/index.html
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr1.html