Indentured Servitude vs. Slavery

1. Indentured Servitude vs. Slavery

2. African Slaves

3. Colonial Slave Revolts • 1663 - First serious slave conspiracy in Colonial America, Sept. 13. Servant betrayed plot of White servants and Negro slaves in Gloucester County, Va. • 1712 - Slave revolt, New York, April 7. Nine Whites killed. Twenty-one slaves executed. • 1730 - Slave conspiracy discovered in Norfolk and Princess Anne counties, Va. • 1739 - Slave revolt, Stono, S.C., Sept 9. Twenty-five Whites killed before insurrection was put down. • 1741 - Series of suspicious fires and reports of slave conspiracy led to general hysteria in New York City, March and April. Thirty-one slaves, five Whites executed. • 1773 - Massachusetts slaves petitioned legislature for freedom, Jan. 6. There is a record of 8 petitions during Revolutionary War period.

4. The First Arrivals • 1619 in Jamestown • 20 Africans brought by the Dutch and traded to the English • English used them as workers on tobacco plantations • By 1660, slavery as we know it was established in Virginia

7. Where did they come from? Western Africa • 3 influential kingdoms = Songhai, Benin, and Kongo • Future slaves taken by the Portuguese from here Commonalities of West African culture • Small villages • Respect family and tradition • Political leaders get their authority from religion (Islam) • Everyone owns the land • Trade

8. Royal African Company • English slave trading company • Founded in 1672 • Has a monopoly on the slave trade in the colonies until 1698 • Agents in Virginia received a 7 percent commission on sales • Planters complained that the company was not supplying them with enough slaves • Stopped trading slaves in 1731 in favor of gold dust and ivory

9. Triangular Trade

10. Where did the captured Africans end up?

11. Indentured Servants

12. The Original Workers • Men, women, and sometimes children from Great Britain • Sign a contract tying you to your master for 4-7 years, no marriage and no bearing children • Servant got: passage from England, food, clothing, shelter, (salary?) • Master: property, could sell or transfer the rights of your servant

13. Indentured Servants • If caught trying to escape, they were given a longer length of servitude • Permission from masters was required to leave colony, work for someone else or keep money for personal use • Approximately ½ of the European population that came to the colonies started as indentures, up to 90% of population that settled in Chesapeake area (Virginia) • Men= bricklayer, joiner, plasterer, cook, clerk, gardener, coachman, butcher, blacksmith, and musician • Women= performed domestic chores like laundry, sewing, and housekeeping

14. Reflections from a modern day about back then… "I had not the vaguest idea of how much labor, strength, perseverance, determination, and focus was required to not only make your Colony successful and eventually thriving, but to simply survive as an individual and not be inundated by the many impasses, hardships, and setbacks that gripped early colonial settlers after venturing to the New World." – Jonathon Allen

15. Convicts • Used as a labor force as well • Ran away more frequently and not as trusted as indentured servants • Largely male, young, poor and unskilled • Length of servitude was longer than indentured usually • Possibly 1/4th of British immigrants to the 13 Colonies were convicts

16. Questions • The argument is often made that indentured servants were not the same as slaves. Is this statement accurate? • Slavery continues to become less and less popular in the north, however the concept of indentured servitude remains well through the 18th century. Why would slavery remain strong in the south while in the north it virtually dies out?

17. Works Cited • http://www.stratfordhall.org/ed-servants.html • Major revolts and escapes handout from Ms. Carter • http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/us3.cfm