Why Slavery Came to America

Tobacco is very labor intensive

• In colonial Virginia, there was plenty of land, but not a lot of workers.

• 1st labor force was indentured servants

• Indentured servants are poor people who can’t afford to come to North America on their own, so they agree to work for somebody for 5-7 years in exchange for ship passage to the New World.

Why not Native Americans?

• 1. Too Easy to escape.

• 2. Agricultural work was women’s work in Native societies. Therefore native men were very reluctant to do it.

Indentured Servants• Indentured Servants

were worked hard and generally treated very badly.

• People in VA. Who paid for indentured servants to come from England, got more land (headright system).

The Switch to Slavery

• Fewer and fewer people are willing to come from England as Indentured Servants. Why?

– 1. Economic situation in England improves and people can get work at home.

– 2. Word gets back to England that indentured servants are treated pretty bad.

– Slaves begin to outnumber servants in 1670s.

African Slavery• Slavery had existed in

Africa prior to European exploration. A. Africans had enslaved

other Africans when their tribes fought.

B. The Portuguese and later Spain were the first Europeans to begin to use African slaves for workers in the New World.

What advantages are there to having slaves rather than

indentured servants?• 1. Slaves are for life.

• 2. Slaves produce offspring and thus more slaves.

Middle Passage

• Refers to the slave’s ship voyage across the Atlantic.

Where the Slaves Go

Triangular Trade

• Refers to exchange of goods and people (slaves) that were traded from Africa, to the Americas, to Europe.

• Ships were never empty.

Triangular Trade

1st Slaves Come to the English Colonies.

• Come to Virginia in 1619 aboard a Dutch ship.

• As indentured servants come less and less, Virginians turn to slaves more and more.

Review Chart

All English Southern colonies involved in large scale “cash-crop” agriculture.

Plenty of land, not enough workers.

Native Americans don’t work.

1st try Indentured servants, but they eventually become scarce.

Finally use African Slaves