History Of Indentured Servitude

Early America consisted of rebellion when the triangular trade brought thousands of enslaved Africans into the U.S. not thinking of the thousands of lives they were destroying. If anything, the slaves and children of slaves were being induced such a degrading mentality that could have lasted up till today, but humans tend to disobeying when we

Europeans tried to send more people to the American colonies by means of becoming indentured servants, people who would work for someone for seven years and be freed. This proved to have many flaws; since the servants were white, they could run away and live a new life without being questioned. When discussing how English colonists turned to Africans, Lester states, “Because they were black, it would be difficult for them to run away and escape detection,” (Lester 18). For this reason, slavery lived on for 245

Indentured servants sign a contract agreeing to work for a certain amount of years to get land, tools, and supplies to start of on their own. Which most of the time did not happen since they were treated so poorly that they either died or never got anything in return. The historical significance was that since there were not enough people in the colonies willing to work, indentured servants worked on the land. Also, the use of Indentured servants made people in the Chesapeake colonies accustomed to the use of free labor which turned to African slavery. This was tremendous significance for history.

Slavery was now well under way; the slaves came from all over the world. Slaves were made up of those people who were seen as lower class: Who were the black people. Originally the Khoi-Khoi and the San, but due to illnesses and battles they were mostly wiped out so they decided to bring in slaves from all over. In the early 18th century Indian slaves were very popular and made up approximately 80%.

One major effect of European imperialism on Africa was the sudden, dramatic amount of poverty. During the "Scramble for Africa", Europeans drained all resources and money out of Africa, leaving indigenous peoples with nothing. There was also an increase in disease and fighting amongst tribes in Africa, due to Europeans drawing borders that separated some friendly tribes and forced others to live together with their mortal enemies. After WWII, when Europeans abandoned their African colonies, many were able to claim independence. However, since the indigenous people had not been allowed in positions of power while existing in a colony, they had no leadership skills to govern themselves, and many nations fell apart under corrupt rulers.

Slavery dates back to the seventeenth century, when Africans were taken from their homeland to the English colonies in the new land of America. Simply regarding an African’s skin color, they were put in the lowest position possible as a slave and treated very poorly. And although the African slaves became African American, they were not treated as a fellow American or and even treated like less than a human. African Americans were completely disregarded and ignored in the constitution, because evidently, some of the fathers of the constitution of the United States of America were slave holders themselves. Constitutionally, slavery was abolished in 1865, but Fredrick Douglass had the opportunity to escape to freedom before then in 1838.

This barbaric treatment of the native people is ultimately what caused the “Starvation Time”. (C&G 29) Jamestown settlers continue the trend of disregarding human life and became the first colony exposed to the slave trade in North America. Indentured servitude was becoming too expensive, because there was not enough land to distribute once the servants completed their seven years of work. The answer to this dilemma was slavery.

Because of the abolishing of slavery, it created for a lot of discrimination and racism against people of color. In some southern and northern states did not agree with slaves begin freed especially Johnson. Because he did not agree it created for “moderates and radicals” to come together to pass black only laws. These black only laws returned some “freed slaves back to servitude”.

The Quakers rejected anyone who owned slaves. Slavery was declared illegal in 1807 by countries on both sides of the Atlantic. Slave trade started because people wanted help farming. As the practice of slavery grew more sophisticated over time, it grew more brutal. By the time the triangular trade came about, slavery had become extremely brutal.

Slaves were only allowed to do what their owners would let them do and we have come so much further from even one hundred years ago. “...the stubborn race gaps that remain, especially in opportunity, tarnishing the idea of the American dream.” (Rodrigue, Five Bleak Facts on Black Opportunity.) Even though our country has come far, there is still many segregation throughout the nation. This shows how much more work America still must do to have equal rights for all races.

Olaudah Equiano at the tender age of eleven, experienced astonishment and terror as he was isolated from the only safe place he kenned, his habitation Igbo Land (present day Nigeria) by slave traders. His encounters with the slave trade was essentially filled with anguish, vexation, and dolefulness as he was stripped far from his family, particularly his sister, and the people that he bonded with on the ship heading to the various destinations. To describe his slave experience, he composed an extensive book from the perspective of the enslaved. Therefore, his book was instituted as the best artistic work of the abolitionist movement, and recently has turned into history 's most well known portrayal of the slave trade and the Middle Passage.

Slavery took place in almost every country around the world; each country participated in slavery in one way, shape, or form. When the American Colonies began to from by English settlers, the idea of indentured servitude was brought over with them. Elite families depended on indentured servants to serve until their debt was paid, but as more settlers came, less people choose to come over and serve as indentured servants. As indentured servitude began to become less accepted, slavery was becoming more reliable through the slave trade. Slavery was introduced in Jamestown, Virginia in 1690 to help with the production of tobacco.

In fact, this is exactly what Sandra L. Dahlberg described in her research on Richard Frethorne’s letter called "Doe Not Forget Me" when she stated “in the letters, Frethorne painted a dire portrait of his life in Virginia: he was hungry, he had insufficient clothing, and he lacked consistent access to shelter” (Dahlberg, 2012). That means that the people were not only immigrants they were poor also. The same can be said about the immigrants working in the tobacco fields today. However, the people was basically brought over either by involuntarily, forced or maybe kidnapped. They lived in little to no shelter.