Jamestown Slavery

Slavery first came to the colonies in 1619. When the first Africa slave arrived in Jamestown. Jamestown found success in mass producing tobacco. In order to increase production, slaves were imported in to met the demand. Slavery was not very popular in the beginning because of the cost.

The earliest colonist was in charge of Jamestown at this time. Once the colonist arrived at this piece of land by the three ships named the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and the Discovery, they called it Jamestown named after King James the First. The colonist had a ginormous hatred towards the Spanish and was disgusted by the Spaniards’ record of blood thirst. They didn’t trust any other human but their own tribe. “No Spanish intention will be entertained by us neither to hereby root out the naturals [natives], as the Spaniards have done in Hispaniola and other parts,” vowed colonist William Strachey (Price,pg 10).

1)The Early Chesapeake Jamestown i) The Charter was given to the London Company in 1604 by King James. The Boats Discovery, Godspeed, and the Susan Constant all left and landed in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. ii)The Colony, which was basically all men, had horrible diets and basic cleanliness made way for sickness and disease, and by 1608, the colony had almost been destroyed from the inside. Captain John Smith saved it by making good work, order, and forcing ransacks against Native American Villages.

Jamestown was the first successful English New world colony it was undertaken by adventurers and commercial entrepreneurs known as the Virginia Company of London in 1607. Jamestown was established after several earlier failed attempts by the English, notably the Roanoke colony, which was an attempt at settlement during the reign of Elizabeth I. The fate of the Roanoke colony remains somewhat of a mystery. Upon his return with supplies for the colony after a four-year delay due to the Anglo-Spanish War, John White, its governor, found the colony abandoned. The Jamestown colonists like those of Roanoke were woefully unprepared for the rigors of settlement in the New World.

In the spring of 1607, 144 men sent by the London Company, landed on Chesapeake Bay where they then sailed 60 miles up the James River, where they established the Jamestown settlement. Although the beginning of the Jamestown settlement was rough, it was not until 1616 when Virginia’s settlers learned how to grow tobacco,where it seemed the colonies might survive. For instance, between 1607 and 1763, British north American colonies developed experience in self-governance through constructing the House of Burgesses and signing the Mayflower Compact, and the colonists developed their expectation of self-government and individual freedoms based on the isolation that separated them apart from England. First of all, the House of Burgesses was the first elected legislative representative assembly, consisted of twenty-two members, and was established in Jamestown in 1619.

In early America, the first successful colony was called the Jamestown Colony. It took a while for this new country to fill up, though. This was because, in the beginning, many people died from disease, starvation, and Native American attacks. Many people in the early Jamestown Colony died from a disease. “Summer sickness kills half the colonists” (J. Frederick Fausz, “An Abundance of Bloodshed on Both Sides: England’s First Indian War 1609-1614,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, January 1990).

Multiple factors led to the start of the French and Indian War. A power struggle was already occurring, and Britain and France were already enemies. Colonists were aligned with their respective countries, and Native Americans were caught in the middle of European expansion. Natives were more apt to be allied with the French due to their trading economy, but both sides had Native American allies depending on the circumstances. 1 “To safeguard their lands west of the mountains, Native Americans played off one European power against another.”

Specific characteristics of slavery and the slave trade in the English colonies were that plantation agriculture demanded a large labor pool, increasing slavery, and that the slaves specifically working on plantations in the Southern colonies and Caribbean were treated especially harshly. Large plantations located in the Southern colonies were focused primarily on tobacco because of the climate and large economic demand. The slaves that worked on these plantations were treated terribly because the plantation owners only cared about their crops and money; however, the slaves in the Caribbean were treated worse. Here, the plantations focused primarily on sugar cane because of the climate and large economic demand, and slavery was seen as especially

1. Encomienda- A system of control over Native Americans used during the 16th century. The encomienda system consisted of the Spanish settlers using forceful power over these natives in order to obtain both land and laborers. An additional goal of the encomienda system was to convert locals to Christianity via Spanish missionaries.

Most English colonial societies were established as royal charters. As early as Virginia to Massachusetts to newer settlements like Georgia and Maine, all wanted more independence from Parliament. Non-Catholics populated the New World substantially, with some practicing religious tolerance; however, the Puritans did establish strict religious leadership in Massachusetts. A variety of economic activities — such as fishing, farming, and trading — contributed to the increase in labor across the colonies. Despite the number of common components a colony may have with another, there exists different aspects that adds variability and distinguishes a colony from another.