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Indentured Servants Essay

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In the Americas, slavery was based on plantation system, an agricultural system that includes a lot of workers and one owner. At the beginning, Americans were using indentured servants as the main labor system, but it became common to servants to unwill and some of them started to insist that they have rights too. An indentured servant is a person who voluntarily surrendered their freedom for a specified time in exchange for passage to America. As we can see, plantation system gave an opportunity for servants and slaves to resist, because the dominant amount of people(servants and slaves) were under the control of one person. For example, when Europeans arrived at the New World, they were trying to enslave native people, but the Indian population …show more content…

The indentured servants, of course, have more opportunities than slaves, but main things still are similar. Both of them represent a cheap labor system, they both were treated in a similar way. They were brought to the New World in horrible conditions with many dying along the way. They were both subject to physical punishment from their masters. They both worked for free with and nobody cares about their lives. None of them can own the product of their labor, the owner should provide clothes, food and place to …show more content…

According to this laws, “enumerated” amount of goods had to be transported in English ships and sold initially in English ports. Planters started to lose their profit, and the government enjoyed added income from taxes. This situation caused waves of violence on the plantation because now slaves and servants supposed to work more.For example, Bacon’s Rebellion showed the resistance of slaves and servants as a united group of people. The spark was a minor confrontation between Indians and colonists on Virginia’s western frontier. The alliance between indentured servants and Africans united against bond-servitude disturbed the ruling class, who responded by hardening the racial caste of slavery in an attempt to divide the two races from subsequent united uprisings with the passage of the Slave code of 1705. As we can see in “New York Documentary(directed by Ric Burns), slavery became larger part of the economy in big cities. The result of slavery is a direct result of the need for labor in plantations and large farms. In this time, having enough paid workers for your plantation would be unreal. At the time there were heavy taxes and smaller returns on crops, slavery was the best way to make a profit and live a comfortable

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