Analyze the Origins and Development of Slavery in Britains North American Colonies in the Period 1607-1776

Name: Saad Islam 08.30.11

Period:

Erami

FCA1: Student accurately selects and interprets relevance of events to the selected topic.

FCA2: Student implements and extensive amount if factual evidence and examples supporting the selected position.

FCA3: Student thesis and explanations accurately comprehensively address the question and position.

Origin and Development of Slavery in Britain's North American Colonies in the period 1607-1776

African slaves who were brought to the Americas in the time period 1607-1776 were treated with great cruelty and lived and worked in very harsh conditions and were treated inhumanely within society. They were stripped of their rights and were treated like pieces of property. The first Africans brought to the New World after 1607 were in Jamestown after whom million more Africans would follow to be enslaved. Life in the wilderness of the New World was very harsh, nasty and short for the settlers in James Town because they were only used to the city life and adapting to the wilderness was very tough for them. They came in search of gold but were unsuccessful in finding any. The settlers were in great trouble because they had to send some kind of income back to their sponsor the Virginia company who were looking to make great profit from the resources of the New world. As more settlers came in the situation kept on becoming worse, until 1612 when John Rolfe began the planting of tobacco, which was soon known as the cash crop for the colonies. As time passed tobacco plantations were starting up every where and there was a great need for more labor. In the beginning white indentured servants were used, but soon they became too costly and in 1619 Dutch traders brought the first Africans in Jamestown and formed the Dutch West Indies Company in 1621 which supplied black slaves and established the first slave trade.

The Africans in Jamestown in the beginning were considered to be like indentured servants and worked on the tobacco farms and were granted freedom after they finished their time of servitude. But in the 1640's Virginia established slavery which was the practice of enslaving blacks for life and heredity. This was caused due the rapid growth of tobacco plantations in the colonies which led to need for more labor. Labor which was mostly white indentured servants and free men was becoming more and more costly. Compared to the indentured servants, slaves were cheaper and more effective to work on the fields. Also the continuing need and demand for African slaves was due to the development of agriculture, sugar plantations and the need for miners. Africans were very well suited for these kinds of jobs. Not only were they skilled labors but also experts in tropical agriculture. They were also better immune to malaria, yellow fever and other diseases compared to the European workers, which made them a much more stable force of labor. Soon in the next 2 decades many other colonies, especially southern colonies began legalizing slavery for it was necessary for the colonies economical growth according to the colonists.

As time passed slavery began develop faster than ever and in 1641 Massachusetts was the first colony to legalize slavery. Afterwards in 1643 The New England confederation of Plymouth, Connecticut, New Haven and Massachusetts met where they established and passed the Fugitive Slave Act a few years later. The Act allowed Slave owners to have control over runaway slaves. Slaves that escaped to the North where slavery wasn't allowed could still be brought back to their masters. In the1660's enslaved Africans were legally defined as pieces of property in many Southern colonies. Now slave owners could do what ever they wanted with their slaves without any objections. At the same time the King of England Charles II ordered the councils of foreign plantations to come up with ways to pursue slaves to convert to Christianity. Slaves who would convert and get baptized would be given freedom. But this didn't last for long. In 1667 Virginia passed a law that said that religion will not alter the status of a slave which made all blacks and any children that they had forced to slavery no matter what. By this time almost all Southern colonies legalized Slavery and had already passed the Fugitive Act. Life for the Africans as slaves in the colonies was harsh and brutal as ever.

While slavery was going up, indentured servants who finished their time of servitude were also suffering. Free men, people who finished their time of servitude would end up having to work for