The Origins of Slavery
Jamestown and Indentured
Servants
Jamestown is settled in 1607.
 Tobacco is introduced by John Rolfe in 1612.
It becomes a vital “cash crop” easily grown in
colonial Virginia. Soon after its introduction,
there comes a high demand for the product.
 The growth of plantations and a plantationbased agricultural economy in the hot, humid
coastal lowlands based on this and other
“cash crops” required cheap labor on a large
scale.

Indentured Servitude
Some of the labor needs, especially in
Virginia, were met by indentured servants.
 These individuals were often poor people
from England, Scotland, or Ireland who
agreed to work on plantations for a period
of time in return for their passage or relief
from debts.
 This practice helped ease unemployment in
England and cleared English jails (Judges sent
political prisoners and debtors to Virginia as
indentured servants).

Indentured Servitude (Cont’d)
Indentured servants typically worked an
average of 7 years.
 At the end of their contract, they typically
received “freedom dues”: usually a certain
amount of corn and clothes. Some did
received land and a gun as part of their
“dues.”

Indentured Servitude (Cont’d)
This system worked well for many years
until rifts (disputes) developed between the
plantation owners and the former
indentured servants.
 Eventually, violence in Virginia broke out
between the two groups (example = Bacon’s
Rebellion).
 This violence led the plantation owners to
abandon (give up) indentured servitude and
search for a new labor source – slavery.

Early African Labor
The first Africans arrived in Jamestown in
1619.
 These and other early Africans were used
and treated as indentured servants. They
worked out their contracts, earned their
freedom, and received their “dues.”

Triangular Trade

The use of African slaves was fundamental
to growing colonial cash crops, which
were exported to Europe. European
goods, in turn, were to purchase African
slaves, who were then brought on the sea
lane west from Africa to the Americas
(The so-called “Middle Passage”)
The “Middle Passage”

The “Middle Passage” refers to the forced
passage of African people from Africa to the
New World (Part of the African slave trade).
Ships departed Europe with commercial
goods and exchanged them in Africa for
slaves. These slaves were then transported
to the Americas were they were sold or
traded for commodities (goods) such as raw
materials, which would be transported back
to Europe to complete the “triangular
trade.”
Long-Term Effects

The development of a slavery-based
agricultural economy in the Southern
colonies eventually led to conflict
between the North and South (the
American Civil War).