Slavery

Slavery and the Building the Beginnings of America

Origins of Slavery in North American

An empty ship cargo , except for 20 or more Africans aboard , of a Dutch ship was headed for Jamestown one late summer (PBS 2007 . The slaves were originally aboard a Spanish ship but they were sold to the Dutch in exchange for food . These Africans were either slaves or indentured servants that could work for a certain period of time and then be freed (PBS 2007 . There is a possibility that there were more slaves than servants aboard that

ship (PBS 2007 . There was at least one African on record , was ed to be a slave as the court decreed him to serve his master for the rest of his life

Despite the abundance of land for the Jamestown settlers , they could not find people to work their land . To establish their estate they needed laborers , and most of them wanted to establish their own estates There was a scarcity of free labor (Costa 2000 . Instead of working their own lands , they turned to exploit labor from others , from those who are weaker than they are . The immigrants to the new colony were then forced to bind themselves into working the estates for a certain period of time most of them had four year terms (Costa 2000 . There was an Act that sentenced convicts to a seven-year term or more to work as servants in America instead of achieving the death penalty . There were many who feared the integration of almost 30 , 000 convicts into the colony (Costa 2000

Using African slave labor

The reason behind African slave labor was supposedly because these people were non-Christians . It was not because they were dark . They were to serve a lifetime of slavery because of their pagan beliefs . The question lies in the fact that religious denominations can be changed over time , within a lifetime , this does not equate to the lifetime sentence of being non-Christians (Costa 2000 . This was supposed to be their punishment for being impure (PBS 2007 . Aside from the fact that they can be evangelized and educated in Christianity for them to repent and accept forgiveness , it seems however , the color of their skin could not change (Costa 2000 . This may be an underlying reason for their lifetime bond . In 1670s , it was significantly noted that African slaves were unfairly treated by statutes that gave white Christian servants with limited terms much more favor than the Africans . White servants are actually able to reap the benefits of their labor and gain a place in society (Costa 2000

Justifying the Use of Slave Labor

The English settlers did not see themselves doing hard labor . There was abundant land and each of them could have the chance of establishing their own estates and live more luxurious life than what they had in the native country . Why work for others when they could make for themselves a more comfortable life , stepping up into the higher class in...