I. TOBACCO

ABOUT 1612, JOHN ROLFE PLANTED WEST INDIAN TOBACCO IN VIRGINIA, BECAUSE THE WEST INDIAN TOBACCO HAD A SWEET TASTE WHILE THE TOBACCO INDIGENOUS TO VIRGINIA WAS BITTER. THE WEST INDIAN TOBACCO WAS A GREAT "HIT," AND BECAME THE MAJOR EXPORT OF VA AND MARYLAND (1630S) BUT REQUIRED A HUGE LABOR FORCE. EARLY VIRGINIA SUFFERED FROM A TERRIBLE LABOR SHORTAGE.

II. DEATH TRAP

VA BEGAN AS A PRIVATE COMPANY. BETWEEN 1607 AND 1622 THE LONDON COMPANY SENT MORE THAN 6,000 SETTLERS. BUT IN 1622 ONLY ABOUT 2,000 OF THE 6,000 WERE STILL ALIVE. EARLY VIRGINIA WAS A DEATH TRAP. IN APRIL 1622, OPECHAN-CANOUGH, A RELATIVE OF POWHATAN AND POCAHONTAS, ATTACKED THE SETTLERS AND TRIED TO WIPE THEM OUT. ALTHOUGH 347 COLONISTS WERE KILLED, OPECHAN-CANOUGH WAS UNSUCCESSFUL. THE ENGLISH BURNED THE INDIAN VILLAGES AND THEIR CORNFIELDS, TOOK THEIR LAND, AND DROVE THE POWHATAN INDIANS INTO THE INTERIOR OF VIRGINIA.

III. ROYAL COLONY

IN 1624 THE KING’S ATTORNEY GENERAL (THOMAS CONVENTRY) BROUGHT SUIT AGAINST THE LONDON COMPANY, AND DEMANDED TO KNOW HOW IT WAS THAT 4,000 OF THE KING’S SUBJECTS HAD DIED IN VIRGINIA. HE ALLEGED MISMANGAEMENT, AND THE COMPANY’S CHARTER WAS REVOKED, AND VIRGINIA BECAME A ROYAL COLONY, GOVERNED BY A ROYAL GOVERNOR APPOINTED BY THE KING. VIRGINIA WOULD REMAIN A ROYAL COLONY UNTIL 1776.

IV. SOME PEOPLE ARE "TOO GOOD" TO WORK.

THE EARLY COLONY WAS A DISASTER BECAUSE INITIALLY THE ENGLISH DID NOT SEND FARMERS. THEY SENT YOUNGER SONS OF THE ARISTOCRACY, WHO FELT IT WAS "BENEATH THEIR DIGNITY" TO PERFORM MANUAL LABOR AND FELT THEY WERE TOO GOOD TO HAVE TO WORK.

V. ARRIVAL OF FIRST "AFRICANS"

IN 1619 JOHN ROLFE RECORDED IN HIS DIARY THAT AT THE END OF AUGUST A DUTCH (FROM HOLLAND) SHIP ARRIVED IN JAMESTOWN. THE DUTCH SOLD 20 "AFRICANS" TO THE ENGLISH. THESE WERE THE FIRST AFRICANS OR PEOPLE OF AFRICAN ANCESTRY AT JAMESTOWN. THE CAPTAIN OF THE SHIP WAS NAMED JOPE. THE PILOT WAS AN ENGLISHMAN NAMED MARMADUKE (LATER, IN THE 1660S ENGLAND AND HOLLAND WOULD BE AT WAR). THE 20 AFRICANS CONSISTED OF 9 MEN AND 11 WOMEN.

THEY ALREADY HAD SPANISH NAMES, SUCH AS ANTONEY, ISABELLA AND PEDRO. IT SEEMS LIKELY THAT THE DUTCH HAD SEIZED THEM FROM THE SPANISH IN THE CARIBBEAN, AS PIRATES ATTACKED THE SPANISH TREASURE FLEET. THE 20 SO-CALLED AFRICANS APPEAR TO HAVE BEEN CHRISTIANS, WHICH THEY WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN IF THEY HAD BEEN TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM AFRICA. We do not know if they could speak Spanish. If they could, this would indicate that they had been in the West Indies for a while, in order to have learned Spanish.

IN 1623 OR 1624 ANTONEY AND ISABELLA BECAME THE PARENTS OF THE FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHILD BORN IN COLONIAL ANGLO-AMERICA. HIS NAME WAS WILLIAM TUCKER, BECAUSE HIS PARENTS WERE UTILIZED AS LABORERS ON THE TUCKER PLANTATION. WILLIAM WAS CHRISTENED IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, AND HIS CHRISTENING OR BAPTISMAL RECORD SURVIVES.

THESE SO-CALLED AFRICANS WERE NOT HEATHENS.

IN 1621 A SHIP ARRIVED FROM ENGLAND. IT WAS CALLED THE JAMES. ON BOARD WERE ENGLISH INDENTURED SERVANTS, AND A BLACK INDENTURED SERVANT NAMED ANTONIO. HE MAY BE THE MAN KNOWN LATER AS ANTHONY JOHNSON.

IN 1623 A SHIP NAMED THE SWAIN ARRIVED. ABOARD WAS A BLACK MAN FROM ENGLAND NAMED JOHN PEDRO. WE KNOW BECAUSE THE ENGLISH RECORDS USUALLY SPECIFY AN ETHNICITY FOR ANYONE WHO IS NOT ENGLISH. SO THEY SAY, JAMES GREGORY, SCOTSMAN, OR VICTOR, DUTCH, OR JOHN PEDRO, NEGRO.

ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1624-25, THERE WERE 1,227 PEOPLE IN THE JAMESTOWN COLONY. THERE WERE "23 NEGROES." THE COLONY NOW EXTENDED OUT INTO THE COUNTRYSIDE WITH PLANTATIONS.

11 BLACK MEN (9 ORIGINAL, ANTONIO + JOHN PEDRO

10 BLACK WOMEN (1 HAD DIED)

2 BLACK CHILDREN

SOME OF THESE 23 EVENTUALLY BECAME FREE, AND EVEN OWNED LAND. THEY WERE NOT YET SLAVES FOR LIFE. (FIRST RECORD OF A BLACK MAN IN VA SERVING FOR LIFE IS IN 1640).
 
 

VI. LABOR BY ANY MEANS

A. DESPERATION

BY THE 1620S THE ENGLISH BECAME SO DESPERATE FOR LABOR THAT THEY BEGAN DUMPING OUT THE ORPHANAGES IN LONDON AND SENDING THE TEENAGERS TO VIRGINIA. TEENS WERE KIDNAPPED OFF THE STREETS. PEOPLE IN DEBT IN ENGLAND WERE THROWN IN JAIL, AND CAPTAINS OF SHIPS WOULD PAY THEIR FINES TO GET THEM AND THEN TAKE THEM TO VIRGINIA AND "SELL" THEM AS INDENTURED SERVANTS. THE LANDOWNERS IN VA ALSO RECRUITED LABOR, AND DEVELOPED A SYSTEM CALLED INDENTURED SERVITUDE.

B. DEFINITION

IN THEORY, INDENTURED SERVITUDE INVOLVED AN EXCHANGE. AN EMPLOYER OR SPONSOR "PAID THE WAY" (TRANSPORTATION COST) FOR A PERSON TO COME TO VA OR MARYLAND. A YOUNG UNMARRIED PERSON, USUALLY UNDER THE AGE OF 24, WOULD WORK FOR AN EMPLOYER FOR 4-7 YEARS. IN RETURN, AT THE END OF THE TERM OF INDENTUREMENT, THE GOVERNMENT OF THE COLONY WOULD GIVE THE SERVANT 50 ACRES OF LAND. THIS LAND WAS THE SERVANT’S REWARD. THEY DID NOT RECEIVE THIS LAND FROM THE EMPLOYER (THEIR MASTER). IN VA AND MARYLAND, THE LAND WAS GIVEN BY THE COLONY (WHICH HAD NO MONEY).

C. A FREEHOLD

THE 50 ACRES OF LAND THAT THE SERVANT RECEIVED AT THE END OF HIS TRM OF SERVICE WAS CALLED A FREEHOLD.

D. A FREEHOLDER

A PERSON WHO OWNED 50 ACRES OF LAND WAS CALLED A FREEHOLDER, AND COULD VOTE.

(THE WEALTHY ENGLISHMEN SIMPLY BOUGHT LAND RIGHT AWAY).

E. A HEADRIGHT

THE POOR PEASANTS AND UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE IN ENGLAND COULD NOT AFFORD THE COST OF TRANSPORTATION ACROSS THE OCEAN EQUIVALENT TO TWO OR THREE YEAR’S SALARY). SO SOMETIMES THE EMPLOYER (PLANTER) WOULD PAY THE COST OF TRANSPORTATION, AND THE SERVANT WOULD WORK FOR HIM FOR 4-7 YEARS IN RETURN. IF AN EMPLOYER OR ANY SPONSOR PAID THE COST FOR A SERVANT TO COME TO VA, THE SPONSOR WAS ALSO ENTITLED TO 50 ACRES OF LAND FROM THE COLONY, PER SERVANT HE SPONSORED. (10 SERVANTS X 50 ACRES EACH = 500 ACRES). THIS LAND, AND THE ENTITLEMENT TO LAND, WAS CALLED A HEADRIGHT. THIS GAVE EMPLOYERS AND SPONSORS (SPECULATORS IN ENGLAND) AN INCENTIVE TO PAY FOR SERVANTS TO COME TO VA AND MD. SOMETIMES THE SERVANT WAS ALSO CALLED A HEADRIGHT. THUS A FREEHOLD AND A HEADRIGHT ARE EACH 50 ACRES OF LAND, BUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM IS WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TO QUALIFY FOR THAT 50 ACRES OF LAND.

IN GENERAL, SERVANTS SERVED 4-7 YEARS, DEPENDING ON HOW YOUNG THEY WERE WHEN THEY STARTED. IF ONE WERE 20, ONE WOULD SERVE FOR 4 YEARS, TO AGE 24. IF ONE WERE 17, ONE MIGHT SERVE FOR 7 YEARS, TO AGE 24. IN TIME, THE RULE WOULD CHANGE TO SERVICE TO AGE 24, REGARDLESS OF HOW LONG THAT MIGHT BE. SO IF YOU WERE 14 WHEN YOU STARTED, YOU WOULD SERVE 10 YEARS.

F. THE AVERAGE AGE WAS ABOUT 18

G. RIGHTS

SERVANTS HAD SOME RIGHTS.

IN THEORY, THEY HAD THE RIGHT TO A WRITTEN CONTRACT.

THEY COULD SUE (COULD SUE THEIR MASTERS FOR MISTREATMENT, BREACH OF CONTRACT).

COULD TESTIFY IN COURT.

COULD POSSESS PROPERTY (ESPECIALLY PERSONAL PROPERTY SUCH AS A COW, HORSE, BOAT, WAGON).

HAD THE RIGHT TO CARRY WEAPONS, WHICH WAS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY BECAUSE THEY WERE ON THE FRONTIER WITH HOSTILE INDIANS (WHOSE LAND THE SETTLERS HAD CONQUERED/ STOLEN)

H. SOME PROHIBITIONS OR RESTRICTIONS ON THEIR RIGHTS

COULD NOT VOTE, HOLD OFFICE, OR MARRY.

MASTERS COULD HIT AND WHIP THEIR SERVANTS. SERVANTS WERE REQUIRED TO OBEY THEIR MASTERS. MASTERS USUALLY LIVED APART FROM THEIR SERVANTS, WITH SERVANTS IN SHACKS ON THE PLANATATIONS. EMPLOYERS ADDRESSED AS "MASTER", OR "MY LORD" OR "MY LADY."
 
 

CONTRAST BETWEEN INDENTURED SERVITUDE AND SLAVERY

BY 1705, IN VA, THE AFRICAN SLAVES WERE STRIPPED OF ALL RIGHTS, AND DEFINED AS CHATTEL, OR PROPERTY, AND PORTABLE REAL ESTATE. SLAVERY WOULD COME TO MEAN A CONDITION IN WHICH, IN THE LAW, ONE WAS NO LONGER A PERSON WITH RIGHTS, BUT A SPECIES OF DOMESTIC ANIMAL OR LIVESTOCK, LESS THAN HUMAN. DAVID BRION DAVIS CALLS THIS "ANIMALIZATION" (DEFINING SOMEONE AS AN ANIMAL, NOT HUMAN, AND TREATING THEM ACCORDINGLY AND DEGRADING THEM). AFTER 1705 THE "BLACK" SLAVES HAD NO RIGHTS AT ALL. SLAVERY WAS HEREDITARY, WHICH INDENTURED SERVITUDE WAS NOT.

SLAVES IN AFRICA AND THE ISLAMIC WORLD WERE STILL PERSONS WITH RIGHTS, NOT DEFINED AS ANIMALS, LESS THAN HUMAN. NEW WORLD SLAVERY WHICH DEFINED THE SLAVE AS AN ANIMAL , WITH NO RIGHTS, DID NOT EXIST IN THE OLD WORLD. AFRICA HAD NEVER CONCEIVED OF SUCH AN INSTITUTION. IN THIS SENSE THEY COULD NOT COMPREHEND WHAT SLAVERY IN AMERICA WAS LIKE.

INDENTURED SERVITUDE WAS TEMPORARY (4-7 YRS), FOR A PERIOD OF YEARS. SLAVERY WAS FOR LIFE, AND HEREDITARY, AND IN THEORY IT WAS PERPETUAL.

SOME INDENT. SERVANTS CHOSE TO COME TO AMERICA. THE AFRICANS GENERALLY DID NOT.
 

IN TIME, THE INDENTURED SERVANTS ACQUIRED LAND AND BECAME SMALL LANDOWNERS. THE SMALL LANDOWNERS WERE CALLED YEOMEN (plural). The singular is a yeoman. Yeomen is another term for farmers (landowners) as distinct from farm laborers (who work on the farm but do not own the land, or as distinct from farm tenants (who rent farm land). ACQUIRING LAND AND UPWARD MOBILITY WAS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE LANDLESS PEASANTS IN ENGLAND. BUT IN THE 1620S, 1630S AND 1640S, THE AVERAGE LIFE EXPECTANCY FROM THE TIME THAT A PERSON ARRIVED IN VA WAS 5 YEARS. HALF THE PEOPLE WHO CAME TO VA IN THAT PERIOD DIED WITHIN 5 YEARS. SOME SERVANTS NEVER LIVED TO COMPLETE THEIR TERM OF SERVICE.

INDENTURED SERVITUDE WAS ACTUALLY THE "STEPPING STONE" THAT LED TO "AFRICAN" SLAVERY IN THE US.

UNTIL 1700, THE MAJORITY OF THE LABOR FORCE IN VA CONSISTED OF "WHITE," BRITISH INDENTURED SERVANTS.

1649

15,000 EUROPEANS IN VA
     300 AFRICANS IN VA
 
 

1670

  6,000 EURO. INDENTURED SERVANTS
32,000 OTHER, FREE EUROPEANS
38,000 EUROPEANS
  2,000 AFRICANS, MOSTLY SLAVES
40,000 ALL TOGETHER (NOTICE MOST OF LABOR FORCE IS WHITE)

1660

950 AFRICANS IN VA (OUT OF COLONIAL VA POP. OF 27,000
758 IN MARYLAND
600 IN NEW NETHERLAND (NY)
422 IN MASS (COLONY OF 20,000)
 

1700

16,390 AFRICANS IN VA

1,680 AFRICANS IN NEW ENGLAND

BY 1700, NUMBER OF AFRICAN SLAVES IN VA EQUAL TO NUMBER OF EUROPEAN INDENTURED SERVANTS

ANTHONY JOHNSON

Anthony Johnson is believed to be the black indentured servant who came over to Virginia from England in 1621 (on the ship called James). After 1554 there were some black people in England, but England was eager to get rid of them and to preserve racial purity in England. Antonio served out his term of service on the Bennett Plantation and then became a freeman. While on the Bennett Plantation he married "Mary, a Negro woman." Eventually they had at least four children. In 1651 Anthony Jonson imported five servants, some of whom were white. Under the headright system, he received 50 acres of land for each of these servants. The names of the five servants were:
Thomas Bemrose
Peter Bughby
Anthony Cripps, Jr.
Gesorroro
Richard Johnson

Anthony Johnson established one of the first black communities in America, on the banks of the Pungoteague River on the eastern shore of Maryland.
In 1652 John Johnson, who may have been the son of Anthony, and lived in the exact same community, imported eleven English servants.

In 1655 some of Anthony Johnson's neighbors lured away his servant (or possible slave) John Casor. Johnson went to court and won. The court ordered that Casor be returned to Johnson.

In 1656 a black man named Benjamin Doyle had 300 acres of land in Surry County, VA. In 1668 John Harris, "Negro," bought 50 acfres of land in New Kent County, VA. And at that time Philip Morgan leased 200 acres in York County.

In the beginning, prior to 1640, a handful of black people in colonial Virginia became free and acquired land BEFORE slavery (life servitude) hardened into place and was written into law (1660s). Indeed, Afro-Americans who possessed property (land) were permitted to vote in Virginia until 1723; in South Carolina until 1701; in North Carolina until 1715; in Georgia until 1754.

But by the 1660s Virginia and Maryland would adopt actual laws specifying that any black people who were not already free and who came to the colonies from that time forward would be slaves for life, unless they had paperwork that proved that they had been free in England.

THE NEW AMSTERDAM "NEGROES" (NEW YORK CITY)

There is also an interesting case from the Dutch town of New Amsterdam (now called New York City), in the Dutch colony of New Netherland (now New York State) in the Hudson River Valley. In 1626 the Dutch West India Company brought eleven Africans to New Amsterdam. They were all males. The records indicate that their names were Paul d' Angola; Big Manuel; Little Manuel; Manuel de Gerritt de Rens; Simon Congo; Anthony Portuguese; Gracia; Peter Santome [which is Portuguese for St. Thomas], John Francisco; Little Anthony; and John Fort Orange. The men complained that they had no female companionship. In 1628 the Company began to bring in some African women (three African women from Angola arrived in 1628; others later). But 18 years later, in 1644, the men were still working for the Company. They filed a petition with the Council (government) of the New Netherlands colony, and argued that they had been promised their freedom many years ago but it still had not been given to them. Indentured servants did not serve 18 years. The Council GRANTED them their freedom, and ruled that they had 'long since been promised their freedom on the same footing as other free people in New Netherlands." (Lerone Bennett,Before the Mayflower, p. 41). The eleven men (and their wives) were granted freedom and given parcels of land in what is now Greenwich Village. Contemporary reports from the time indicate that the black servants in New Netherland were allowed to marry and to possess personal property (such as livestick, wagons, boats).

The point of this episode is to illustrate that servitude for life did not begin automatically when the first Africans arrived in the 16Teens abd 1620s. Initially the English and Dutch had qualms and scruples about holding a black or African person as a slave for life if the person converted to Christianity and was baptized. Not until 1667 did the English in Virginia pass a colonial law that clarified that baptism would not entitle a slave to freedom. Prior to that time the black people in Virginia were petitioning for their freedom on the grounds of their conversion to Christianity, and baptism. There were a FEW free black people in early colonial America. But after 1640 there is evidence that some (if not most) Africans coming into the colonies, and black children BORN in the colonies in America, were being held as slaves for life. It is as if it were up to the individual landowner how long to hold his servants (and if it was for life, then it was slavery). It was as if a distinction was made between temporary servitude (indentured servitude) and permanent, life servitude (slavery). Both are servitude, but they differ in DURATION, and in what rights the person may have while in servitude. Worst of all, for some people servitude is becoming HEREDITARY. By the 1640s and 1650s some black people in Virginia are being bought and sold as property. And actual LAWS clarifying who was a slave were enacted in Virginia and Maryland in the decade of the 1660s. After 1660, there will be no doubt that any black person who is not already free, or the child of a free black person, is from this point forward going to be slave.

TIMELINE

So there is a shift from:

an ambiguous status from 1619-1639 (left up to individual "employer");
to documented cases of the PRACTICE of life servitude in 1640;
to LAWS in the 1600s that "legitimized" or legalized, AFTER THE FACT, what the English had actually been doing for 20 years since 1640.