Early American History

¶ … American History

An Early "Nation of Immigrants" -- Early 16th Century immigrants

year-old female enslaved African brought to Virginia: A 16-year-old African would likely have been captured by a slave trader while running free in her native land -- or the young woman may have been bought as a captured slave, if she had been imprisoned by a rival tribe in Africa. Her strength must have been tremendous, to suffer the grueling Middle Passage to the New World on a slave ship. She would chained in a galley and have to survive on little food and water of poor quality and dubious sanitation. She would then be sold at auction to a plantation and either trained as a house slave or set to work in the fields, picking cotton or another cash crop. She would have no control over her future, unless she escaped, worked to buy her freedom, or was given her freedom after her master's death. If she married, she could still be sold and separated from her husband, and her children would be her master's property, whether she had them with her husband or was raped by her master.

24-year-old male indentured servant in Maryland: Indentured servants worked for no pay in exchange for their passage to America and room and board. Although an indentured servant was not a slave, he could be treated cruelly by his master, and may have been taken advantage of -- worked nonstop, treated poorly, and even subjected to violent beatings. He would not be allowed to leave during his contracted bondage, and would be treated like an escaped slave who committed a crime if he tried to escape a cruel master. Although, unlike a slave if his master was honest, he would be set freed and given a new start in life at the end of the contracted period.