Indentured Servitude With Slavery in the Colonies
Compared Indentured Servitude with Slavery in the Colonies
America is a country that was built upon the labor of those who were not in power. Much of the labor in the early days of the colonies and states came from indentured servants and slaves. Though both kinds of labor have similarities, the lives of indentured servants and of slaves differed distinctively. Eventually, over the course of early American history, the legally and socially, the country moved away from indentured servitude and became a slave-based economy. Slavery persisted throughout much of the country for hundreds of years. For a combination of reasons, including ethnic prejudice and economics, the United States of America did away with indentured servitude and used slaves as the primary labor force.
Indentured servants did not have easy lives in many cases. Indentured servants came from a variety of ethnic and social background.…...
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References:
Hill, J. (2008) Case Studies in Indentured Servitude in Colonial America. Constructing the Past, 9(1), 55 -- 62.
National Humanities Center Resource Toolbox. (2010) Slaves for life, and Servants for a time. Becoming American: The British Atlantic Colonies, 1690 -- 1763, Available from: nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/becomingamer/.../servitude.pdf. 2012 July 21.
In 1639, Virginia passed the first law that intended to exclude "Negroes" from any normal government protections. Furthermore, in 1664, Virginia passed the first anti-amalgamation law that prohibited anyone from procreating outside of their race; this law was followed up in 1691 with another law that would banish individuals from the colony if there were to marry outside of their race. In 1667, a law was passed that determined that Christian baptisms could no longer be used to free slaves. In 1682, Virginia passed legislation that officially determined that there was a racial distinction between servants and slaves.
Slavery was also aided through the passage of laws within the colonies and abroad in England. In 1641, Massachusetts became the first colony to recognize slavery, Virginia following suit shortly thereafter. In 1662, Virginia declared that any children born to slaves were to become slaves themselves, thus instituting the practice that slavery…...
American Indentured Servitude
Frethorne probably decided to come to Virginia for his servitude because it was the most advanced colony in the country. The town where he lived was ten miles outside of Jamestown, Virginia, which was like the big city of the time. It certainly was an exciting place because it had one of the biggest and most active ports of the country at the time. As he writes his family, Jamestown is where all the ships come in and there are numerous deliveries of all sorts of goods. Therefore, Jamestown seemed like an exciting new place with lots of promise for a new future and a fresh start. What Frethorne experienced upon arrival and stay in Virginia is not what he expected. He implores his family over and over to have pity for him. People who enjoy their work do not need the pity of others; therefore, readers can…...
American History
Northwest Passage- 1492-1600 when Europeans encountered the new world
After the Portuguese and Spanish took control of the South's sea pathways, the English and French began seeking a northwestern route to Asia. However, by the 17th century, they lost hope of ever making their way across North America's northern part after many generations of sailors failed to find a way. Nevertheless, early 15th and 16th century explorations and colonization increased knowledge regarding the world by a significant amount. Cornelius Wytfliet, the cartographer from Flanders created a world map that continued to depict the mythical "Straits of Anian" -- a province in China connecting the Atlantic and the legendary Northwest Passage, which finds mention in the edition of traveler, Marco Polo's work dated 1559. European powers' endeavors to make their homes in the Americas succeeded, ultimately, in the 17th century, when the English and the French successfully contested the Spanish claim…...
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References
Concepcion Saenz-Cambra. (2012). The Atlantic World, 1492 -- 1600. Concepcion.
David W. Galenson. (1984). The Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude in the Americas: An Economic Analysis. Economic History Association, 1-26.
weli, R. v. (2008). Slave Trading and Slavery in the Dutch Colonial Empi. In Rik van weli. New West Indian Guide.
Indentured Servant Analysis
Elizabeth Springs' letter to her father on September 22, 1756, is both a letter of apology due to her failure to communicate and a review of the horrendous conditions she was working under as an indentured servant. This paper reviews -- through historical context -- the situation that many indentured servants from England suffered through and puts Springs' letter into a perspective.
The Letter from Springs to John Spyer
Elizabeth Springs is clearly in distress. And to add to her distress over the terrible working conditions in the American colonies she is feeling guilty and sad that she left England under a cloud as to her relationship with her father. "My being forever banished from your sight…" she begins, hoping to touch her father's heart with her present pathos. It seems clear that it wasn't just a matter of Elizabeth leaving without her father's permission, but rather there was some…...
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Works Cited
Baseler, Marilyn C. "Asylum for Mankind": America, 1607-1800. New York: Cornell
University Press, 1998.
Springs, Elizabeth. "Complaint of an Indentured Servant (1756)." Voices of Freedom /
environment strictly controlled by its owning company, woman often found difficulty obtaining any kind of role outside of domestic duties. ork in company towns was generally reserved for males, which granted them the responsibility of providing for their families while restricting their wives to the duties at home. omen's lives within company towns, aside from placing them in a position of dependence on their husbands, were quite dull. In addition to leaving their previous positions in a life that revolved around an active family unit, they had also left their social lives behind. Because of the lack of freedom experienced within company town limits, women often found difficulty creating any new relationships. According to Jenny Higgins, "Unlike men, women were largely confined to the domestic sphere and had no coworkers who could help ease their entry into the community." (Higgins, 1)
If employment was obtained, it was often low-end work.…...
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When compared to life as an indentured servant, although still repressed and underprivileged, the life of a company town woman carried a larger amount of freedom. Although often bound to the company town because of marriage to a worker or due to financial reasons, woman did not risk legal penalties if they were to leave. In addition, especially with the coming of World War II, women saw their first opportunities to negotiate their working conditions with their employers, something that was unheard of for indentured servants.
Shaping of the Colonies in 1763
There have been few eras in human history possessed with more of the expectant optimism, and the grim pragmatism, than the century following first contact with the new world of North America. With an expansive landmass, the size of which more than doubled that known to citizens of any European country at the time, brimming with natural resources and lying open for exploration and settlement, many thinkers of the age shared Benjamin Franklin's fateful estimation, made in his tract America as a Land of Opportunity, which claimed "so vast is the Territory of North-America, that it will require many Ages to settle it fully." Penned and published in 1751, Franklin's treatise on the seemingly infinite riches to be reaped by the American colonies failed to fully anticipate man's overwhelming compulsion to compete for the control of land. While America's preeminent philosopher was prescient in his…...
Latin
"Coffee is King": The rise and fall of coffee in Colombia, economic growth and social change.
Colombia first became an exporting area in the sixteenth century, under the Spanish arrangement of mercantilism. Spanish imperial rule defined a great deal of Colombia's social and economic development. The colony became an exporter of raw materials, predominantly precious metals, to the mother country. ith its colonial position came a highly planned socioeconomic system founded on slavery, indentured servitude, and restricted foreign contact. Colombia's contemporary economy, based on coffee and other agricultural exports, did not materialize until well after its independence in 1810, when local entrepreneurs were free to take advantage of on world markets other than Spain. The late nineteenth century saw the development of tobacco and coffee export industries, which really enlarged the merchant class and led to population growth and the enlargement of cities. ealth was concentrated in agriculture and commerce, two…...
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Works Cited
"Colombia -- Economy." Mongabay. Library of Congress, n.d. Web. 3 May 2012.
"Colombia History." Mongabay. Library of Congress, n.d. Web. 3 May 2012.
The limitation of slave movement, was an action in response to the growing threat related to fugitive slaves (Selected records relating to slavery in early Virginia, n.d.). The conditions at the time and the harsh regulations concerning black slaves made them go in search for a different life, especially in Northern states (Petition to Governor, Council, and House of epresentatives of Massachusetts, 1773). Therefore, the Southerners were reluctant to offer any liberty that would somehow enable black people to gather and possibly plan insurrections or escape attempts. In addition, the tensions between the slaver states and the free ones were constantly growing because Free states were accusing slave ones of trying to use the slave population to increase its influence in the federal legislative body. In this sense, Northern states were somewhat ready to assist runaway slaves from South states.
Yet another reason, which influenced the way in which slaves…...
Galenson, David W. (1984). "The Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude in the Americas: An Economic Analysis." The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 44, No. 1. pp. 1-26.
Jenkins, P. A history of the United States. New York: Palgrave, 1997.
Further, while some upward mobility did exist, competition among small business entrepreneurs and economic instability caused by depression and financial panics created just as much downward mobility (Ibid. At 58).
Housing among the poor in the cities usually consisted of multiple families (as many as 8) living in homes designed for just one. The price of rent was disproportionately high because the numbers of immigrants in the teeming cities kept demand higher than supply (Ibid. At 132). As a result, slum housing developed and the risk of fire and disease became a daily risk for the urban lower class.
The middle class enjoyed much better conditions. hile downward mobility was always possible, the middle class could typically expect rising wages and could afford moderate consumerism, that is, purchasing magazines, clothing, books and some of the new manufactured goods becoming more and more available. A basic middle class characteristic was the traditional…...
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Works Cited
Chudacoff, Howard P. And Judith E. Smith. The Evolution of American Urban Society. Prentice Hall, Inc.: Upper Saddle River, NJ (2000).
Goodfriend, Joyce D. Slavery in colonial New York City. Urban History, Vol. 35
(2008), pp. 485-496.
Tomlins, Christopher. Reconsidering Indentured Servitude: European Migration and the Early
Zinn's a People's History of the U.S.
Should the U.S. apologize for slavery and its legacy? ho benefits if the U.S. doesn't apologize?
It is difficult to determine the answer to such a polarizing question. Some argue that slavery has been a form of life since the beginning of mankind and that if the African-American community is apologized to, then the Jewish people who were slaves should get apologies too. They argue that the sins of our ancestors are not our own and that we are not responsible for their actions. Yet, the American form of slavery was especially heinous. According to the text, the American form of slavery was the cruelest. Zinn points to two reason that American slavery was the most horrible: "the frenzy for limitless profit that comes from capitalistic agriculture" and "the reduction of the slave to less than human status by the use of racial hatred, with…...
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Works Cited:
Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States. New York: Harper. 1999. Print.
college campus across the country, students are greeted with the familiar sight of individuals seated at folding tables, with the purpose of marketing credit cards to them. These salespeople are most frequently seen during the beginning of the college semester and are usually young and attractive and smiling, barely older than the students themselves. Quite often, if a student fills out an application for the credit card, he or she may receive a small toy or a gigantic in exchange for his or her pains. hat could be more harmless? hat's wrong with having a credit card on hand, 'just in case?'
However, this familiar sight is one of the many reasons that college students are becoming more and more deeply ensnared in debt. These smiling individuals prey upon students when they are at their most vulnerable. Most of these students have just had to pay hundreds of dollars for…...
history slavery North Atlantic British colonies United States
Observations egarding Slavery
One of the primary methods of resistance for people of African descent who existed in servitude in the North Atlantic British colonies and in the United States was rebellion. Although far from occurring frequently, armed, violent revolt from chattel slaves helped to shape the history of their descendants in these locations. One of the most notorious of these uprisings was known as the Southampton Insurrection led by Nat Turner in Virginia's Southampton County in August of 1831. The effect of Turner's armed insurrection, and those of others in the Southern United States and in other North Atlantic British colonies can be evidenced in the amended legislature which ultimately influenced the future and perception of both slaves and former slaves for several years to come.
Turner's 1831 rebellion was just the latest in the lengthy list of historical uprisings slaves of African…...
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References
Dr. Thomas C., Parramore (1998). Trial Separation: Murfreesboro, North Carolina and the Civil War. Murfreesboro, North Carolina: Murfreesboro Historical Association, Inc.. p. 10
On October 23, 1783, Deborah was honorably discharged "as a great soldier, with endurance and courage, something much needed in the military at that time" but was only granted a veteran's pension at the end of her life ("Deborah Sampson Gannett: American Patriot," American Revolution, 2007). "Sampson's superiors all agreed that she was an excellent soldier...it was her reliability, intelligence, and bravery that made it possible for her to go undetected for so long" (Saxon, 2004). She risked her life to save her country and to fight for her country, and even risked her life to remain a soldier.
Sampson's life "bears out a theory that Margaret R. And Patrice L.R. Higonnet developed to describe the effects of war and peace on gender. They imagined a system in which men and women are positioned as if they were opposing ribbons of a double helix, which, no matter the circumstances, always…...
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Works Cited
Deborah Sampson Gannett: American Patriot." American Revolution. 2007. 24 Jun
Henretta, James a. "Unruly Women": Jemima Wilkinson and Deborah Sampson Gannett
Biographies from Early America." Published in America's History. Ed. By James a. Henretta, Elliot Brownlee, David Brody, Susan Ware, & Marilynn Johnson. 3rd Ed., Worth Publishers Inc., 1997. Reprinted in the Early American Review. Fall 1996.
in "Piaf," Pam Gems provides a view into the life of the great French singer and arguably the greatest singer of her generation -- Edith Piaf. (Fildier and Primack, 1981), the slices that the playwright provides, more than adequately trace her life. Edith was born a waif on the streets of Paris (literally under a lamp-post). Abandoned by her parents -- a drunken street singer for a mother and a circus acrobat father -- Edith learns to fend for herself from the very beginning. As a natural consequence of her surroundings, she makes the acquaintance of several ne'er do wells. She rises above the lifestyles of the girls she grows up with who prostitute themselves for a living in the hope that they will eventually meet a benefactor with whom they can settle. Edith has a talent for singing and she indulges this interest by singing loudly in the streets.…...
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Bibliography
Beauvoir, Simone de, and Parshley, H.M. The Second Sex. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993.pp. lv, 786
Eisenstein, Zillah R. The Radical Future of Liberal Feminism. The Northeastern Series in Feminist Theory. Northeastern University Press ed. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1986.pp. xi, 260
Engels, Fredrick. "The Development of Utopian Socialism." Trans. Lafargue, Paul. Marx/Engels Selected Works. Revue Socialiste. Ed. Basgen, Brian. Vol. 3. New York: Progress Publishers, 1880. 95-151.
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