Slaves

Slaves Bill Fisher History 20: American civilization before 1877 With the arrival of twenty Africans at Jamestown, Virginia in 1619, the history of African-Americans in this country began. At first, they were indentured servants as were many white colonists. Ignorance and prejudice soon changed the African's status from servant to slave. From their arrival in 1619 to approximately 1640, the indentured African servant worked side by side in the fields along with their white counterparts. They socialized together and even married and had children. In Virginia and Maryland African servants gained freedom by fulfilling their contracts or after becoming Christians. It was not until the 1660's that Maryland and Virginia passed laws making Africans slaves for life. Carolina and the middle states enslaved Africans as well. By 1750 Georgians were allowed to own slaves. The Africans were brought to America via the "middle passage". Between 1500 and 1800, European traders shipped about ten million Africans to the New World. Most went to the West Indies or Latin American colonies. About five percent went to the colonies in America. Ships carrying goods such as rum and fish left New England for the west coast of slaves, african, slave, africans, life, family, culture, america, new, white, songs, middle, passage, american, africa, about, work, west, vassa, part, own, freedom, felt, england, colonies, children, became, wrote, world, women, virginia, until, take, speech, slavery