Slavery_Through_Out_Early_America

Damien Dwyer Ms. Lewis American History before 1865 10 February 2010 DIFFERENT WAYS, DIFFERENT PLACES No matter where you looked slavery was everywhere in the early North America. It is one of the essential factors that led to the new world being so successful. This was mainly do to free labor which enabled companies to make incredible profit of crops which required an immense amount of man power to be grown and harvested. Though these basic facts may be true throughout North America, slavery in different in various areas of the varied in many ways. When the first slaves arrived in Chesapeake they were more expensive then indentured servants and were not much better at working therefore they originally weren't valued for much. They were considered as part of the working classes and documentation shows evidence of African's acquiring there own land,servants, and slaves. There were a lot of sexual relations between the Indians, Africans, and the Europeans producing a melting pot of ancestry known as mulattoes. Though by the end of the 17th century Chesapeake gradually became a slave society which was predominantly due to the decreasing number of indentured servants entering Chesapeake due in part to the unattractiveness of settlement from Bacon's rebellion. The British Royal African Company started importing slaves to North America due to their high cost they were expected to work long hours with almost no time off. Since slavery was so new in North America there were no laws to abide to in relation to slavery which meant slave owners could have a lifetime use of slaves as well as a slavery being inheritable. SlaveOwners were free to do {text:soft-page-break} what ever they wanted with their slaves including brutal beatings this did not change until slave codes were passed in 1705. The availability and usefulness of slaves for farming such lucrative crops as sugarcane and tobacco caused more to be brought to North America between 1701 and 1710 then in the entire previous century. In the lower south slavery was originally focused on Indians with which the Carolina worked with various tribes pitting them against each other in order to take prisoners of war and make them slaves. Toward the 18th century planters began to prefer African slaves over Indian slaves. The big crop harvested by the slaves was rice until 1740 when indigo was introduced and joined rice as one of Carolina main crops. For these crops to succeed slave labor was essential. Slavery spread to Georgia where it was temporary outlawed but the movement of southern farmers with slaves caused the ban on slavery to be lifted. By 1770 African Americans made up around 80 percent of South Carolina and Georgia coastal region due to their self-sustained growth. Slavery was essential in colony founded by the French known as Louisiana. The French company of the indies imported around 6,000 slaves to help farm the tobacco and indigo plantations. The expansion of the French into country of the Natchez Indians greatly angered them and caused them to cause an up rise with rebellious slaves that killed 200 settlers and the rebels flame of rage was quickly extinguished by the french militia. Fearful of a similar event the Louisiana French never fully committed to slavery and the slave population made up less than a third of the colonies population. Slavery remained an essential factor in the commerce of North America and could be seen in almost any colony since most of the colonies profited from crops such as Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Rhode Island and therefore it was a necessary practice. {text:soft-page-break} Though some of the Quakers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey were some of the first colonist to voice there antislavery ideas there voices were lost in the great void known as greed and profit. Looking back we can recognize slavery though horrible as it may be was an essential part of the development of North Americas. Though the ideas,laws, and use of slaves varied depending on location there main purpose remain unaltered which was free labor allowing immense profit and wealth from the lucrative crops of the early Americas. From this it can be deduced that slavery no matter the time or location was essentially the same and varied minutely depending on the owners and or colony it was located in.