Slavery In The American Colonies

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, to the new republic. As slavery evolved differently in the thirteen colonies, the colonial areas I will focus on are the Chesapeake region, the north, the Carolina’s and Georgia, followed by Louisiana.
The concept of slaves and slavery in England had died out after the eleventh century. Therefore it is believed that English immigrants to the Caribbean gained the idea of enslavement from the Spaniards. The Spaniards had adopted slavery after Columbus’s voyage in 1492. This decision was influenced by the fact that Native Americans, whom Spaniards had attempted to enslave at first, were seen as unsuitable for the harsh labour. With the acceptance of slavery in the British Caribbean, it was of no surprise that British establishers in Jamestown did not condemn the practice.

In 1619 a ship arrived in Jamestown, and sold twenty “Negroes” it had brought over from Africa as part of its cargo. Bound labour was common in all the colonies because of the intense labour shortage. Many settlers earned their passage to the New World, and that of their families, by indenturing themselves for a term of years, usually seven, after which they would be free. Some of the early Africans were treated as indentured servants, because there are records of free blacks in the Chesapeake area in the 1650s. During this period, however, the white colonists determined that blacks would be slaves for the term of their lives, and their children would be slaves as well.
Chesapeake
As previously noted, Africans were brought to America to replace a dwindling European labour force and soon became an important part of the economy of the Chesapeake region beginning in 1619. Initially, they were treated as indentured servants and freed after a term of service. Many black servants, however, began to lose the same rights afforded to their white counterparts. Tobacco was the Chesapeake’s regional crop. It had dominated the Chesapeake agriculture...