Essay On Indentured Servitude

Slavery is one of the most influential institutions in the history of America, unfortunately it brought more harm than good. Landowners needed people to do their work for them which led to indentured servitude. Indentured servants rebelled and the most affordable and reasonable option for them was to enslave Africans. The colonizers had allies take Africans from their homes and ship them to the colonies. Slavery soon developed and overtime became associated with racial degradation. Indentured servants were people who were contracted to work for a plantation owner, serving for four to seven years. Their work would pay off their debt from their journey to America. Once these servants were let free, they were given freedom dues including items such as corn, weapons, land and more. When there was no …show more content…
Because slaves were vital in the colony, the colonists wrote slavery into law. Strict laws were made such as, the fact that children were free based on the race of the mother. If the child was black, they would have a life of slavery. Afterword, they declared a law stating that the baptism of a Christian could not change servitude. There was no way to become free. One of the worst laws put in place was that if a planter should kill one of his slaves, the murder will not be committed as a crime. These laws are what started to make white people think degrading the Africans was acceptable. The colonizers felt the best way for their society to run smoothly was to privilege whites and demean blacks. On the other hand, the Northern colonies weren't slave societies basing their economy off of slavery, therefore they were not as driven to racially based privilege. Unlike the planters and people of the Southern colonies, the North were somewhat antislavery. The Quakers, a very present religious group in the North, had a powerful movement to free the