Indentured Servants In North America

Unlike the plantation owners, and to some degree indentured servants, the blacks had no political or judicial clout either in England or in the colonies. The political and judicial establishment, completely controlled by the planters, created laws that safeguarded their economic interests at the expense of the enslaved Africans. Even the indentured servants did have one important right: the right to the courts. “Legal considerations, however laxly regarded, imposed some limits, as did the realization, at least in North America, that some of the mistreated would eventually command free status and political influence.” From the court records, there is evidence that servants often sued their masters for grievances such as excessive punishment, freedom due to …show more content…
This meant that even Christians could be enslaved permanently by other Christians. Other legal changes not only moved to make slavery racial but also hereditary. Under the English law, a child inherited the legal status of the father. The Virginia officials made an exception in 1660s that applied to the child of a slave woman from an Englishman, by declaring that the child would inherit the status of the mother. In 1705 Virginia’s planter dominated House of Burgess drew up a code of laws: about inherited and permanent bondage of African descent, a separate judicial and penal system for the slaves, and slave patrols which required participation from non-slaveholders to protect the property rights of the slaveholders. In 1669 the planters of Barbados expanded their operations into South Carolina after they got legal guarantees that they could import their model of black slavery. One of the scenarios the colonial leaders feared the most was discontent and cooperation among poor and bound labor. White servants and African slaves worked together and shared similar grievances toward their masters. Both groups