Analyze the Origins of SlaveryEssay Preview: Analyze the Origins of SlaveryReport this essayAfrican Slaves that were brought to the Americas during 1607-1776 worked and lived in harsh living conditions and were treated inhumanely. They were quickly shut out of their society and were instead treated like a piece of property, and didnt have any rights at all. Throughout the period of 1607-1776, there were different rebellions, and acts that revolutionized slavery. However, in 1607 when the first slaves were brought over to Jamestown, Virginia, they we unaware that millions more would soon be brought over to the New World to follow their unexpected journey.
In the wilderness of the New World, life was harsh and brief for the settlers of Jamestown, and adapting to living in the wilderness was more of a struggle then they thought it would be. The reason the settlers went over the Americas was to find gold and to bring back an income to the Virginia Company, their sponsor, who wanted to make a reasonable profit from the resources in the New World. However, when they were unsuccessful in finding any sort of profit, they were starting to get troubled. In 1612, John Rolfe started a tobacco plantation to help the settlers, which later on soon became a popular cash crop throughout the colonies. There were soon tobacco plantations appearing all over the colonies that required more labor for the settlers, so they began using white indentured servants. However, around 1619 Dutch traders brought some of the first African Americans to Jamestown to help with the labor needed.
The colonists and their settlers often claimed that their land and their people were not taken, but an attempt by the Indians to enforce indenture and prevent them from obtaining the fruits of the labor that they were accustomed to. However, in 1642, this claim was abandoned. A British plan in which the colonists tried to convince the natives that “this was not the land for us,” failed to convince any of Jamestown’s men, who had spent years of their lives looking for the land. The colonists eventually decided, after receiving numerous offers from the Europeans, to change their minds and leave the country. However, there is no evidence to support this plan to the present day, and its future may never be set. For more, see: What It Was Like to Live in Jamestown, by Charles P. Smith.
When it came time for the colonists to leave the land, their first plan was to take out a reservation, which they used to use to buy some small slaves, and eventually give them to the colonists. When the first settlers arrived, they were mostly white, living where the locals had kept them and where they didn’t want to. When the Colonels got there, they were told that the settlers needed to be allowed to stay with colonists, and the colonists agreed with them. When they became independent, they got to live in what was referred to as “Pueblo Creek” or “Old Man’s Cabin”. The plantation owners later referred to it as “Cottage Creek”, although the term still seems to refer specifically to this particular location. This area was eventually cleared completely (and now officially called “Cote Creek”) in 1702.
The colony of Jamestown was known for its white slaves in 1728. It only had 11.9% of the population, compared to 7.2% for nearby North Carolina, but by the 1790s it was as many as 300. Jamestown was a major source of labor and resources for the colonists. The colony was also known for one of the colony’s longest surviving businesses, the Blacksmithing Company. This business took the form of two main branches: the “Hamburger” and the “Red and White” business, which consisted of a large assortment of black, white, red, and blue cheeseburgers. In 1850, one of the most successful operations in Jamestown, the Hamburger Company, saw its annual profit run to $30,000. However, during the Civil War, the company came under intense repression and tried to strike when faced with the prospect of their own armed rebellion. The only way that the settlers could get their money was to build slave farms with the support of the settlers, so they were all set to buy an additional crop of beans which the settlers would soon begin growing. The colonists took a massive gamble that the next crop would be grown to $10,000 per year, but instead the price went up by 2% as their land became extremely expensive. To stop the plantation owners from ever obtaining their money, and thus the price of one crop of beans was lowered the farmers were forced to sell their first crop, either by a slave or any other means at market price. Some of the slaves even stayed behind to help feed the plantation. By the end of 1820, the plantation owners were able to bring more than 100,000 additional slaves back to Jamestown. The owners were able to take a 2% cut off the cost of production as well. In 1850, the first major commercial wheat crop was produced to pay for the construction of a slave farm. In 1818, a second