Contingency And Accidents That Led Up To Slavery
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Contingency and accidents that led up to Slavery
Virginia was founded in 1607, it was the land of farming. Many colonist during this time resulted in farming. The main crop they grew was tobacco. Virginia began to prosper in their economy by growing tobacco and exporting it to England. Growing tobacco needed laborers. The only labor that was available for the need was indentured servants. These two combinations of tobacco and indentured servants led up to slavery.
The money made from tobacco led to the growth of more farmers. Tobacco was easy to grow and easy to maintain, it was the main crop in Virginia. Many colonists in Virginia depended on the crop of tobacco, because they used the produce of the tobacco to pay for taxes and to buy imported goods. Many colonists began to see the money making of growing and exporting tobacco.
The only major labor force that was available was indentured servants. Indentured servants were people that were in debt and needed to pay their debts back by serving an amount of years. Some people became indentured servants because they need to pay there ride to the Americas. Some were convicted of a felony. It was very profitable for the small and the large farmers to use indentured servants. In the end indentured servants only live up to the life expectancy of 5 years without even serving up there full term of there contract. Freedom dues were given in the end of the term. But many people dont live up to the end of the term. Freedom dues were given as swamp lands or anything that the landowners gave to the servant after there term ends. Because of this it made it an excellent labor force.
Many people in Virginia did not live very long because of the poor sanitation, poor treatments of water, and etc during the years of 1625-1640. The average life expectancy was forty years of a man. There was barely any woman in Virginia during this time. The high death rates spiked higher and higher soon lead to the downfall of the labor force of indentured servants. More and more people in England were afraid to come to Virginia cause of the high death rates. But things began to change in Virginia later on. There were huge improvements in sanitation and in cleaning water, leading to higher life expectancies.
Which meant that indentured servants were now fulfilling there contracts and landowners now have to pay the indentured servants