Written Assignment 1

After reading the primary documents on slavery and indentured servitude in the online textbook and Course Lectures, compare and contrast the experiences of African slaves and indentured servants in the colonial period. In your essay also examine the evidence for slaves and indentured servants in the following primary documents:

Read this account of an indentured servant in the Middle Colonies as well as
these two accounts of indentured servants in the Chesapeake region, a letter from a young woman,
and a description of the life of indentured servants in colonial Maryland,
Finally, read this description of the life of slaves in colonial Virginia.

In your essay consider how experiences of slaves and indentured servants were similar? How were they different? Be sure to refer to the primary documents to illustrate and support your views.

Articles

First Slaves First Hope
The article discusses the first Angolan Africans brought to North America as slaves as part of the founding of Jamestown, Virginia, in the early 1600s. Particular focus is given to the slave Anthony Johnson, who came to secure his freedom and grow tobacco while himself owning a slave. The author goes on to distinguish between slavery, which was reserved for Africans in the New World, and indentured servitude, which was practiced by poor whites in Jamestown. Also discussed is a lawsuit brought against Johnson by his slave, John Casor, who claimed he was an indentured servant.
Colonial Servitude and the "Unfree" Origins of America.
The article focuses on the history of bound white labor in the British American colonies between 1600 and 1780. The author compares indentured servants to slaves, examines how underemployment and poverty contributed to migrants willingness to enter into servitude, and explores servant patterns throughout the the U.S. colonies and the Caribbean.
The Education of Indentured Servants in Colonial America
This article serves as a foundation for understanding the earliest form of technical instruction in colonial America. It is a synthesis of historical studies that have addressed the education of indentured servants and apprentices in colonial America. It defines indentured servitude and contrasts it with apprenticeship--a form of indentured service. The paper addresses how indentured servitude in colonial America became established and how those who were employed through such means fared. Primary emphasis is on the education that indentured servants and apprentices would have received and how that varied by time periods and regions.
Before Cotton and Other than Sugar: How Tobacco and Rice Shaped the World of Eighteenth-Century Slaves in British North America
The Market Evaluation of Human Capital: The Case of Indentured Servitude
This paper examines the market for human capital created by the institution of indentured servitude in colonial America. The indenture system allowed English emigrants to obtain passage to the colonies by selling claims on their future labor. With the size of the debt approximately equal for all emigrants, the length of the term for which a servant was bound is predicted to have varied inversely with expected productivity in the colonies. Analysis of two collections of contracts made in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries supports the prediction. Age, skill, and literacy were negatively related to length of indenture. Women received shorter terms than men at young ages, while servants bound for the West Indies and those bound in periods of high colonial demand for labor also received reductions.

eBooks

Tobacco and Slaves: The Development of Southern Cultures in the Chesapeake, 1680-1800 by Allan Kulikoff
Publication Date: 1986
Escaping Servitude: A Documentary History of Runaway Servants in Eighteenth-Century Virginia by Antonio T. Bly; Tamia Haygood
Publication Date: 2015
White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain's White Slaves in America by Don Jordan; Michael Walsh
Publication Date: 2008
Slavery and the Making of America by James Oliver Horton; Lois E. Horton
Publication Date: 2004

History 2010 - Toye (NeSCC): Written Assignment 1