turn agree in writing to serve that farmer for a specified number of years, varying from four to seven. After the period of indenture was over, the worker became a free man or woman again. Often receiving land to take up farming. The indenture system had its drawbacks; many servants who had arrived in America resented their condition and worked unwillingly.Slavery was introduced among the early indentured servants were people who did not come to America willingly. The first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619. For the next thirty years or so, Africans were generally treated like indentured servants from Europe. By 1651 there were about 300 Africans in Virginia’s population of 15000. By 1640 some black servants were forced to serve their indentures for life. Slaveholders were given increasing control as the personal and civil freedom of black people, which was more and more restricted. Finally, as the 1700’s opened, the English were becoming heavily involved in the profitable slave trade, until then a monopoly of Spain.The demand for slaves increases because of labor shortage. Another response was the importation of African slaves. Slave trading itself mocked the high ideals on which so many of the colonies which had been founded. For the suffering of slaves the torment was often made worse by the fact that they came from different places of Africa. Some Africans tried to escape their mystery by starving themselves to death aboard the ships. Accustomed to agricultural work in Africa, they became indispensable to the colonial economy. Those Africans who survived the Atlantic crossing were quickly taken in hand and taught the tasks they would have to perform in America. It is estimated that 2/3 of the slaves captured in Africa never survived to land in America.The American Revolution cut off trade with England. Debate whether slavery is still necessary with the decline of agriculture. Southerners needed a n...
