nt. The other crucial event that would play a role in the development of America was the arrival of Africans to Jamestown. 4A Dutch slave trader exchanged his cargo of Africans for food in 1619. The Africans became indentured servants, similar in legal position to many poor Englishmen who traded several years of labor (usually 4-7 years) in exchange for passage to America. The popular conception of a racial-based slave system did not develop until the 1680's. 5The Algonquians eventually became disenchanted and, in 1622, attacked plantations killing over 300 of the settlers. Even though a last minute warning spared Jamestown, the attack on the colony and mismanagement of the Virginia Company at home convinced the King that he should revoke the Virginia Company Charter. Virginia became a crown colony in 1624. 6Jamestown suffered many hardships. Next to the winter of 1609, the closest Jamestown came to destruction was in 1676. Dissatisfied with the government of Sir William Berkeley and its neglect of frontier defense, a man named Nathaniel Bacon led a popular uprising. He was able to drive Berkeley from Jamestown and set half of the city on fire. 7...
