Economic View Of Slavery Essay, Research Paper

Slavery was caused by economic factors of the english settlers

in the late 17th century. Colonists continually tried to allure

laborers to the colony. The headright system was to give the

indentured servant, a method of becoming independent after a number of

years of service. Slavery was caused by economic reasons. Colonists

chiefly relied on Indentured Servitude, inorder to facilitate their

need for labor. The decreasing population combined with a need for a

labor force, led colonists to believe that African slaves were the

most efficient way to acquire a labor force that would satisfy their

needs.

Before the 1680’s, Indentured Servitude was the primary source

of labor in the newly developed colonies. After the 1680’s, the

population of the Indentured Servants decreased, exponentially. Their

were a number of different reasons why the population of Indentured

Servents had decreased. The indentured servents were running away from

their temporary masters, to find a job where he could become more

independent. Indentured servents were also dying of many diseases,

which was caused by harsh conditions. The immigration of servents thus

declined, becuase of the people in England being informed of the harsh

treatment in the colonies. The society was where the land was easy to

find, while the labor was most scarce. Indentured servitude, was a

form of labor which was declining, and the need for labor increased

rapidly.

In the 1600’s, when tobacco was founded by John Rolfe, tobacco

became the main source of income for most of the colonists. The

economic prosperity of the colonies was primarily dependent on the

amount of tobacco produced. The growing of tobacco, needed a large

amount of land, with a large stable work force. The increased demand

for a large, stable work force combined with the availability of

African slaves, led to the use of slavery in the colonies. During the

late 17th century, the indentured servants were running away from

their masters farms, if a slave had run away from their master’s

farms, then the slave would be easier to discern because of the color

of his skin. To the planter, slavery was the ideal form of labor that

would be most beneficial to productivity of his crop.

Planters had an abundance of land and a shortage of labor.

This relationship, made the amount of tobacco directly proportional

to the number of slaves that the planter owned. Slavery was the

backbone of the prosperity of the colonies. A major factor in the

consideration of slaves on plantation, is the flux of the land.

Tobacco was the major crop of the 17th century, and tobacco is a plant

that exhausts nutrients from the soil, which led to the rotation of

crops, inorder to replenish the crops. The planter needed to educate

his workers on certain agricultural techniques inorder to know how to

make the land most productive. With a permanent work force, such as

slaves, the slaves would only require to be educated once, instead of

the planters having to re-educate indentured servants every X number

of years. The African slaves also had other characteristics that

enticed colonists to use them as a labor force. The African slaves

were immune to malaria, which resisted them from disease. The africans

also were subsistence farmers in africa, thus, they had a tradition of

farming, and essential agricultural skills.

Slavery was a course in history, where it was opportune for

the colonists to use slavery as a labor force. The decline in

population of indentured servants exacerbated the situation, as time

progressed, slavery became more and more imminent. Morality was not

taken into consideration, because of the settlers were only viewing

slavery from a economic view, rather than a humanitarian point of

view. The introduction of slavery into the colonies can be summarize

with a cliche of the settlers being “at the right place at the right

time”.