Slavery In The Chesapeake Colonies

The population of the English colonies on American soil slowly but steadily grew: in 1625 it was 2 thousand. People, in 1650 rose to 50 thousand., And by 1700 was already a quarter of a million. Virginia and Massachusetts were the largest English settlement, at the beginning of the XVIII century they lived almost half of the colonists. Another third of the total population accounted for Maryland, Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania. In New England, people preferred to settle in cities with dense buildings; in the south dominated by sparsely scattered County; Mid colony combine both types of settlements.
It is not difficult to imagine the conditions in which immigrants were arriving in the New World. Earth was a lot, and it almost cost nothing.

Initially, the source of manpower was England, which supplied the region contracted Servent. Under this system, young men (and to a lesser extent women), aged 15-25 years, who could not realize at home, agreed to move to America, covering all travel costs of labor in the new place for 4-7 years. All this time their contract remained in the hands of the host on which they worked, in return for food and shelter. At the end of the contract term, they often were given a small piece of land, tools, the livestock or other "attributes of freedom." Service in a foreign country was not easy, but many young people were going at it, wanting to eventually change for the better their lives. It was their choice to fight the unenviable fate. Most of the newcomers - from 2/3 to 4/5 - came to the shore of the Chesapeake Bay as wage laborers. If we talk about the American colonies as a whole, half of all European immigrants shared their

Firstly, the owners of land ownership in the southern colonies rapidly pooled their land, forming a large-scale farms, which, respectively, required much more labor. Second, the price of tobacco, the main crop of the South, in the 1660s fell and remained at a low level, forcing all the planters to sell cheaper. Third, as population growth in England and at the same time reduced to improve living conditions, the number of people who wanted to go to America as indentured workers, reduced - thus the number Servent also declined. Fourth, the laws of Virginia and other colonies were aimed at the worsening situation of black workers and ultimately led to legitimize the system of slave labor. Although theoretically black workers were free men, in fact, they had to put up with infringement of their civil, legal and property rights. Now the white owners were able to extend the life of the Negro and actively used it. As a result of prolonged service very soon turned into an open-ended. Moreover, the offspring of black slaves automatically inherit the status of their mothers, that is also turned into slaves. Fifth, in 1697, Royal African Company lost its monopoly on the slave trade that gave free rein to its competitors and has led to the expansion of trade in slaves. And finally, sixth among American