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Servants And Slave Laws In The 1600's Essay

1304 Words6 Pages

During the 1600’s, servants and slaves lived in harsh conditions by working in the fields all day. This lead to either running away or rebelling against the plant owners. However, laws were passed to keep things in order and preventing the servants and slaves from doing something they should not do. These laws helped the plantation owners profit from their servants and slaves in many ways, while at the same time it allowed their masters to do what was necessary to keep them in check. In the end, the masters are the ones who hold the most power by deciding how to run things. Not only this will tell who had the most power, but it will tell who suffered the most through these laws. Servants and slaves have been working in harsh conditions which …show more content…

In 1669 a law passed stating that it was legal to kill a slave. The Virginia law explains “Whereas the only law in force for the punishment of refractory servants resisting their master, mistris or overseer […] Be it enacted and declared . . . [that] if any slave resist his master […] and by the extremity of the correction should chance to die, that his death shall not be accompted a ffelony, […] should induce any man to destroy his owne estate.” (“Virginia Servant and Slave Laws,” in Handout Set, p.3). The law states that if a slave is disobeying his master, the master has every right to punish them, and even kill them without committing any type of felony. The only reason it does not count as a felony is because the slave is property, and the master can do anything with its property without suffering from any type of consequence. A similar law passed in 1672 about handling a rebellion by either wounding them or killing them. This law states that if any slaves, Indians, or servants are in a rebellion, any person has the right to either wound them or them if they resist. If a slave or servant rebels, then anyone has the right to wound them or kill them even if they are not their master. This made it easier for putting down rebellions fast because even if the slaves and servants were someone else’s property …show more content…

In an article from the New York Times called “The Workers Defense Project, a Union in Spirit” by Steven Greenhouse talked about how immigrant construction workers struggle in fighting for their rights in their workplace. Greenhouse says “What upset them was that for the previous two weeks their crew leader had not paid them; each was owed about $1,000” (Steven Greenhouse, “The Workers Defense Project, a Union in Spirit,” New York Times, Aug. 10, 2013; In print Aug. 11, 2013, p. BU1). These immigrant construction workers have not been paid until the workers filed a Lien which freezes investments of the project. After all that, the immigrant workers received the $24,767 that they were owed. This represents how workers are still fighting for their rights just like how slaves and servants fought for better conditions because every law they had was mostly on how to punish them instead of making their lives better. Workers march and protest now, while slaves and servants rebelled, but got themselves killed in the progress which clearly shows they had it more tough than anyone else. This demonstrates how much power the white plantation owners over the servants and slaves, while workers in this day have better rights, but are still fighting for improvement on those

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