Slavery

In 1607, Jamestown was established as the first permanent English colony in the "New World." The purpose of Jamestown was to make money. In the beginning, the colony wasn’t fulfilling its purpose. However, due to the efforts of John Rolfe in 1611, tobacco became a major crop in the new colony.

Now that they had there cash crop, a better and larger labor force was needed. In 1619 Dutch traders brought a small amount of African slaves to Jamestown (The thought is somewhere around 20 slaves). These first slaves were treated more as indentured servants (they signed a contract and worked for around 7years) and a number of them actually won their freedom either by fulfilling their contract or by converting to Christianity. Some successful Africans even bought slaves or had contracts with indentured servants. However, over time from one law to another, from one colony to another the African indentured servants were soon enslaved and no longer would be free even if they were Christian.

 Even though there were now Africans in the new colony, it wasn’t until the 1680s that African slavery was the dominant labor force. This is because they were no longer treated as indentured students also because tobacco had become more prosperous.

Brook