LIFE IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICA 1807 1861
SLAVERY IN AMERICA COTTON SLAVE TRADE AND THE SOUTHERN RESPONSE
|
Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
|
|
|
They tried to escape.
|
|
|
More help was needed on the plantations.
|
|
|
Indentured servants were too expensive.
|
|
|
All of the above.
|
Detailed explanation-1: -Many landowners also felt threatened by newly freed servants demand for land. The colonial elite realized the problems of indentured servitude. Landowners turned to African slaves as a more profitable and ever-renewable source of labor and the shift from indentured servants to racial slavery had begun.
Detailed explanation-2: -As the merchant and adventurer Sir George Peckham noted in 1583, many English men and women willingly became servants “in hope thereby to amend theyr estates, ” and young children were sometimes bound to service by parents who might not otherwise be able to afford their upbringing.
Detailed explanation-3: -The life of an indentured servant was difficult and filled with heavy physical labor. In the Chesapeake Colonies, this was usually field work. It has been estimated that an indentured servant working four acres of corn and tending 1, 000 tobacco plants would bend over at least 50, 000 times during servitude.
Detailed explanation-4: -By 1675 slavery was well established, and by 1700 slaves had almost entirely replaced indentured servants. With plentiful land and slave labor available to grow a lucrative crop, southern planters prospered, and family-based tobacco plantations became the economic and social norm.