USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Labor systems: The first labor system in the colony of Virginia was indentured servitude, in which servants worked for landowners in exchange for passage to America.

Detailed explanation-2: -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-3: -But by the 17th century, Virginia’s economy began to rely on slave labor. After the international slave trade was abolished by Congress in 1808, the slave trade became Virginia’s largest industry. By the 1860s, one-third of Virginia’s population was enslaved African Americans.

Detailed explanation-4: -During most of the 1600s, Virginia’s labor force consisted primarily of white indentured servants and a handful of convict laborers, who in many cases were treated no better than enslaved laborers. Some Virginia Indians also worked as servants or, more often, were enslaved.

Detailed explanation-5: -Indentured servants were men and women who signed a contract (also known as an indenture or a covenant) by which they agreed to work for a certain number of years in exchange for transportation to Virginia and, once they arrived, food, clothing, and shelter.