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White American colonist turned to slavery as the answer to their labor needs in order to find a cheep way for free labor. Slaves would pick cotton non stop all day for no money at all. This would help the farmers get prosperous especially during the time of the Industrial Revolution when more cotton was needed in the Northern Factories.

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14y ago
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14y ago

They needed slaves because indentured service was too expensive and the weather and geography was perfect for farming. So the people who owned lots of land needed people to seed, take care and harvest all of their crops, so they got slaves to do it. The whole economy of the southern colonies depended on slaves.

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11y ago

The growth of tobacco, rice, and indigo and the plantation economy created a tremendous need for labor in Southern English America. Without the aid of modern machinery, human sweat and blood was necessary for the planting, cultivation, and harvesting of these cash crops. While slaves existed in the English colonies throughout the 1600s, indentured servitude was the method of choice employed by many planters before the 1680s. This system provided incentives for both the master and servant to increase the working population of the Chesapeake colonies.

Virginia and Maryland operated under what was known as the "headright system." The leaders of each colony knew that labor was essential for economic survival, so they provided incentives for planters to import workers. For each laborer brought across the Atlantic, the master was rewarded with 50 acres of land. This system was used by wealthy plantation aristocrats to increase their land holdings dramatically. In addition, of course, they received the services of the workers for the duration of the indenture.

This system seemed to benefit the servant as well. Each indentured servant would have their fare across the Atlantic paid in full by their master. A contract was written that stipulated the length of service - typically five years. The servant would be supplied room and board while working in the master's fields. Upon completion of the contract, the servant would receive "freedom dues," a pre-arranged termination bonus. This might include land, money, a gun, clothes or food. On the surface it seemed like a terrific way for the luckless English poor to make their way to prosperity in a new land. Beneath the surface, this was not often the case.

Only about 40 percent of indentured servants lived to complete the terms of their contracts. Female servants were often the subject of harassment from their masters. A woman who became pregnant while a servant often had years tacked on to the end of her service time. Early in the century, some servants were able to gain their own land as free men. But by 1660, much of the best land was claimed by the large land owners. The former servants were pushed westward, where the mountainous land was less arable and the threat from Indians constant. A class of angry, impoverished pioneer farmers began to emerge as the 1600s grew old. After Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, planters began to prefer permanent African slavery to the headright system that had previously enabled them to prosper. :)

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10y ago

In america, colonists used claves to do work that free men did not want not do at a price competitive with the cost of owning and nusing slaves. whether they actually needed slaves is more open to debate.

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13y ago

Colonists wanted to have slaves to help them do their work

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Q: Why did people in the American colonies want indentured servants?
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Continue Learning about General History

Who are people who promised to work for a period of time in exchange for travel to the colonies?

The individuals were known as indentured servants.


Why did colonists turn to slave labor rather than indentured servants in the late 1600s?

There was a decline in availability of indentured servants from England. The indentured servants from England weren't good workers. Indentured servitude was outlawed in the colonies.


How are indentured servants controlled by their masters?

In the early days of the American colonies, slaves and indentured servants had no rights worth speaking about. More so with slaves. However, in order to have indentured servants and slaves work to full capacity, these poor people were treated well enough to keep them fed & housed. Some of course were badly mistreated, tortured and killed.


How were enslaved people treated differently from indentured servants?

Indentured servants were poor people from England (sometimes prisoners) whose trip to the colonies was payed for by someone wealthier than them. In return, they had to work for that person for a number of years without pay. Slaves (usually African or of African descent) in the American Colonies, were people who had been taken by slave ship and sold in the Americas. They work their whole lives without pay, and their "owners" can do anything they want with them. Another thing is, the indentured servant's children were born free, as the slaves children were born slaves and looked after until they were old enough to work. In summary, Indentured Servants were treated as workers, Slaves were treated as property.


How did the fact that people began living longer in the colonies affect attitudes toward labor?

it increased the value of owning slaves over hiring indentured servants

Related questions

Which people made a contract to work in exchange for transportation to the American colonies?

indentured servants


What colony or colonies have indentured servants?

all of the colonies had indentured servitude and i think people still do it


Who are the groups of people who came to the colonies involuntarily?

indentured servants or slaves


What are people who agreed to work in exchange for passage to the colonies?

Indentured Servants


People who agree to work in exchange for passage to the colonies are?

Indentured Servants


Who are the people who agreed to work in exchange for passage to the colonies?

Indentured Servants


What reasons did some people have for becoming indentured servants?

It was/is ( yes there are still indentured servants) a method to have their passage paid for to the colonies. They had many reasons to leave.


These people worked for no wages for years to pay for their transportation to the colonies?

Indentured servants


What caused the number of indentured servants in English colonies to?

Improvements in conditions in Europe brought about a decrease in people attempting to leave the continent as indentured servants, and with the rise of the African slave trade, the need for indentured white servants that the colonists had to pay and eventually release decreased dramatically.


what caused the number of indentured servants in English colonies?

Improvements in conditions in Europe brought about a decrease in people attempting to leave the continent as indentured servants, and with the rise of the African slave trade, the need for indentured white servants that the colonists had to pay and eventually release decreased dramatically.


Who are people who promised to work for a period of time in exchange for travel to the colonies?

The individuals were known as indentured servants.


What indentured servant brough to Jamestown and other colonies was given freedom once?

There were no indentured servants in Jamestown among the 104 settlers in 1607. Indentured servants also didn’t have to be “given freedom “ because they weren’t slaves. They were people who agreed to a 7 year contract in exchange for passage to the colonies.