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Indentured servitude was the primary source of labor for early American colonists until the rebellion. [19] Little changed in the immediate aftermath of Bacon's Rebellion; however, the rebellion did cause a general distrust of servant labor and fear of future rebellion. [ 20 ]
Indentured servitude in British America was the prominent system of labor in the British American colonies until it was eventually supplanted by slavery. [1] During its time, the system was so prominent that more than half of all immigrants to British colonies south of New England were white servants, and that nearly half of total white ...
Though Casor was the first person who was declared an enslaved person in a civil case, there were both black and white indentured servants sentenced to lifetime servitude before him. Many historians describe indentured servant John Punch as the first documented slave (or slave for life) in America as punishment for escaping his captors in 1640 ...
While American slaves in 1809 were sold for around $40,000 (in inflation adjusted dollars), a slave nowadays can be bought for just $90, making replacement more economical than providing long-term care. [354] Slavery is a multibillion-dollar industry with estimates of up to $35 billion generated annually. [355]
In other cases, some slaves were reclassified as indentured servants, effectively preserving the institution of slavery through another name. [ 119 ] Often citing Revolutionary ideals, some slaveholders freed their slaves in the first two decades after independence, either outright or through their wills.
In his A Biographical History of Blacks in America since 1528 (1971), Toppin explains the importance of Punch's case in the legal history of Virginia: Thus, the black man, John Punch, became a slave unlike the two white indentured servants who merely had to serve a longer term. This was the first known case in Virginia involving slavery. [27]
The word "slave" may not accurately apply to such captive people. [3] Most of these so-called Native American slaves tended to live on the fringes of Native American society and were slowly integrated into the tribe. [3] In many cases, new tribes adopted captives to replace warriors killed during a raid. [3]
Slave owners included a comparatively small number of people of at least partial African ancestry in each of the original Thirteen Colonies and later states and territories that allowed slavery; [2] [3] in some early cases, black Americans also had white indentured servants.