Sep 27, 2016 Orange County Review
Last week’s column “The First Blacks in Virginia were Freemen” has generated quite a lot of conversation, which is always a good thing! I was asked a couple of questions that will be addressed, to some degree, here.
Reader’s response: “Did the African indentured servants come voluntarily or were at least some kidnapped and transported? Were any of the indentured servants’ offspring later classified as slaves?”
All excellent questions and wonderful fodder for further discussion. Regrettably, as the existence of documentation from the early to mid-1600s can be a rarity, the findings are often speculative and not completely clear, much less specific to individuals.
We know that some indentures were “purchased” for the price of the passage to the colonies but were there also commissions to what one might expect were “brokers?” Were indentures different for whites and blacks? In the 18th century when indentures were sold by the “church” due, for example to the birth of an illegitimate child and/or an unpaid fine, was the indenture purchased from the church? In these cases, how was the price of the indenture established? Was it based on gender, age and different for whites and blacks?
Today’s column attempts to provide thoughts related to the first two questions.
From 1607 to 1619, The Virginia Company was stressed over what historically appears to be an unanticipated challenge: a limitless amount of available land teeming with agricultural potential but a remarkable shortage of labor that, if not addressed, would impede the success of the fledgling colony.
The organizers let no grass grow under their feet and immediately (under their own auspices) devised a solution of indentured servants, a program that would be managed solely by the Virginia Company.
The plan was redesigned three times and always with the Virginia Company underwriting the price of passage to the New World. The final and most successful version required the planters or others in need of labor to purchase the indenture outright rather than the previous method of renting the servant. Perhaps, this was the genesis of actually “owning” another, at least in philosophy and supposedly not in perpetuity.
These early indentured servants were white and predominantly unskilled workers from Europe—that is until a Dutch ship sailed up the James in 1619 with 20 black men aboard. The theory is that these men were brought from the West Indies. We may never know if they came voluntarily or by some form of coercion, however, it is recorded that they were “sold” as indentured servants with the same expectations as white servants of freedom at the end of their term of service.
Though little documentary evidence remains, it is believed that several of these original 20 and their offspring gained freedom, married and owned property.
And, yes, others would have the expiration of their indentures ignored, not unlike the plight of many of the white servants. However, planters preferred the concept of “ownership” for life rather than the instability caused by short-term contracts for the indentured. It was these same planters who governed the New World. By 1641 in Massachusetts and 1661 in the Virginia, Colony slave laws were established.
There is so much more to the story; keep searching, reading and asking questions.
Until next week, be well.