BLACK AMERICA

JAMESTOWN BEGINNING

The history of blacks in North America began in August 1619, when a small Dutch warship sailed up the James River to the young English colony of Jamestown, Virginia.

The Dutch ship had captured a Spanish ship in the Caribbean Sea carrying black men and women to Span ish colonies in South America. At that time, the Jamestown colonists needed workers to help clear and till the land and build houses. So the Jamestown settlers welcomed the blacks as a source of free labor.

In 1619, the English did not have the practice of slavery - the complete ownership of one person by another person. But they did have the practice of indentured service. That is the ownership of a person's labor for a period of time by another person or group of people. Many of the first English settlers in North America were indentured servants. They had pledged their labor to pay for their ship passage to the New World, to pay old debts, or to make up for some small crime. In some cases, they were tricked, cheated, or even kidnapped into indentured service.

The 20 blacks landed from the Dutch ship were viewed as indentured servants. Black and white indentured servants worked side by side at Jamestown, clearing fields, planting crops, making roads and building houses. The death rate at Jamestown was extremely high - for landowners and servants, black and white - and the need for labor was great. To meet this demand, ships' captains often bought, traded or captured blacks from the Spanish and Portuguese.

Though an increasing number of black servants arrived in the English colonies during the early 1600s, the vast majority of indentured servants were white. During the period, black and white indentured servants had the same status. When their period of service was over, they were considered to be free. They were then able to marry, own property and, in some colonies, exercise all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 939