The controversy at the top of the Virginia government over yearbook photos continues with no universally accepted resolution in sight. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has said he wasn’t going anywhere, despite calls for him to resign. In an interview with Gayle King of CBS This Morning, Northam said that 400 years have passed since the “first indentured servants from Africa landed on our shores.” Ms. King said, “Also known as slavery.” His response was “yeah.”
After the interview, Mr. Northam said that during a recent speech he referred to the indentured servants as enslaved. He said, “A historian advised me that the use of indentured was more historically accurate. The fact is, I’m still learning and committed to getting it right.”
I realized that I wasn’t sure either, so my extensive research kicked in… this is what I found.
Indentured servants first arrived in America in the decade following the settlement of Jamestown by the Virginia Company in 1607. The idea of indentured servitude was born because of a need for cheap labor. The earliest settlers realized that they had lots of land to care for, but no one to care for it.
The Thirty Year’s War had left Europe’s economy depressed, and many skilled and unskilled laborers were without work. The Virginia Company developed the system of indentured servitude to attract those workers. A new life in the New World offered a glimmer of hope; between one-half and two-thirds of the immigrants who came to the American colonies arrived as indentured servants.
Servants typically worked four to seven years in exchange for passage, boarding, and lodging. While the life of an indentured servant was harsh and restrictive, it wasn’t slavery. According to many historians, for those that survived the work and received their freedom package, they were better off than the new immigrants who came freely to the country. Their contract may have included at least 25 acres of land, a year’s worth of corn, arms, a cow and new clothes.
It was not until 1619 the first black Africans came to Virginia. Initially, they were treated as indentured servants and given the same opportunities for freedom as whites. However slave laws were soon passed and any small freedoms that might have existed for blacks were taken away. As demand for labor in the colonies grew, so did the cost of indentured servants. Many landowners also felt threatened by newly freed servants demand for land. Landowners soon turned to African slaves as a more profitable and ever-renewable source of labor and the shift from indentured servants to racial slavery began.
So — Indentured servants agreed to work for 4 – 7 years in exchange for transportation to the colonies. Slaves were brought to America against their will. There were slaves and indentured servants in all 13 colonies. Both worked at the same types of jobs — most worked without pay. Life was difficult for both — hours were long and hard. Indentured servants were eventually freed — most slaves were not.
I realize this is a much oversimplified description, but there are obvious differences. I think Governor Northam was right —he’s got a lot to learn. We all do…..
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