Colonial Slavery in the Western Hemisphere Prior to 1793 Thomas Paine

Colonial Slavery started back in 1619 when a Dutch ship had brought African Americans to Jamestown, Virginia to work on tobacco plantations. At this time they, also like poor Englishmen, were only considered indentured servants who would be released after they have paid off their debt to their owner. As the population in the Americas grew over time, so did the size and amount of plantations that they had. The owners could not work the plantations alone and they found out that they could get cheap labor by having a mass of indentured servants. However, over the course of the 17th century, a race-based system formed. This led to the idea of shipping Africans over to the Americas from the west coast of Africa. These Africans were then the main source of labors in the Americas. They were slaves that were bound for life to there owner, and could be sold or killed as property. …