The Slave Trade

From Indentured Servitude to Chattel Slavery

Indentured ServantsA person who has contracted to work for another for a

limited period often in return for travel expenses, shelter, and sustenance

Some volunteered

Some forced as a criminal punishment

Some children kidnapped

Upon completion of the contract, the former servant would receive some money, tools, clothing, and food and would set out on their own

Headright SystemThe Virginia Company’s policy of granting 50 acres of

land to each settler and to each family member who accompanied him

Land was the only asset the Virginia Company had to pay new investors

Encouraged investors to bring settlers so the colony and company could grow

Chattel SlaveryAn enslaved person who is owned for ever and whose

children and children's children are automatically enslaved. Chattel slaves are individuals treated as complete property, to be bought and sold.

There were fewer and fewer indentured servants

The headright system could not get new settlers to brave the dangers of the New World

As plantation owners became wealthier, they could afford to buy slaves

First leg: merchant ships brought European goods to Africa

Middle Passage: European goods were traded for slaves and slaves were transported to the Americas

Final Leg: Merchants sent raw materials to Europe to be manufactured

Triangular trade was very profitable

Africans were kidnapped from their villages-tied together and forced to walk to port cities

Once on the ships they were restrained below deck-disease, starvation, and suicide common-packed on shelves below deck-called “floating coffins”

Watch this video:

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/30011-assignment-discovery-the-middle-passage-

video.htm

Slave trade brought wealth and labor to the Americas

African states were torn apart and lives were cut short or forever brutalized

At the peak of the slave trade (1780s) 80,000 slaves were traded a year!

Look at this picture and describe how it makes you feel. Imagine if you had to be in this situation.