Indira Incognito 0 By an incredible, but unidenfied student (Indira Incognito ??) Final Paper ECON 40423 John Lovett December 6th, 2018 An Exploration of African Indentured Servitude in the Thirteen Colonies Abstract: The institution of indentured servitude was an incredibly important economic tool that was used throughout the colonial period of the United States. While most indentured servants that came to the United States were of European descent, there were African indentured servants that worked their way to freedom in the thirteen colonies as well. This paper explores the life, rights, and opportunities afforded to these individuals after they were freed. I have researched and wish to showcase throughout this paper, how the lives of these free blacks differed from the way African slaves were treated less than 50 years after these individuals made their way to the thirteen colonies. I conclude this paper with my speculation on why these two seemingly similar groups were treated so differently. Indira Incognito 1 An Exploration of African Indentured Servitude in the Thirteen Colonies By: Indira Incognito Abstract: The institution of indentured servitude was an incredibly important economic tool that was used throughout the colonial period of the United States. While most indentured servants that came to the United States were of European descent, there were African indentured servants that worked their way to freedom in the thirteen colonies as well. This paper explores the life, rights, and opportunities afforded to these individuals after they were freed. I have researched and wish to showcase throughout this paper, how the lives of these free blacks differed from the way African slaves were treated less than 50 years after these individuals made their way to the thirteen colonies. I conclude this paper with my speculation on why these two seemingly similar groups were treated so differently. If you were to close your eyes and think about colonial America, what would come to mind? I’m sure a particular picture of this time period would start to form. Maybe this picture includes the Pilgrims settling in Plymouth, the Framers of the Constitution writing up the Declaration of Independence or maybe it includes a hardworking European family braving the journey to make a better life in the New World. While all these historical events and groups have significance in American history, this is not a representative picture of the 13 colonies. Of course, this is not your fault. Your picture formed because these examples have been, more or less exclusively, taught in American history for decades. You have been primed since your first Thanksgiving with certain images of colonial life, but in reality, Indira Incognito 2 there are many other fascinating aspects of the birth of our Nation that are not focused on. One of these captivating facets of early American history, is the population of African indentured servants who lived more or less as free men in what would later become the Confederate South. While the most well‐known groups to settle in the New World were religious exiles from England, like the Pilgrims, Quakers, and Puritans, not all colonial Americans were from England, or journeyed here for religious reasons. Many immigrants that settled in the 13 colonies actually came because of economic pursuits. A huge portion of the colonial population, especially in colonies like Virginia, were drawn to the New World by Joint Stock Companies who offered them expanses of land they never would have been able to acquire in England. Many of these individuals did not have the funds to pay for the trip to the colonies on their own, so they came over as indentured servants. While many of these servants were from England and other European countries, there was a smaller population of African indentured servants who have slipped quietly through history with little historical recognition. In this paper, I wish to collect and present information on this forgotten group and explore how their rights and opportunities compared to white indentured servants of this time period. Indentured Servitude Indentured Servitude is an institution that developed with great success in the 13 colonies due to the increasing market for labor in this region. There were many farmers and plantation owners in the New World, but a lack of inexpensive Native labor or available cheap European labor already located in the colonies. This led to a system called Indira Incognito 3 indentured servitude where importers would pay for the passage of a European worker, through a contract called an indenture, which they would turn around and sell to New World employers. The worker would come over and be bound to whoever owned their indenture, until they had paid off the cost of their passage, resulting in a relatively inexpensive long‐term labor source in the colonies. The indentured servitude model that gained immense popularity in the 13 colonies was adapted from the idea of servants in husbandry used in Europe. Many different adaptions to indentured servitude occurred before a model stuck. At first, Galenson (1984) explains, The Virginia Company used their own funds to transfer servants from England to the New World, but many servants ran away once they arrived because the work they were employed to do was very tedious and the living standards were incredibly poor. “These difficulties of supervising and motivating the discontented workers led the Company to seek a new solution to the labor problem” (p. 4). A few more models were tried after this market failure, and eventually, in 1620, the model of indentured servitude that is understood today, stated above, took form. “Indentured servitude therefore emerged as the institutional arrangement that was devised to increase labor mobility from England to America” (Galenson, 1984, p. 6). Indentured servants made up a large landscape of the colonial population. Galenson (1984) writes, “between half and two‐thirds of all white immigrants to the American colonies after the 1630s came under indenture” (p. 9). Fogleman takes this one step further stating that about 50% of immigrants to the 13 colonies from 1607‐1699 were indentured servants (Fogleman, 1998). But not all indentured servants were white. This paper will act Indira Incognito 4 as a case study of the most prominent African indentured servants, hopefully shedding a light on a topic not often discussed when delving into our nation’s history. The Forgotten Families Most Americans believe slavery is the sole reason why Africans made their way to the 13 colonies. In reality, “Not every black [colonist] was cast into slavery” (Billings, 1991, 54). Africans, albeit not too many, were here before slavery was widely adopted by colonists which occurred at about the turn of the 18th century. In fact, “[the] history of Black America began with [the] landing of twenty blacks at Jamestown, Virginia [in 1619]… the twenty blacks were accorded the status of indentured servants” (Bennett, 1993, p. 475). Fogleman (1998) states that roughly 5% of the colonial population in 1680 was made up of Africans and individuals of African descent although fewer than 10,000 Africans slaves had been imported to the mainland colonies by that time (54). This means free Africans, or African indentures, had immigrated to the colonies as well. Because each colonies’ laws, statues, and histories are distinct, it is necessary to look at each colony as an individual entity. This paper will focus on the history of African indentured servants in the Virginia colony because this is where their journey began, and because records from this region are most readily available. Many free Africans were located in the Virginia colony, which as we know from history, later became a large slave holding state. The African individuals who lived and owned property in Virginia in the early to mid‐1600’s are referred to as the “forgotten African families” (Brewer, 1955, p. 575). About 300 free Africans called Virginia home by the middle of the 17th century, and their presence, especially in this region of the colonies, Indira Incognito 5 has great historical significance (Brewer, 1995, p.575). The best kept records of this group detail the individuals living on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. “According to the Northampton County tax lists in 1664, there were 62 Africans living on the peninsula… from 1664 to 1677, there were 13 free African householders” (National Park Service). These forgotten families arrived in the New World by a variety of means. Brewer (1955) explains how these settlers gained their property, “a few received land grants ranging from 50 to 500 acres, made possible by the head‐rights system. Others acquired their property in chattel; while there were some who came into ownership of land or chattel through grants in the wills of their former masters” (p. 575). The first of these means is the headrights system. According to Nash (1972), “fifty‐acre headrights [were] awarded for every person brought into the colony, black and white” (492). This was great motivation for individuals to pay their own way to the colonies. There are no definitive records that show where these Africans came from, but a large majority of them settled “along the banks of the Pungoteague River” (Brewer, 1955, 576). Others of these “forgotten families” gained their land from their freedom dues, “Former Negro servants… did not always go forth empty‐handed from their masters' services. Many were furnished either land or chattel or both to embark upon their new life as freemen” (Brewer, 1955, p. 579). Not all African indentured servants arrived in the colonies by the same means as European servants. Typically, this journey was not voluntary unlike it was for whites, but once they arrived in Virginia, these Africans were treated like normal indentures.