32 Atlantic African, American, and European Backgrounds to Contact, Commerce, and Enslavementslaves and thus simplifi ed the control of the labor force.
Tobacco planters especially preferred slaves to indentured
servants, and when Indian slaves were no longer available
at the end of the 17th century, planters began the mass im-
portation of African slaves. From 1695 until 1700, more
African slaves were imported than in the previous 20 years.
With increasing numbers of African slaves, Virginia passed
its fi rst slave code in 1680.
In the fi rst decade of the 18th century, 8,000 new
slaves were imported into the Chesapeake. Th ese slaves
were predominantly male and the standard of living of
these slaves steadily decreased, as planters became more
interested in making a quick profi t. Planters followed
the Caribbean model of “seasoning” slaves: they stripped
the new arrivals from all ties to their homeland. Th is be-
came necessary because the Chesapeake colonies started
to import slaves directly from Africa, rather than from the
British Caribbean colonies. One of the fi rst ties removed
was their African name, but planters failed to completely
erase the slaves’ African identity. A second slave code in
1705 limited the rights of free blacks, regulated the right
of black people to bear arms, and discouraged planters
from freeing their slaves by attaching numerous provisions
designed to stop the planter from acting. Slaves that were
manumitted had to leave the colony within six months, or
they would receive severe corporal punishment from the
colonial legislature.
As long as tobacco prices remained stable and high in
Great Britain, planters in the Chesapeake continued to im-
port slaves in large numbers. However, aft er 1750, the soil
of the Chesapeake was exhausted and the demand in Great
Britain dwindled. Th e tobacco boom turned into a tobacco
crisis, and planters cut their acreage and switched to wheat
cultivation. Wheat required less slave labor than tobacco,
which also led to a decrease in the slave imports aft er 1750.
Nevertheless, slaves constituted one-third of the population
in Maryland and two-fi ft hs of the population in Virginia on
the eve of the American Revolution. Slaves were not evenly
distributed across the Chesapeake colonies; slave numbers
were signifi cantly larger in the coastal regions. Subsistence
farmers, whose demand for slave labor was low, primarily
settled the backcountry of Virginia and Maryland. How-
ever, about 61 percent of American slaves lived in the Ches-
apeake colonies in 1750.
Th e Chesapeake colonies diff ered from their British
sister colonies in the Caribbean. Slaves never constitutedTurner, Lorenzo Dow. Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect. Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1973.
Young, Jason R. Rituals of Resistance: African Atlantic Religion in
Kongo and the Lowcountry South in the Era of Slavery. Baton
Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007.
Chesapeake Colonies
Th e fi rst African slaves of the Chesapeake colonies arrived
in Jamestown, Virginia, on a Dutch trading ship. Th e Virgin-
ians bought the slaves, but they treated them as indentured
servants. Indentured servants served a contractual term,
whereas slaves were bound for life. Africans were able to
join the white indentured servants, once their contract ex-
pired, and they established farms and families themselves.
Unfortunately, the Chesapeake colonies quickly ran out
of labor, because indentured servitude was not suffi cient
to satisfy the increasing demand of the main staple crop,
tobacco. As a result of the labor shortage, the Chesapeake
colonies began to import African slaves, once the survival
rate of new arrivals reached a satisfactory percentage. By
the mid 1600s, roughly 1,700 Africans lived in the colonies,
about one-fi ft h of them free.
Th e role of slaves quickly changed with the advent of
the plantation society in the Chesapeake colonies. Whereas
slaves were formerly part of the society, baptized, and even
allowed to travel, the plantation regime now heavily re-
stricted the slaves’ rights. Based on the color of their skin,
slaves were easy to identify and to ostracize. Th e settlers of
the Chesapeake quickly followed the model of British Ca-
ribbean islands, where slavery and plantations had been
in place since the early 1600s. Colonial judges singled out
African indentured servants and levied harsher penalties
for equal crimes committed by whites. Virginia recognized
slavery by law in 1661, and in 1662 a second law stipulated
that the child would follow the status of the mother, free or
enslaved.
In 1676, Bacon’s Rebellion further encouraged the
planters to establish tighter control over slaves. Nathaniel
Bacon led a rebellion against the ruler of the colony. Ba-
con’s rebels consisted of white indentured servants, as well
as 10 percent of Virginia’s black males. Planters concluded
that slaves were the more dependable workforce, since they
could be legally subjected to bondage for life. In addition,
their black skin made it easier for planters to detect fugitive