44 Atlantic African, American, and European Backgrounds to Contact, Commerce, and Enslavementimplemented if Virginias were to quell rebellious undercur-
rents and once again see the profi ts they enjoyed in the ear-
lier part of the 17th century. Although slaves were present
in the colonies in small numbers from approximately 1619,
roughly the same time indentured servitude began to take
hold, slavery as opposed to indentured servitude proved to
be no more economically advantageous, but rather more
costly, as the price of slaves compared to that of white im-
migrants, coupled with high death rates, was simply not as
cost-eff ective as indentured servitude. By the 1660s, how-
ever, slavery would prove to be the answer to the problem of
indentured servitude and become, arguably, the single most
important factor, whose tenure and legacy would be essen-
tial in coloring the economic, social, and political landscape
of what would become the United States.
See also: Chesapeake Colonies; Headright System; Inden-
tured Servitude; Jamestown, VirginiaChristina BushBibliography
Galenson, David W. “Th e Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude
in the Americas: An Economic Analysis.” Th e Journal of Eco-
nomic History 44 (1984):1–26.
Morgan, Edmund S. American Slavery, American Freedom: Th e
Ordeal of Colonial Virginia. New York: W. W. Norton, 1975.
Shade, William G., and William R. Scott, ed. Upon Th ese Shores:
Th emes in the African American Experience 1600 to the Pres-
ent. New York: Routledge, 2000.Futa Jallon
Th e history of the whole area from the Gambia to Sierra
Leone was dominated from the beginning of the 18th cen-
tury on by the development of the great Fulbe state of Futa
Jallon. Th anks to it, long-distance trade carrying Sudanic
infl uences found its way to the coast and there linked up
with the Europeans. Th e Fulbe founded the Muslim state of
Futa Jallon only aft er 1727.
Futa Jallon used to raid for slaves and imported a
large number from the hinterland or took them from the
coastal minority peoples. Some were then made available
for export.
Futa Jallon developed as a center of Islamic learn-
ing. During the 18th century, Futa Jallon developed as an
important intellectual center of Islam. Students were sentFreedom Dues
Freedom dues refer to the payment given to indentured
servants by their masters, upon completion of their term
of service. Most oft en these dues came in the form of cloth-
ing, land, seeds to plant crops such as tobacco, and some-
times livestock. Indentured servitude, as was carried out by
settlers in the Virginia colony, was the solution proff ered
around 1620, to the crisis of labor shortage in the colonies.
In exchange for a term of indenture, sometimes previously
specifi ed and at other times negotiated upon arrival, Eu-
ropean immigrants had their passage from Europe to the
colony paid. Initially, indentured servants were exclusively
from England but later came from various places in Europe,
including Scotland, Ireland, and Germany. Th ese immi-
grants were overwhelmingly men of lower socioeconomic
status in their home countries, who despite high mortality
rates, came from Europe to Virginia in hopes of establish-
ing themselves through the acquisition of wealth and gain-
ing the social ascent that came with it.
For planters, initially, indentured servitude proved to
be an eff ective system, as the numbers of newly freed ser-
vants who, using their freedom dues, established their own
small tobacco farms, were minimal and therefore were not
deemed a serious threat to the profi ts of their previous own-
ers. Aft er the middle of the 17th century, however, as death
rates began to fall and life spans increased, the numbers,
and indeed the profi ts, of the emerging planter class began
to jeopardize those of the master class.
Several solutions were proposed to combat the ad-
verse economic eff ects of the emerging planter class. One
such measure used to address depressed tobacco prices and
subsequent loss of profi ts was to extend servants’ terms of
indenture. Servants who engaged in behaviors that were
deemed transgressive or disruptive, including but not lim-
ited to absconding, stealing, sexual liaisons resulting in
childbirth, could be penalized though the lengthening of
the term, among other more brutal forms of punishment.
However, the increasing emergence of the planter class
was only one factor of an array including weather, war, and
cessation that worked in concert to depress profi ts and rouse
frustration and disillusionment among planters in Virginia.
Eventually, it became apparent that economic eff ectiveness
of indentured servitude had run its course, and some other,
more permanent, less expensive, measure would have to be