Jamestown, Virginia 55population experienced a natural population growth. Fi-
nally, most planters and small farmers found it more eco-
nomical to purchase African slaves who would not be freed
aft er fi ve to seven years. African slavery as the mode of
labor was what colonists in the Chesapeake and through-
out the other colonies turned to in the late 17th and
18th centuries.
See also: Bacon’s Rebellion; Chesapeake Colonies; Freedom
Dues; Headright System; Jamestown, Virginia; Johnson,
Anthony; Malaria; TobaccoIra Lee BerletBibliography
Berlin, Ira. Many Th ousands Gone: Th e First Two Centuries of
Slavery in North America. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of
Harvard University, 1998.
Breen, T. H., and Stephen Innes. “Myne Owne Ground”: Race and
Freedom on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, 1 640– 1 676. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1980.
Cooper Jr., William J., and Th omas E. Terrill. Th e American South:
A History. Vol. 1. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991.
Kolchin, Peter. American Slavery 1619 – 1 877. New York: Hill and
Wang, 1993.
Morgan, Kenneth. Slavery and Servitude in Colonial North Amer-
ica: A Short History. New York: New York University Press,
2001.Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown was the capital of Virginia from the English
colony’s founding in 1609 until it was replaced by nearby
Williamsburg 90 years later. Almost as soon as the colonists
in Jamestown discovered the potential of tobacco as a cash
crop, they began to import African slaves to help them grow
it. Seventeenth-century Afro-Virginians’ experiences with
slavery were quite diff erent from what their descendants
would face in the 18th and 19th centuries. During most
of the 17th century, only a small number of blacks lived in
Virginia, and they were oft en treated as well (or as badly)
as the English indentured servants who lived and worked
alongside them. Seventeenth-century Afro- Virginians lived
in a society in which racial distinctions were not yet seen
by most whites as reasons for discrimination; some blacks
were never enslaved, and there was even a chance for fortu-
nate slaves to obtain their freedom and prosper as respectable
small planters. But economic, demographic, and politicalTh e social status of indentured servants was another
way in which their plight fared better than slaves. Histori-
ans have found that prior to entering into their indenture,
servants’ occupations ranged from husbandmen and yeo-
man farmers to artisans, tradesmen, and laborers. Th ere
were also unskilled workers, unemployed persons (debt-
ors), and criminals. Whatever their status upon entering
into indentured servitude, there was no stigma for them
when they became freemen.
From the early to mid-1600s, there are a number of
cases of former indentured servants experiencing success-
ful lives in the New World aft er they fi nished their con-
tracts. Most married shortly aft er they were freed, some
became successful landowners, and a few rose to positions
of power. In 1629 seven members of the Virginia legislature
were formerly indentured servants. However, at the end
of the 17th century and early 18th century, many inden-
tured servants were not given land. Some became artisans
or skilled craft smen and worked as laborers in an ever-
increasing competitive market. Nearly 80 percent, however,
either died as servants, returned to England, or became part
of the lowest segment of colonial free society, poor white
workers. Th is growing population of landless, disgruntled
former servants led to an increased desire for slaves and to
Bacon’s Rebellion, which signaled an eventual end to in-
dentured servitude.
In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon, a rich English squire’s son
who had been in Virginia for only two years, led a band
of mostly former indentured servants and small farmers in
attacks on both frontier Indians and the Virginia governor,
Lord Berkeley. Th ey desired more land and wanted the co-
lonial government to help push the Native Americans off
the land. Bacon’s men eventually burned Jamestown, but
failed in their attempt to take control of the government.
Bacon fell ill and died near the end of the confl ict. Gover-
nor Berkeley gained control and executed 23 of the rebels.
Th e king considered Berkeley’s actions too harsh and re-
called him to England. In the end, Virginia’s planters began
to consider indentured servants a possible risk.
In addition to Bacon’s Rebellion, several other factors
contributed to the end of indentured servitude in colonial
North America. First, the economic situation in Britain
improved to a point where many of the urban poor could
fi nd employment at home and thus indentured service was
not as enticing. Next, mortality rates in the Chesapeake
region improved, birth rates increased, and the free white