Indentured Servitude to Slavery: The Change in Labor Provision before Reconstruction

Instructor: Dr. William Bruncher
U.S. Labor and Work Before the End of Reconstruction
01/31/2017
Indentured Servitude to Slavery: The Change in Labor Provision before Reconstruction
The story of the American colonization is an interesting one. According to Clark and Hewitt (7), in 1492, Christopher Columbus made a voyage into the uncharted island of Bahamas a journey that opened the entire region to the Europeans. Even though other Europeans had made their way to the new land in the eleventh century, Columbus voyage opened the way for other Europeans to come in. The European encounter with the Americans transformed both continents, and within a short period, Africa became a part of this encounter. Traders, warriors, and missionaries developed commercial, political and religious transformations on the three regions. These changes brought great wealth to some people while exposing others to great brutality and suffering (Clark and Hewitt 8). This paper examines how Columbus journey and the subsequent conquest of the colonies created a need for labor and how that labor turned from indentured servitude to that of slaves and the reasons that brought about this change.
For a long time, Europeans dreamt of finding wealth in the New World. However, the Europeans also knew that doing so was impossible without much labor. Columbus believed that the Natives that he encountered were capable of offering good labor. Upon coming into the land, the Europeans tried forcing the natives to offer labor. These attempts were however futile as the organization of the Americans made it hard for the Europeans to force them to offer such labor. After settling in the New Land, the planters realized a plant that could offer them much wealth. However, such wealth was elusive, as much labor was needed to attain this objective. This saw the planters try to force the natives to offer such labor, but this proved untenable as the natives opposed the attempt (Clark and Hewitt 20).
While slave trade was beginning to take shape during this time, it was not a good solution as the slaves were capable of buying their freedom with some cases where former slaves became slave owners. To fill the labor deficit, the planters entreated the Crown who forced the orphans in his kingdom to work in the New Land until they attained the age of twenty-one. The challenge with this approach was that most of the orphans died before attaining the age of twenty-one due to the harsh working conditions. Even as Spain and Portugal continued conquering more territories, the need for more labor increased even further (Clark and Hewitt 28).
The unreliability of the slave and European laborers forced the planters to seek for alternative means of labor. Back in England, the occurrence of an economic recession had forced many people to go without their basic needs. The white planters used the economic recession in Europe to entice people to work in their plantations in the newly acquired land. In convincing the people gotten from England to accept the offer, the white planters agreed with the laborers that they would only be required to work for four to seven years before they are granted free access to the colonies (Robert 91). This indentured servitude was appealing to many young people who found the prospect of owning land. In most cases, those who signed for the indentured servitude were from poor families and the prospect of going abroad was better than facing starvation at home. Unlike the orphans who had been forced to work in their farms, the indentured servants came to work in the farms willingly due to the hard economic situation back at home. However, the excitement was short lived as the working conditions were unbearable and most of them indentured servants were forced to work without food and in the midst of sickness (Clark and Hewitt 71).
As England’s economy began improving in the 1670’s, a very small number of indentured servants wanted to leave for the colonies. In addition to this, the opening of new regions also meant that the labor was no longer concentrated in one region thus denying the planters of the much-needed labor force. To ensure that they got good returns for their investment, the planters subjected the indentured servants to harsh conditions something that saw most of them want to retur...