Indentured Servants

Indentured Servants

“Indentured Servitude”
In the seventeenth and eighteenth century, slavery gave plantation owners the opportunity to own more land and produce more crops with very minimal costs for labor. During the seventeenth century, there was also indentured servants as another form of labor, but since indentured servants were contracted labor and required certain needs to be met from their plantation owners; they were not as cost efficient as owning slaves. There were many different economic conditions that allowed slavery to flourish in the Southern Colonies. The living condition for slaves was poor, their needs were barely ever met and their working conditions were unethical. Despite the fact that most slaves worked and lived in unethical living conditions, there were some men had morals and treated the slaves with some respect and allowed for them to live as happily and healthy as slavery permitted. I will be discussing the development and conditions of slavery in the colonies, the economic conditions that allowed slavery to flourish in the Southern Colonies, the living and working conditions of salves in the new colonies, and how moral men justified the use of slaves.
A servant labor system was first developed in the colonies when Indentured Servitude was introduced. Indentured Servitude allowed underprivileged immigrants to for your seven years of labor in exchange for passage to the colonies, food and shelter after they arrived. Slaves were brought against their will and forced to work; their only compensation was being housed, clothed and fed by their “master.” The indentured servants in essence incurred more costs than owning slaves because indentured servants had contracts that allowed them to be contracted for seven years in exchanged for their labor while slaves were owned by their “masters.” The plantation owners owned the slaves therefore the slaves were treated as things, and colonists were allowed to do what they wanted with them because the slaves did not...

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