The Negro in Our Law: Until it was outstripped by slavery in the middle of the eighteenth century, indentured servitude was the chief form of labor in the Middle Atlantic and Southern North American colonies, and it continued to exist until well after the Revolution. The best estimate is that half the white population south of New England in the colonial period came to America as indentured servants- men recruited in Europe almost as brutally as the blacks were mobilized in Mrica, and were treated almost as badly on the journey, and in their places of work. The status of indentured servants was quite as low as that of black slaves. . Their contracts could be sold. They were not allowed to vote, to hold land, to engage in trade, or to serve on juries. They could not marry 'without the consent of their masters, and they were subject to corporal punishment by the master. The control of rebellious indentured servants was a major problem of public order in most of the American colonies and a major source of humanitarian complaint, both in America and in Britain. Many tricks were used to extend their nominal terms, and they became accustomed to degradation. One of the fascinating hypotheses about social experience advanced in recent years HeinOnline -- 9 Utah L. Rev. 846 1964-1965 846 UTAH LAW REVIEW [VOL. 9:841 by Rossiter and others is that the indentured servants of colonial times, deeply injured by their experience, became not the sturdy yeomen and independent artisans of Federalist America, but an intractable mass of backward Southern "poor-whites," the ancestors of the Snopes.l1 Historians seem generally to agree that Negro slavery developed strongly in the North American colonies only because white servitude could not produce a sufficient labor supply, especially for the colonies where plantation crops prevailed. Reports of the treatment of indentured servants reached Europe and made their recruitment more and more difficult. At the same time, the Mrican slave trade became diabolically efficient, often with the cooperation of tribal chiefs. The first Negroes who came, in 1619, were probably not slaves at all. For fifty years or so, most Negroes who arrived or were brought here were indentured servants or free immigrants. The records notice several, perhaps many, who became free landholders, businessmen, and the masters of other servants. Some were given land under the headrights system - that is, they were given land grants of 50 acres for each European or Mrican they brought into the colonies. In early times, slaves and indentured servants were treated equally badly. They lived together, without evidence of race feeling or caste distinction.

Until it was outstripped by slavery in the middle of the eighteenth century, indentured servitude was the chief form of labor in the Middle Atlantic and Southern North American colonies, and it continued to exist until well after the Revolution. The best estimate is that half the white population south of New England in the colonial period came to America as indentured servants- men recruited in Europe almost as brutally as the blacks were mobilized in Mrica, and were treated almost as badly on the journey, and in their places of work. The status of indentured servants was quite as low as that of black slaves. . Their contracts could be sold. They were not allowed to vote, to hold land, to engage in trade, or to serve on juries. They could not marry 'without the consent of their masters, and they were subject to corporal punishment by the master. The control of rebellious indentured servants was a major problem of public order in most of the American colonies and a major source of humanitarian complaint, both in America and in Britain. Many tricks were used to extend their nominal terms, and they became accustomed to degradation. One of the fascinating hypotheses about social experience advanced in recent years HeinOnline -- 9 Utah L. Rev. 846 1964-1965 846 UTAH LAW REVIEW [VOL. 9:841 by Rossiter and others is that the indentured servants of colonial times, deeply injured by their experience, became not the sturdy yeomen and independent artisans of Federalist America, but an intractable mass of backward Southern "poor-whites," the ancestors of the Snopes.l1 Historians seem generally to agree that Negro slavery developed strongly in the North American colonies only because white servitude could not produce a sufficient labor supply, especially for the colonies where plantation crops prevailed. Reports of the treatment of indentured servants reached Europe and made their recruitment more and more difficult. At the same time, the Mrican slave trade became diabolically efficient, often with the cooperation of tribal chiefs. The first Negroes who came, in 1619, were probably not slaves at all. For fifty years or so, most Negroes who arrived or were brought here were indentured servants or free immigrants. The records notice several, perhaps many, who became free landholders, businessmen, and the masters of other servants. Some were given land under the headrights system - that is, they were given land grants of 50 acres for each European or Mrican they brought into the colonies. In early times, slaves and indentured servants were treated equally badly. They lived together, without evidence of race feeling or caste distinction.


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