Indentured Servitude and Slavery
Before the Rebellion
By 1612, tobacco had become the basis of the Virginia economy. Colonists used tobacco to purchase slaves and indentured servants, pay taxes, gain wealth, and buy goods from England. Jamestown’s economic success depended on the labor of indentured servants and enslaved people to grow and cultivate tobacco.
Indentured Servants
An example of an indenture, a specific type of contract that binds one person to work for another.
Slavery
A 1901 illustration depicting the arrival of the first African captives to Virginia in 1619.
Many of the people who came to the Virginia colony after its founding were indentured servants, who voluntarily signed a contract to agree to work for a certain number of years in exchange for transportation to the colonies and, once they had arrived, for food, clothing, and shelter. This contract, also referred to as an indenture, typically lasted four to seven years. However, because of deadly diseases, harsh working conditions, and abuses from cruel masters, many of these men and women did not live long enough to fulfill their contracts.
A form of involuntary servitude—slavery—began a few years after Virginia’s founding. In 1619, the English privateer The White Lion arrived in Jamestown loaded with African captives, who were sold as indentured servants. Although these captives had been violently forced into servitude, there was not a clear difference between the service terms of white or Black indentured servants and enslaved people during the early years of the Virginia colony.
