The Columbian Exchange was a product of the European colonization of the Americas before slavery became institutionalized. Nathaniel Bacon's insurrection made the authorities recognize that the indentured slaves would continue to fight against the laborers as long as the colonists changed their system to take indentured servants as laborers. As a result, they began using Africans as a new labor force. The elimination of indentured servants, and the justification of slavery by religion, caused the economic need for cheap labor. Important causes like the ones listed above all contributed to the institution of slavery between 1607 and 1770. The time-chart graph, Number of Indentured Servants and Slaves per Probate Inventory, York County, Virginia, …show more content…
In Captain Francis Pott's document, he accounts for taking young indentured servants into his service. He promised to provide these child servants with the established conditions for servitude and freedom. They would receive clothing, shelter, and food. Furthermore, the young indentured servants were Christians. One of the child servants was below the age of a pre-schooler and was one year old when imposed with work under Captain. Pott until she lived "to the age of thirty years old" (Doc 2). Capt. Francis Pott is using the two young girls for whatever service he needs. His interest in the slave trade and other slave owners continued this process for economic benefits and profits. Christians did not know whether or not baptism could save slave children from salvation. This controversy was cited by the Virginia Assembly in a document that provided a solution: "Baptism does not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or freedom" (Doc 3). This law reflects a significant departure from the British Common Law that established the illegality of enslaving Christians. In a more pessimistic–realistic lens, this law reflects a mere justification for slavery and a concession to the growing power of the colonial Virginia elite. Consequently, without the elimination of indentured servants, justification of slavery by religion would be unlikely. The economic need for cheap labor and the increase in slavery brought to the southern colonies are the reasons slavery got