The black slaves fulfilled the demand for labor in the South by the British Colonists since they had an agriculturally based economy. They grew cotton on vast tracks of land that was very labor intensive for planting and picking.

What were the major differences between African slaves and indentured servants the early colonies?

We see that there was little difference between the slave and the indentured servant. Indentured servants came from England. They had no chance at owning land in England and were very poor. The only way they could get to the colonies was to come as indentured servants. They passage was paid for and they worked for a "master" for a specified amount of time then they were freed. In fact, black slaves and indentured servants were treated virtually the same and worked in the fields together. But after 1680, the mainland colonists depended more on the slave trade because there was less indentured servants. More land was freed …show more content…
It only took 40 more years from the first elected laws in Virginia to accept slavery as a permanent way of life in the colonies. Many of the southern colonies soon followed. Slavery made slaves chattel property. They were not considered to be human beings. They could be sold, beaten, even killed by their masters and the masters were not punished because they were considered to be chattel property like a chair, or a desk, or a table. The master could do with the slave as he wanted. The South needed more slaves because they had large holdings of land and grew cotton. They needed a whole population of slaves to grow and harvest the cotton that was shipped to England to be made into cloth.We find that even states like Pennsylvania that had a huge Quaker (religious) population had slaves, although there was less of a demand for slaves because there was less land. Slaves in northern and middle colonies were more