09/01 Bellringer 5+ sentences
http://ghhsapush.com/bellringersIndentured servitude was a labor system whereby young people paid for their passage to the New World by working for an employer for a certain number of years. It was widely employed in the 18th century in the British colonies in North America and elsewhere.
What might would motivate a person to sell themselves into indentured servitude?
British colonists came
to America for a wide
variety of reasons:• escape poverty, gain wealth, or gain land • religious freedom & to flee religious persecution • escape violence during the English Civil WarAs a result, British colonies were very different from each other & were never
very unified
1607 Jamestown first permanent British colony in America (Chesapeake Bay, Virginia)
Joint-stock company called the Virginia Company
Looking for gold so they did not prepare to stay long in America; They did not plant crops & faced starvation
John Smith took control & forced settlers
to farm
“He who will not work, will not eat”
Located on a swamp
Led to outbreaks of disease among colonists
Powhatan Indians
Colonist and natives had an uneasy relationship
No gold was found so…colonist had to find another way to make
money
1612, John Rolfe = tobacco as a cash crop
Tobacco = $ so…
…more land cleared…plantations…workforce
Due to the success of tobacco,
the Jamestown settlement expanded into the Virginia colony
Indentured servants1618 Headright System gave 50 acres to anyone
who brought an indentured servant to America
African slaves first brought in
1619
African slaves were
transported from Africa to
America on slave ships across the
“Middle Passage”
In 1619, Virginians formed the House of Burgesses which was the first legislative
assembly in America
Virginia was a royal colony…the governor was chosen by the king, but the H of B made the important decisions
As the Virginia colony grew, it needed government.
Elected leaders were usually rich and did not truly represent poor farmers in the colony
Poor farmers, led by Nathaniel Bacon, blamed Virginia’s governor for not protecting them & started a rebellion
Bacon’s Rebellion proved to rich Virginians that slaves were better than indentured servants
The colonists who first settled in
New England came for religious reasons
Separatists and Puritans
Separatists = “Pilgrims”Plymouth colony (1620)
Mayflower Compactthe first example of
self-government in America
Pilgrims faced disease & hungerReceived help from local
natives like Squanto
1630 Puritans created colony of Massachusetts
John Winthrop
Boston should be a “city on a hill”
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