Indentured Servitude and Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in America

Running head: HISTORY ESSAY
HISTORY ESSAY
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1HISTORY ESSAY
ESSAY 1
Indentured servitude was a common practice in the 18th Century when a person entered
into a contractual slavery for a fixed period of time in lieu of something, in this case in lieu of
passage from Old England to the United States for a search of a better life (Shaw, 2018). North
America was mainly a British dominated region and this was a way how Europeans suffering
from extreme poverty and without any dreams and opportunities of a better life travelled to
colonies in America. The historical context is important as the world was not yet ordered with
democratic governments and concepts of individualism. Imperialistic forces were ruling most of
the earth and Britain was one of the leaders in imperialist ambitions. Most of the people left
England through the ports of London and Liverpool and arrived at Pennsylvania, Barbados and
Virginia. In the places they arrived at, the buyers would wait for the arrivals and bought healthy
and young slaves for contractual period from the shippers (Schneider & Schneider, 2014).
The first batch of the indentured servants probably arrived in 1607, this after the Virginia
Company had caused the settlement of Jamestown, presently which is known as Virginia, the
town was the first permanent English Colony. It is noteworthy, in what critically bad conditions
the indentured slaves were shipped to the Americas, they got food infested with worms and water
that was not drinkable. Many of them died on way, however the kith and kin of the dead ha to
pay for their transportation by serving longer time in slavery.
Economically America was colonized by the British and the market was dominated by
the imperial authorities. In the 1750’s almost one in 4 people of America was a slave, that
amounts 25% of the population. Slave business was one of the primary ways of earning by the
Europeans. The American economy of the time was not industrialized and mainly dominated by
peasantry, whereas Britain had been the greatest forerunner in Industrial Revolution and was

2HISTORY ESSAY
leading the world in economic perspective. It is unfortunate that in spite of such economic
prosperity and educational advancement such cruel practices were not abolished and continued
unhindered.
ESSAY 2
African countries were the largest source of slaves to America and the European slave
traders use to ship the slaves to American colonies. The author Olaudah Equiano was one such
slave who was enslaved in his childhood in Nigeria and was then transported to the plantations in
Virginia. Large cargo ships were specially altered with chains and cells to transport slaves
(Childs, 2015). These ships were known as the Slave ships or the “Guineamen”. The 18th and the
19th Centuries saw rapid developments of plantations in America by the imperial countries of
Europe, these plantations required a large number of human workers and hence the demand for
slaves increased to considerable extent during that time.
As it is evident from the writing the slave ships were designed in inhuman setups and the
slaves transported were terribly treated. Often they were beaten mercilessly for not eating as the
buyers would not buy slaves if they were not healthy, for this purpose eating sufficiently was
required. The ships were designed to accommodate maximum number of slaves at one go
therefore there were little cells with almost no head rooms which accommodated the individual
slaves.
The economic activity of slave trade was growing at a large rate and historically it is
known as the “Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade” as the process required the slaves to be transported
from the African nations to the Americas through the Atlantic. The time period of this activity
was from 16th to 19th Century. There were a number of European countries like England, France,