HISTORY OF USA

ASSIGNMENT
NAME: SARAH SHARMA
ROLL NO. : 726
QUESTION: The British colonization of America was facilitated by
indigenous, indentured and slave labour.
ANSWER:
Although he may have arrived in North America in 1492, Christopher
Columbus did not discover it. The history of the indigenous people, which dates
back thousands of years before European contact, is the beginning of the history
of the continent. Native American communities were diverse, ranging from the
many tribal nations scattered throughout what is now the United States and
Canada to the sophisticated civilisations of the Inca and Aztec in Central and
South America. They created sophisticated governing structures, wealthy
civilisations, and cutting-edge farming techniques long before the Europeans
arrived.
The financing of Christopher Columbus's expedition by the Spanish in 1492
marked the beginning of European exploration of the Americas. Columbus's
arrival in the Caribbean signified the beginning of his quest for a western route
to Asia. [1]
Therefore we can say that the history of the continent started long before the
West’s so called ‘discovery’ of the Americas.
The following is a quote from George Percy’s Observations.
“...our men were destroyed with cruel diseases as swellings, fluxes, burning
fevers, and by wars, and some departed suddenly; but for the most part they
died of mere famine... such was our weakness that we were scarce able to bury
our dead; our strength and labour being devoured and consumed with extreme
want of victuals.” [2]
In this excerpt, he vividly describes the severe difficulties faced by the early
Jamestown settlers. The "starving time" (1609–1610) was marked by famine,
disease, and conflicts with Native Americans, which led to an extremely high
mortality rate. This passage highlights how the settlers were physically
debilitated, unable even to perform the basic task of burying their dead. The
phrase "our strength and labour being devoured" underscores how the scarcity
of food and the harsh conditions depleted their capacity to sustain the colony.
This desperate situation created an urgent need for a more reliable labour force.
As settlers struggled to maintain their existence, they realized that the colony's
survival depended on securing a steady supply of labour to cultivate crops, build
infrastructure, and produce goods. This realization contributed to the shift
towards using indentured servants and, eventually, enslaved Africans to fulfill
the labour demands of the growing colonial economy. The passage, therefore,
provides crucial insight into the dire circumstances that led to the establishment
of exploitative labour systems in colonial America.

For the natives contact with Europeans and their wars, enslavement, and
especially illnesses like smallpox, influenza, and measles caused a catastrophic
drop in the population. They had never had these illnesses, thus they had not
produced antibodies to combat them. The outcome was disastrous. The majority
of West Indian islands had lost their population. [3]
Therefore we can understand the catastrophic impact of European contact on the
Native American population, mainly due to the introduction of diseases like
smallpox, influenza, and measles. These illnesses, to which the natives had no
prior exposure or immunity, resulted in massive depopulation, especially in the
West Indian islands. This highlights the devastating biological consequences of
European colonization on indigenous populations, which significantly
weakened their societies.
Next we come towards a system of control known as the encomienda system.
The encomienda system, was brought to the peninsula by Cortes during his
conquest of Mexico, having been started by Columbus in the West Indies.
Conquered areas and its inhabitants were essentially distributed among those
who had taken part in the conquest under the system. The king was essentially
the royal patron of these domains, thus he could do with them as he pleased.
The encomienda was a rudimentary kind of serfdom that was modified to meet
the needs of Spain's dominion in the New World. Its major goal was threefold:
1) to reward the architects of the empire and their heirs for one or more
generations; 2) to promote settlement and assure a colony's permanency by
compelling the proprietor. and 3) in order to finance the defense of the area [4]
Alfred Cave's "The Pequot War" [5] delves into the intricate workings of Native
American labour both during and after the fight, illuminating the ways in which
native peoples acted as both allies and enemies to European settlers. An
important period in the early history of colonisation was marked by the Pequot
War (1636–1638), which was fought mainly between the Pequot tribe and a
coalition of English colonists from Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and
Saybrook, together with their Native allies, the Mohegan and Narragansett
tribes.
Cave highlights the significant shift in Europeans' perspectives toward Native
American labour and land during the Pequot War. The rising attempts by
English settlers to dominate and administer both after the conflict, although in
more exploitative ways, exacerbated the colonists' reliance on local labour. In
the end, the conflict served as a metaphor for the growing trend among
European colonists to enslave Native Americans through forced labour
programs in addition to military conquest. This practice eventually became vital
to the survival and expansion of the colony.
In South Carolina and Georgia, a distinct slave system centered on rice farming
arose further south. Although the Barbadians who first arrived in South Carolina
in the 1670s were well-versed in African enslavement, their first victims were
local indigenous people. The early Carolina economy was centred on the export
of Indian slaves to the Caribbean and deerskins and furs that were acquired
from Indians to England. When the settlers first arrived, the nearby Creek
Indians welcomed them and sold them slaves. These were mostly war prisoners
together with their families, most of whom were shipped to the West Indies.
They also started hostilities with nearby tribes with the express intent of
enslaving and selling slaves. [3]
European colonization had devastating effects on indigenous populations, with
diseases, warfare, and exploitative labour systems like encomienda and
repartimiento leading to massive depopulation and subjugation. As highlighted
by the Pequot War, indigenous labour became increasingly central to colonial
expansion, reinforcing the exploitation and dominance of native communities.
An excessive number of ‘not doers’ and gentlemen who "never did know what a
days work was" were among the settlers. Hard work had to wait until harder
men were sent was what they thought. [6]
The practice of indentured servitude was introduced in Virginia by 1620, only
ten years following the first British colonization of the region. Jamestown,
America. The system of servitude rose to prominence in the several regions of
colonial British America's economy and lifestyle; [7]
The two texts show that many of the early Jamestown settlers were "gentlemen"
who were not used to hard work, and as such, they were ill-prepared for the
hard work needed to establish a prosperous colony. Due to the extreme
challenges caused by this lack of practical skills, it became clear that the
settlement needed a steady labour in order to survive. As a result, by 1620 the
practice of indentured servitude had developed and was a vital response to the
labour crisis. The economy and way of life of colonial British America were
greatly reliant on indentured slaves to fill the void created by immigrants unable
or unwilling to engage in hard labour.
Indentured servitude started as a way to solve the urgent problem of finding
enough workers in many areas of colonial America. The Virginia Company
created the basic system, and it soon spread across all the British colonies
during the 1600s and 1700s. Although we don't know the exact number of
indentured servants, between half and two-thirds of all white immigrants to the
American colonies after the 1630s were indentured servants. In some areas, like
Virginia, their presence was even greater, more than 75% of Virginia's settlers in
the 1600s were indentured servants. [7]
Therefore, we can say that the establishment of indentured servitude was
necessary to overcome the labour shortage due to this lack of practical skills.
Thus, indentured servants made up a sizable portion of the colonial labour force,
especially in Virginia, where they accounted for more than 75% of the total
population in the 1600s. In the end, this system demonstrated how dependent
colonial America's economic and social systems were on a labour force
prepared to put in the required amount of hard work in addition to filling the
labour shortage.
In Africa, slavery existed long before European settlers arrived. African slaves
have historically often been debtors, criminals, and prisoners of war. They had
clearly defined privileges and worked in their owners' homes like owning
property and being married to free people. African slaves were not unusually
successful in gaining their freedom. Slavery was only one of many
types of employment, not the foundation of the economy as it would eventually
emerge regions of the New World. Of the estimated 7.7 million Africans carried
to the New World between 1492 and 1820, almost half came between 1700 and
1800. Statesmen and the general public would subsequently denounce the
Atlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity. However, in the eighteenth
century, slavery became a formal industry whereby American planters, African
traders, and European merchants participated in intricate negotiations over
human lives in the hopes of making a profit. One essential aspect of global trade
was the slave trade. Slave labour was employed by every European power in the
New World, and they fought with other for dominance of this profitable trade.
[3]
This demonstrates how slavery changed under European influence from a cruel,
profit-driven enterprise to one that was mostly absorbed into African society. At
first, African slavery did not serve as the main source of income, and slaves
frequently kept some of their legal rights. But because to the combined
influence of African, American, and European interests, human lives were
commercialized on an unparalleled scale during the transatlantic slave trade. As
European nations fiercely fought for control over this rich trade, this
exploitation turned into a pillar of world trade. The brutal effects of colonial
expansion and avarice are highlighted by the sharp contrast between the older,
more flexible African slavery and the dehumanizing, profit-driven system in the
New World.
‘Sails flashing to the wind like weapons,
sharks following the moans, the fever and the dying;
horror the corposant and compass-rose.
Middle Passage:
Voyage through death
to life upon these shores’ [8]
The poem eloquently conveys the horrifying and cruel Middle Passage
experience of the transatlantic slave trade. "Sails flashing to the wind like
weapons" alludes to the violent ways in which slave ships transported Africans
under harsh circumstances across the Atlantic. Sharks frequently accompany
ships, waiting for the dead to be tossed overboard. The picture of "sharks
following the moans, the fever and the dying" conveys the overwhelming
misery and death that accompanied this trip. "Horror the corposant and
compass-rose" suggests that the slaves relied more on pain and terror than on
any kind of map.
the Virginia Slave Codes of 1705 [9] :
"All negro, mulatto, and Indian slaves within this dominion... shall be held to be
real estate. If any slave resist his master... correcting such slave, and shall
happen to be killed in such correction, the master shall be free of all
punishment... as if such accident never happened."
This quote illustrates how the law dehumanized enslaved individuals, treating
them as property and granting masters broad authority, even to the extent of
inflicting fatal violence without legal consequences.

CONCLUSION
The intricate relationships between the processes of exploration, colonialism,
and exploitation are made clear by the historical account of labour in colonial
America. Native American communities flourished before the advent of
Europeans, with sophisticated farming methods, well-organized governments,
and complex cultures. The introduction of European illnesses, hostilities, and
exploitative structures like the encomienda, which wiped out indigenous people,
were among the terrible effects of colonization.

These disastrous effects created a severe labour shortage, which forced

This trajectory highlights the ways in which colonialism gave rise to the violent
and racially exploitative regimes that characterized the Americas for many
years. The colonial desire to extract money at whatever cost to humankind is
highlighted by the transition from indigenous labour to indentured servitude and
ultimately to African slavery, creating a lasting legacy of injustice, misery, and
resiliency that continues to define the modern world.
REFRENCES
[1]
C. C. Mann, 1491: new revelations of the Americas before Columbus. New York: Knopf, 2005.
[2]
G. Percy, Observations Gathered Out of “a Discourse of the Plantation of the Southern Colony in
Virginia by the English, 1606” Written by That Honorable Gentleman, Master George Percy.
[3]
E. Foner, Give me liberty!, 7th ed., vol. 2. W W Norton, 2016.
[4]
Anderson, H. A. (1985). The Encomienda in New Mexico, 1598–1680. New Mexico Historical
Review, 60(4)
[5]
A. A. Cave, The Pequot War. Amherst: University Of Massachusetts Press, 1996.
[6]
“The Labour Problem at Jamestown, 1607–18,” The American Historical Review, Jun. 1971, doi:
https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/76.3.595.
[7]
D. W. Galenson, “The Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude in the Americas: An Economic
Analysis,” The Journal of Economic History, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 1–26, Mar. 1984, doi:
https://doi.org/10.1017/s002205070003134x.
[8]
Hayden, Robert E. “Middle Passage.” Phylon (1940-1956), vol. 6, no. 3, 1945, pp. 247–53.
JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/272494.
[9]
Slave Code of Virginia. 1705.
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