Slavery has it roots in the earliest days of the colonial history of Virginia. Slavery was first introduced into the colony in 1619, when a captured slave ship arrived at Jamestown that “brought not any thing but 20. and odd Negroes”. The slaves dropped off at Jamestown came from Angola. African slavery in this first introduction into Virginia, was not yet an established institution. At this point and on up to about the fourth quarter of the 17th century, indentured servitude was the primary labor source in Virginia.
Indentured servants would be brought over having their passage paid for by plantation owners and would in turn usually serve a term of four to seven years in return for having their passage paid for. They would work for their master performing all sorts of work, including blacksmithing, building, farm labor, domestic housework and numerous other skilled work. In turn, masters would provide room and board and clothing for the term of service. Indentured servitude at times could be just as harsh as race-based slavery, but it was not the same. There was an end in sight. At the end of the term of service, indentured servants would be free to attempt to establish themselves by acquiring land and “making a go of it”. Sometimes, if a servant was lucky, their master would provide them with a small acreage of land that they could start themselves off with.
An interesting story is that of Anthony Johnson. He first arrived in Virginia in 1621, listed in documents as “Antonio a Negro”, to work on a tobacco plantation. It is unclear if he was brought to Virginia as an indentured servant or a slave, but after several years of service, he obtained his freedom and had married a woman named Mary on the plantation he served at. He and Mary would go on to have four children and own 250 acres of land in Northampton County, on Virginia’s eastern shore, raising livestock. It was an uncommon occurrence for an ex-servant or slave, even among white former indentured servants, to go on to own their own land. Anthony and Mary would sell their land in 1665 and move to Maryland and lease a 300 acre tract of land. Anthony died in 1670 in Maryland. Though he became a private landowner, in the case of Anthony, race reared it’s ugly head. A court back in Virginia, in the year of Anthony’s death, ruled that because “he was a Negro and by consequence an alien,” the land owned by him in Virginia belonged to the Crown.
Anthony’s story was an exception. Most former indentured servants did not go on to prosper as Anthony did. Though slavery was not the primary source of labor in the early days of the colony, it was used. Later in the fourth quarter of the 17th century, there began a shift from indentured servitude being the primary labor source to slavery. Indentured servitude, though harsh, ended with the promise of freedom. Though indentured servitude did not end, the flow of indentured servants from England began to slow, which allowed for the growth of slavery in Virginia. A shift in economy and society in Virginia also caused this shift. Bacon’s Rebellion, a number of prominent historians have noted, according to Encyclopedia Virginia, “was, in part, the result of discontent among former servants. By harnessing that discontent and, in the name of racial solidarity, pointing it in the direction of enslaved Africans, white elites could create a more stable workforce and one that was less likely to threaten their own interests. Other historians have observed that the flow of English servants began to dry up beginning in the 1660s and fell off dramatically around 1680, forcing planters to rely more heavily on slaves. Slavery did not end indentured servitude, in other words; the end of servitude gave rise to slavery.” In 1705, Virginia enacted a series of laws known as the Virginia Slave Codes of 1705 (formerly An act concerning Servants and Slaves). These codes solidified slavery in Virginia and served as the foundation of Virginia’s slave legislation.