The House of Burgesses

FRQ

1619 was a critical year of development. The House of Burgesses was created, but more importantly, the first slaves were brought into the colony of Jamestown, Virginia. While the treatment of the slaves and their role in American society changed significantly from 1607-1775 the reasons for their rise of importance reflected economic, geographic, and social factors.

Slavery ran through the south, it was there economical backbone. Yes, slavery also was used up north but mostly for different needs. The south was about growing crops in mass quantities, the only way to do that and make a substantial amount of money was slavery. Tobacco was the first Virgina grown crop to arrive in England in 1617. After this the growth of tobacco doubled even tripled, the price plummeted down throughout the 1600s, pushing colonists to grow more. This gave need for even more slaves because it was a very intensive labor crop, in which encouraged more slavery to be established in the south.

The geography of the southern colonies was not suited for standard farming such as the northern colonies. The rather heated weather of the south and its wet temperate sub-tropical climates were best suited for the growth of tobacco, rice, and indigo. In addition to this, the river system which divided southern colonies into interconnected pieces provided the best transportation for mass goods and fertile soil. The many rivers made it easy to transfer goods and facilitate the purchase of slaves.

Originally in the 1600s, indentured servants who paid for their voyage across the Atlantic filled the place of slaves. However these white people were often released after a short period of time and lived in much better condition than later blacks. Social racism is the reason slavery ended on top, Europeans and their colonies saw themselves above blacks. Blacks and all people from Africa were considered to be socially inferior by whites. Many southerners claimed they were doing blacks a favor because they believed blacks did not have the potential intellectuality that whites had. Because Africans were obviously inferior to whites in the minds of the colonists, slavery was socially acceptable in this time period.