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Difficulty: MediumDevelopment of Chattel Slavery

"We have forty thousand people in [Virginia], of which thirty-four thousand are freemen, single men, and but few servants, and those servants are mostly English... we have not above two thousand black slaves; but yearlie there comes in of servants, six or seven hundred... but we have had of late few English, but most are Irish... and not above two or three hundred blacks in seven years."

— Governor William Berkeley of Virginia, report to the Committee for Trade and Plantations, 1671

Which of the following developments in the late 1600s most directly led colonial planters in the Chesapeake to transition away from the primary labor source described in Berkeley's report?

  1. The declining supply of English indentured servants and increasing fears of rebellion among landless white laborers.Answer
  2. B
    The passage of colonial laws that granted permanent, hereditary status to European indentured servants.
  3. C
    The adoption of Puritan religious covenants in the Chesapeake that prohibited the use of non-Christian contract labor.
  4. D
    The enforcement of imperial Navigation Acts that banned the immigration of European workers to promote mercantilism.

Answer

The declining supply of English indentured servants and increasing fears of rebellion among landless white laborers.
The correct option is correct because the decreasing supply of English indentured servants in the late seventeenth century, coupled with the security threat posed by the rebellion of landless white laborers in Bacon's Rebellion (1676), prompted the Chesapeake planter elite to transition to African chattel slavery as a permanent and politically manageable labor system.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the stimulus document to identify the current labor system.
Governor Berkeley's 1671 report indicates that Virginia's labor force was overwhelmingly dominated by white indentured servants from the British Isles, with only a small population of African slaves.
Understanding the baseline labor structure in the early to mid-seventeenth century is necessary to trace the subsequent transition to chattel slavery.
2
Identify the historical factors that caused a decline in this labor source.
Improving economic conditions in England reduced the incentive for poor English citizens to sign indentures, leading to a supply shortage of contract laborers.
This supply shortage forced planters to look for alternative labor sources.
3
Analyze the social and political factors driving the transition to African chattel slavery.
The growing population of landless, frustrated former indentured servants staged Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, threatening the power of the planter elite. Enslaved Africans, who were denied legal rights and held in hereditary bondage, presented a more permanent and easily controlled labor force.
Explaining the shift shows how economic and security incentives led directly to the codification of racialized chattel slavery.

Key Concept

The transition from indentured servitude to racialized chattel slavery in the Chesapeake colonies.
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Development of Chattel Slavery

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