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Difficulty: Very hardDevelopment of Chattel Slavery

"Their Servants they distinguish into two sorts: First, English, or other Christian Foreigners, bound by Indenture, or by the Custom of the Country; Secondly, Slaves, which are those imported from other Countries, who are to serve durante vita [for life]...

And here I must observe, that the Law of the Country, which makes no difference between the Treatment of English Servants, and Slaves, is yet very severe upon the latter, in case of their attempting an Escape... The Names of the Slaves are also entered in a Parish Registry, and they are not allowed to go off their Masters Plantation, without a License in Writing..."

—Robert Beverley, The History and Present State of Virginia, 1705

Which of the following historical developments in the British colonies by the early 1700s is most directly reflected in the legal and social distinctions described in the excerpt?

  1. A
    The integration of English indentured servants into a shared legal category with African laborers to simplify colonial labor administration.
  2. B
    The implementation of these labor laws across the New England colonies to support their primary economic reliance on plantation-scale agricultural exports.
  3. The institutionalization of a strict racial hierarchy designed to secure a permanent labor force following a decline in the supply of English indentured servants.Answer
  4. D
    The colonial assemblies' rejection of British mercantilist policies in order to establish free-market labor contracts for agricultural workers.

Answer

The institutionalization of a strict racial hierarchy designed to secure a permanent labor force following a decline in the supply of English indentured servants.
The correct answer is correct because the legal codes described by Beverley demonstrate how southern colonies, particularly Virginia, institutionalized racial slavery and codified a rigid caste system. This transition occurred during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries as the availability of English indentured servants declined and colonial elites sought to secure a permanent, controllable labor force to sustain the plantation economy.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the provided stimulus from Robert Beverley's 1705 text.
Identify that Beverley distinguishes between two classes of laborers in colonial Virginia: English indentured servants (serving temporary terms) and enslaved people imported from other countries (serving for life, or durante vita), who are subjected to severe spatial control and registration.
Understanding the source is essential for linking the text to the correct historical process of codifying chattel slavery.
2
Evaluate the historical context of late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth-century Virginia.
Determine that after events like Bacon's Rebellion (1676) and a reduction in the migration of English indentured servants, colonial elites intentionally transitioned to African chattel slavery. They enacted laws to define slaves as property and to legally separate white servants from Black slaves, reinforcing a racial caste system.
This places the legal developments in the broader context of labor shifts and social control.
3
Compare the options against the historical context and the excerpt.
Confirm that the option describing the institutionalization of a racial hierarchy to secure a permanent labor force aligns perfectly with the transition from temporary indentures to permanent chattel slavery.
Verifying the correct choice against the distractors ensures historical and logical accuracy.

Key Concept

Development of Chattel Slavery
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Development of Chattel Slavery

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