Indentured Servants and Slavery
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(teacher note: this lesson was written to follow-up a previous lesson, The Life of the Indentured Servant)

Background Information for Indentured Servants and Slavery

Objectives

a. Students will define the characteristics of Jamestown's slave-trade and identify the conditions in which slaves lived.

b. Students will list the laws regulating African slaves in Jamestown during the 1600s.

c. Students will compare and contrast the life of an indentured servant with the life of an African slave in Jamestown during the early 1600s.

d. Students will debate the idea that racism is a learned, social institution.

Materials

transparency from "The Life of the Indentured Servant" lesson; transparency; overhead; blackboard; chalk; Galenson, D.W. (1981) White Servitude in Colonial America. New York: Cambridge University Press; Smith, A.E. (1947) Colonists in Bondage. North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press; http://www.lib.virginia.edu/cataloging/vnp/gazette/serv1.htm; http://www.clas.ufl.edu/history/west1/nar1.htm.

Relevance

In order to understand slavery in Jamestown, it is important to understand how it developed. Many scholars argue that slavery evolved from indentured servitude. Furthermore, they suggest that Africans were first considered indentured servants and that only after planters realized that slaves were more profitable than indentures that the distinction between indentured servant and slave became clear. Thus, did racism only evolve after whites realized they could make more money by making Africans second-class citizens? or do some people, or races, feel that the inferiority of another race is merely inherent? We will discuss this topic today while we investigate the similarities and differences between the living conditions of indentured servants and slaves. This lesson will give you a better understanding of race relations and will help you form an opinion about the origin of racism and prejudice.

Involvement of Learners

Lead a discussion regarding race relations at your school. Ask students where they believe the social norms guiding race relations originated.

Activity

Today we will be comparing the lives of indentured servants and slaves, so please take out your notes from the previous lesson on indentured servants The Life of the Indentured Servant. Divide students into groups of three. Pass out passages: (teacher note: one student should read both White Servitude in Colonial American and Runaways...) Runaways in the Gazette, 2nd half; I Saw a Slave Ship; White Servitude in Colonial America, pp. 139-140, 171-172; Colonists in Bondage, 29-30, 255-260, 275-276, 278-279. Explain that each student should become an expert on the article (or articles). Ask students to take notes while reading the articles, and to pay attention to what the authors write about indentured servants in addition to African slaves. After students finish, let them pick their roles (task master, reporter, scribe). The students should attempt to answer the following questions:

• Who were the slaves?
• What sorts of benefits did they receive during or at the end of their servitude?
• How did their masters and society treat slaves?
• What sorts of laws regulated the slaves' lives?
• Any additional information about indentured servants? Write below.

Ask students to share with other group members specific examples and/or quotes from their articles that answer the questions.

When students have filled out collective note-sheet, call class's attention to front of class. Go through questions with students, calling on the reporter of each group to answer at least one different question, ask that they include specific examples and/or quotes. Write responses on the board.

After the class has covered both the questions on slavery and briefly discussed the new information on indentured servants, place the transparency from the indentured servant lesson on the overhead. Ask for students to read over the class's comments from the day before. Put clean transparency on overhead, ask students what similarites exist between lives of slaves and indentured servants (teacher note: use questions on slavery note-sheet as a guide). Write down responses. Ask for differences and add them to bottom of transparency. This will give students a visual image. Have students copy chart from overhead.

Closure

Ask students if they believe Ligoe's theory, which states that slavery evolved from indentured servitude. (teacher note: responses may include point that Africans were first called indentures, then life-long servants, then slaves, or that slavery did not exist until after indentured servitude in the colonies, slavery eventually materialized in every region in which there had been indentured servants; found in students' readings)

After discussing this point, connect the theory to the more recent social theory, which contends that racism is learned, and not inherent. Have students debate using information from charts and specific examples and/or quotes from passages.

Assess students based on their arguments: do they recognize the similarities and differences between indentured servants and slavery? Do they recognize that slavery evolved from indentured servitude?

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