HIST 405N Week 1 Case Study Assignment Option 3: Women in Colonial America

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HIST 405N Week 1 Case Study Assignment Option 3: Women in Colonial America WEEK 1: THE COST OF EXPANSION Welcome to the first of many weekly discussions! Be sure to take the time to familiarize ... yourself with the discussion board requirements. Basically, you'll need to post a minimum of three substantial posts over a period of three days in each of the two weekly discussion boards. Also, be sure to submit your initial post no later than Wednesday of each week, in each thread. Let's get started! For much of the history we'll discuss in this class, America's fields were farmed by enslaved Africans and African Americans. Additionally, slaves worked as domestic servants, nannies, and a variety of other jobs. In the earliest era after the Jamestown and Plymouth settlements, European settlers relied on the labor of indentured European servants who worked off debts incurred for passage to the colonies. To get started, take a look at the discussion prompt. Why did indentured servitude become less popular? Also, was there a difference between a slave and a domestic servant? Reference: Cornell, S., Keene, J.D. & O'Donnell, E.T. (2013). Visions of American: a history of the United States (2nd ed.). Boston: Pearson. Response: When the first African Americans were brought over on Dutch trading shop to Jamestown in 1619, they were initially indentured servants. As the need for plantation labor increased so did the use of slaves instead of indentured servants. (Ushistory.org) Originally, indentured servants were brought over from England by the Virginia Company starting in 1607 after the settlement of Jamestown. However, the cost of indentured servants was high the cost including passage, room, board, lodging and freedom dues. Their contract may have included at least 25 acres of land, a year's worth of corn, arms, a cow and new clothes. For these reasons it was cheaper to use slaves instead of indentured servants. (pbs.org) There were laws that protected indentured servants. There were no laws to protect slaves- they were the slaves owners property and thus the slaves were treated inhumanly. Reference: Ushistory.org. (2016). The Growth of Slavery [ushistory.org]. Retrieved from http://www.ushistory.org/us/6c.asp Indentured Servants in the U.S. http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/indentured-servants-in-the-us [Show More]

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