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How Did Slavery Affect America

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How Did Slavery Affect America
As tobacco became a major cash crop in America, many people who cultivated the crop had to rely on heavy labor to harvest. At first there was an abundant increase of immigration towards America because of the Head Right Act. This allowed people to be able to work for landowners, usually having to do labor for an X amount of years. These people were called indentured servants, they provided labor in exchange for freedom or land so they can establish their new life in the settlements. Indentured servants set the ideology up for upcoming generations of people migrating towards the western world. Labor became high in demand while migration to the “new world” would decrease drastically. Slavery was introduced at Jamestown, Virginia in late August of 1619 when a Dutch ship arrived with “20 and odd” Africans which was reported by John Rolfe. These were the first Africans to set foot in Americas to help with the intense demand for labor of lucrative crops. The arrival of the first slaves did not drastically impact farmers at first because …show more content…
Many died on the voyage to the Americas because of the conditions held on most ships, which contained large amounts of excrement that would make people on board sick. With the few that did survive were then sold to people in need of laborers. The Atlantic Slave trade arose which consisted of a triangular trade route that had involved the exchange of goods from Europe to Africa which then would be traded for more slaves. Slaves would be captured by the traders but more commonly exchanged with West Africans. Majority of slaves were sent to Brazil, Spanish America and the Caribbean’s which is where they were mostly needed since many cash crops needed laborers to harvest. By 1635 ships began regular slave cargos to the Americas which resulted in an increase of migration slaves. From 1635 to 1639 a total of 137 slaves were imported to

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