American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia

One of Morgan’s most important claims is that the colony was driven toward slavery because of the problem of unwilling labor. Morgan shows how this problem was obvious even before the Virginia Company set sail with its first settlers. The boats were disproportionately filled with noblemen and their servants, along with the company’s servants, all of whom refused to do manual labor. The situation worsened when the English arrived in Virginia and quickly learned that the Indians, even the good Indians, were unwilling to work for the colonists’ wealth and would never be a reliable source of labor.

Once the colony established its first export crop, tobacco, big farmers required a cheap, secure labor force. The choice was to bring in labor tied to the farmer, not to the company; indentured servants, with a term of seven years, arrived by the thousands. The plan was to meet the colony’s labor needs and to help England solve its unemployment problem caused by a growing population and an economy that could not keep pace with job creation.

However, within a few short years, the big farmers characterized their servants with disdain, calling them lazy, irresponsible, and drunkards—descriptions that the English had reserved for the poor.