Indian slaves . With time, however, refuge where the poor and former
timber, rice, and indigo gave the col- prisoners would be given new
ony a worthier economic base .
opportunities .
In 1681 William Penn, a wealthy
Quaker and friend of Charles II, re-
SETTLERS, SLAVES, AND
ceived a large tract of land west of
SERVANTS
the Delaware River, which became
known as Pennsylvania . To help Men and women with little active
populate it, Penn actively recruited interest in a new life in America were
a host of religious dissenters from often induced to make the move to
England and the continent — Quak- the New World by the skillful per-
ers, Mennonites, Amish, Moravians, suasion of promoters . William Penn,
and Baptists .
for example, publicized the oppor-
When Penn arrived the follow- tunities awaiting newcomers to the
ing year, there were already Dutch, Pennsylvania colony . Judges and
Swedish, and English settlers liv- prison authorities offered convicts
ing along the Delaware River . It was a chance to migrate to colonies like
there he founded Philadelphia, the Georgia instead of serving prison
“City of Brotherly Love .”
sentences .
In keeping with his faith, Penn
But few colonists could finance
was motivated by a sense of equal- the cost of passage for themselves and
ity not often found in other Amer- their families to make a start in the
ican colonies at the time . Thus, new land . In some cases, ships’ cap-
women in Pennsylvania had rights tains received large rewards from the
long before they did in other parts sale of service contracts for poor mi-
of America . Penn and his deputies grants, called indentured servants,
also paid considerable attention to and every method from extravagant
the colony’s relations with the Del- promises to actual kidnapping was
aware Indians, ensuring that they used to take on as many passengers
were paid for land on which the Eu- as their vessels could hold .
ropeans settled .
In other cases, the expenses of
Georgia was settled in 1732, transportation and maintenance
the last of the 13 colonies to be were paid by colonizing agencies like
established . Lying close to, if not the Virginia or Massachusetts Bay
actual y inside the boundaries of Companies . In return, indentured
Spanish Florida, the region was servants agreed to work for the agen-
viewed as a buffer against Spanish cies as contract laborers, usually for
incursion . But it had another unique four to seven years . Free at the end of quality: The man charged with this term, they would be given “free-Georgia’s fortifications, General dom dues,” sometimes including a
James Oglethorpe, was a reformer small tract of land .
who deliberately set out to create a
18
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
Perhaps half the settlers living in
There was one very important
the colonies south of New England exception to this pattern: African
came to America under this system . slaves . The first black Africans were
Although most of them fulfilled brought to Virginia in 1619, just 12
their obligations faithfully, some ran years after the founding of James-
away from their employers . Never- town . Initially, many were regarded
theless, many of them were eventu- as indentured servants who could
ally able to secure land and set up earn their freedom . By the 1660s,
homesteads, either in the colonies in however, as the demand for planta-
which they had originally settled or tion labor in the Southern colonies
in neighboring ones . No social stig- grew, the institution of slavery be-
ma was attached to a family that had gan to harden around them, and Af-
its beginning in America under this ricans were brought to America in
semi-bondage . Every colony had its shackles for a lifetime of involuntary
share of leaders who were former in- servitude .
9
dentured servants .
19