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Feb 10, 1537
The Slavery Question
In 1537, the papacy definitively recognized that Native Americans possessed souls, thus prohibiting their enslavement, without putting an end to the debate. Some claimed that a native who had rebelled and then been captured could be enslaved nonetheless. -
Indentured Servants
From the beginning of VA's settlements in 1587 until the 1680s, the main source of labor and a large portion of the immigrants were indentured servants looking for new life in the overseas colonies.
During the 17th century, indentured servants constituted 75% of all European immigrants to the Chesapeake region.
Most of the indentured servants were teenagers from England with poor economic prospects at home. -
Virginia Colonies
It took John Smith, to convince the colonists of Jamestown that searching for gold was not taking care of their immediate needs for food and shelter and the biblical principle that "he who will not work shall not eat.“
The extremely high mortality rate was quite distressing and cause for despair among the colonists. Tobacco later became a cash crop, with the work of John Rolfe and others. -
Migration to North America
Charles I, King of England and Scotland, persecuted religious dissenters.
Waves of repression led to the migration of about 20,000 Puritans to New England between 1629 and 1642, where they founded multiple colonies -
The Search for Ranches
The Spanish riches founded the conquest of the Aztecs, Inca ,and other large Native American. Englishmen settle permanently in America hoped for the same rich discoveries when they established their first permanent settlement in Jamestown, VA in1607.They were sponsored by companies such as the chartered Virginia Company financed by wealthy Englishmen who exaggerated the economic potential of this new land. The main purpose of this colony was the hope of finding gold. -
Forced Immigration and Enslavement
Slavery existed in the Americas prior to the arrival of Europeans, as different American Indian groups often captured and held other tribes' members as slaves.
Some of these captives were even forced to undergo human sacrifice in certain Amerindian civilizations, such as the Aztecs.
The Spanish continued this with the enslavement of local aborigines in the Caribbean. -
Atlantic Slave Trade
Captured Africans were sold to European slave traders on the West African coast. Millions of Africans were taken in ship, under inhuman conditions, for the voyage across the Atlantic to the New World. Enslaved Africans were auctioned and forced to work under brutal conditions. -
Scope of the Slave Trade
The vast majority of these slaves went to sugar colonies in the Caribbean and to Brazil, where life expectancy was short and the numbers had to be continually replenished.
About 600,000 African slaves were imported into the U.S., or 5% of the 12 million slaves brought across from Africa. -
Religious Immigration
Roman Catholics were the first major religious group to immigrate.
Settlers in the colonies of Portugal and Spain were required to belong to that faith.
English and Dutch colonies, tended to be more religiously diverse.
