They had no means of supporting themselves.
It took a minimum of 50 acres to provide the resources to survive."
No, even in 1800 Massachusetts was different from many other states.
In an era when 80% or 90% of Americans were farmers, Massachusetts had only 70,000 farm workers in 1800, about 77,000 in 1860 while its total population tripled from 400,000 to 1,200,000 in those same years.
So farming was not as important in Massachusetts and many people were employed in other types of business.
Ladyjand: "Those who couldn’t support themselves, either because they didn’t know how or because they didn’t have land, were auctioned off to townspeople...
BTW those were white people were auctioned. "
Here you may be discussing indentured servants (debt bondage) which was very common before 1800.
In those years roughly half of European immigrants arriving in the colonies came as young indentured servants who had agreed to serve a set number of years to pay off their debts.
Such servitude was vastly different from the perpetual chattel slavery forced on kidnapped Africans.
Ladyjand: "Massachusetts is the colony that brought the first slaves here, yet they claim to be so virtuous."
Depends on your definitions:
- "The first 19 or so Africans to reach the English colonies arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619, brought by Dutch traders who had seized them from a captured Spanish slave ship."
- "There were no laws regarding slavery early in Virginia's history.
But, in 1640, a Virginia court sentenced John Punch, an African, to slavery after he attempted to flee his service.[10]
The two whites with whom he fled were sentenced only to an additional year of their indenture, and three years' service to the colony.[11]
This marked the first legal sanctioning of slavery in the English colonies and was one of the first legal distinctions made between Europeans and Africans.[10][12]" - "In 1641, Massachusetts became the first colony to authorize slavery through enacted law.[14]
Massachusetts passed the Body of Liberties, which prohibited slavery in many instances, but did allow for three legal bases of slavery.[14] "
Massachusetts non-farm occupations, early 1800s:
