involuntary farmers...This is just piling-on stupid. He’s right. The ones that came over in 1619 WERE indentured servants.
“In 1619 the first black Africans came to Virginia. With no slave laws in place, they were initially treated as indentured servants, and given the same opportunities for freedom dues as whites.”
They're still having trouble taking responsibility for their "peculiar institution."
My Irish Catholic indentured servant ancestors, the McGinnis family, arrived at the Livingston plantation south of Rensselaer, NY in 1720...
Every male in the family 10 and up had to work for the Livingstons until age 21 to pay back the passage costs etc...
At age 21 they were free from their obligation and could strike out on their own...They were not slaves but servants for an arranged period......
My ancestor, Timothy McGinnis became a fur trapper and a trader, and a very rich man...
Indentured servants were never slaves...
The black African slaves were never indentured servants they were slaves for life...
My family travelled from Ireland as passengers on a ship free to move around on the deck and in the cabin area...probably steerage...
African slaves were chained up spoon fashion for most of the trip and hardly saw the light of day...many of them died on the ‘middle passage’
In 1619 he would be correct. It wasn’t until 1655 when John Casor became the first actual slave. Oddly, the very first slave owner was named Anthony Johnson, a black man that was an ex indentured servant. He reportedly was one of the first ones brought to Virginia from Africa. In other words, black perpetual slavery was started by, Anthony Johnson, a black man.
When they first came they were indentured servants. They could leave their master’s after 7 years. It changed when a black man who had a servant didn’t want his to go free after 7 years. He took it to court and they ruled the indentured servant had to stay with the guy. Northam was right of that’s what he said.
Northam is technically correct, but the media isn’t going to allow him any nuance after already putting the order out for his head.
Someone got confused on google or wiki was wrong as usual. The facts:
In 1619, 3 momentous things occurred. The first slaves from Africa arrived. The first indentured servants arrived, a completely separate event. And, the first European women arrived.
involuntary farmers...When countering that claim, it is well to ask those know-it-all 21st Century "elitists" to consider the historical context within which those Founders found themselves, as well as the enormous contributions they and their generations made toward eradicating slavery from these shores and creating a constitutional republic which could, ultimately, affirm and protect the rights of ALL people:
Of special interest in that regard is Jefferson's “Autobiography,” especially that portion which states:
"The first establishment in Virginia which became permanent was made in 1607. I have found no mention of negroes in the colony until about 1650. The first brought here as slaves were by a Dutch ship; after which the English commenced the trade and continued it until the revolutionary war. That suspended...their future importation for the present, and the business of the war pressing constantly on the (Virginia) legislature, this subject was not acted on finally until the year 1778, when I brought a bill to prevent their further importation. This passed without opposition, leaving to future efforts its final eradication."
Jefferson also observed:
"Where the disease [slavery] is most deeply seated, there it will be slowest in eradication. In the northern States, it was merely superficial and easily corrected. In the southern, it is incorporated with the whole system and requires time, patience, and perseverance in the curative process."
He explained that,
"In 1769, I became a member of the legislature by the choice of the county in which I live [Albemarle County, Virginia], and so continued until it was closed by the Revolution. I made one effort in that body for the permission of the emancipation of slaves, which was rejected: and indeed, during the regal [crown] government, nothing [like this] could expect success."Below is another quotation, cited in David Barton's work on the subject of the Founders and slavery, which also cites the fact that there were laws in the State of Virginia which prevented citizens from emancipating slaves:
"The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal. This quality is the germ of all education in him. From his cradle to his grave he is learning to do what he sees others do. If a parent could find no motive either in his philanthropy or his self-love for restraining the intemperance of passion towards his slave, it should always be a sufficient one that his child is present. But generally it is not sufficient. . . . The man must be a prodigy who can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such circumstances. And with what execration should the statesman be loaded who permits one half the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other. . . . And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep for ever. . . . The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest. . . . [T]he way, I hone [is] preparing under the auspices of Heaven for a total emancipation."A visit to David Barton’s web site (www.wallbuilders.com) provides an essential, excellent and factual written record of the Founders' views on the matter of slavery. One source he does not quote, I believe, is the famous 1775 Edmund Burke "Speech on Conciliation" before the British Parliament, wherein he admonished the Parliament for its Proposal to declare a general enfranchisement of the slaves in America.
Burke rather sarcastically observed that should the Parliament carry through with the Proposal before it: "Slaves as these unfortunate black people are, and dull as all men are from slavery, must they not a little suspect the offer of freedom from that very nation (England) which has sold them to their present masters? from that nation, one of whose causes of quarrel with those masters is their refusal to deal any more in that inhuman traffic?"
He continued: "An offer of freedom from England would come rather oddly, shipped to them in an African vessel, which is refused an entry into the ports of Virginia or Carolina, with a cargo of three hundred Angola negroes. It would be curious to see the Guinea captain attempting at the same instant to publish his proclamation of liberty and to advertise his sale of slaves." Ahhh, how knowledge of the facts can alter one's opinion of the revisionist history that has been taught for generations in American schools (including its so-called "law schools"!!)
Human beings are allotted ONLY A TINY SLIVER OF TIME ON THIS EARTH. (Pardon shouting) Each finds the world and his/her own community/nation existing as it is.
If lawyers and judges cared enough to educate themselves (in this day of the Internet) on the history of civilization and America's real history, and if they used that knowledge and the resulting understanding, to do as much on behalf of liberty for ALL people as did Thomas Jefferson and America's other Founders, the world in the next century would be a better place.
Remember: Thomas Jefferson was only 33 years old when he penned our Declaration of Independence which capsulized a truly revolutionary idea into a simple statement that survives to this day to inspire people all over the world to strive for liberty!
When one finds himself in a hole, the first thing you’re supposed to do is stop digging.
Northam never learned how to do that.
These were folks who could buy off their freedom by working a certain number of years.
A slave could not do that. There is a difference and the guv'nor is correct.
The governor is technically correct. Initially treated the same as indentured servants from Europe. The Punch case was decided in 1640 first legally recognizing the distinction between the European and African servants.
But let’s all be good democrats and not let facts get in the way of emotions.
Man this dude just can’t keep his foot out of his mouth.
My 9th Great Grandfather, Samuel Weaver came to Martin’s Hundred just south of Jamestown in 1621 as an indentured servant to William Harwood, the governor of Martin’s Hundred. After Pohawtan’s attack in 1623, many of the inhabitants were killed, including a free holder named John Jackson. His widow, Ann married Samuel Weaver and paid off his indenture when thereby he became a land owner and free holder.
All indentures were for a specified period of time, in Virginia this was usually for 7 years after which they became free, received a grant of land and farming utensils. Very different than chattel slaves who were never freed and their offspring also became slaves.
It may be true that a few of the first arrivals were indentured servants, but that arrangement was very short lived. Virginia prohibited making slaves of Christians and Indian slaves invariable ran off in short order. African slaves were imported by the Portuguese to provide labor required for plantations, particularly for tobacco, indigo, rice, and sugar. A slave economy caught on pretty quick in the Tidewater of Virginia.
‘Wreckit’ Ralph just can’t stop talking.
What an insult!
Slaves were regarded as an investment that would pay dividends for the life of the one in bonds; therefore it was in the best interest of the slaveowner to try to ensure that his property lived as long a life as possible.
Indentured servants, on the other hand, were an expense. Expendible. Gone in seven years. So they could be treated harshly and d@mn near whipped to death...if they expired at 6 years and 11 months no real loss.
Oh no he di’int!
Boy just can’t seem to stop stepping in it.
And so they were, at first. It wasn't until the middle of the 17th Century that chattel slavery was established by law in the English Colonies on the Mainland, and Virginia was one of the first to do so. Moreover, most of the first ‘African’ slaves came to the Mainland English Colonies from the Caribbean, not from Africa directly.