Beg to differ. Indentured servants did the heavy lifting in many places because they were there BEFORE slaves were imported. Also, many of the first blacks to arrive came as indentured servants, not "slaves." They worked off their contracts and were let go. I'm talking about pre-1700, when a lot of the heavy lifting was done--swamp clearing, stump pulling, tree felling, etc.
My own Welsh ancestor sailed from Bristol, England in 1620 to a Nevis plantation as an indentured servant. Then moved to Maryland in 1626 after he'd paid off his passage. Slaves arrived on Nevis ten years later. There were few if any blacks in Maryland in 1626. The heavy lifting, clearing, pulling, felling was done by Welsh and England colonists. But no one wants to give us any credit whatsoever for it.
My ancestor was a brave teenage lad, orphaned, alone, undoubtedly illiterate, impoverished to the point that he didn't even have a last name, but took the name of the nearby castle in Wales. When he got to Maryland in 1626, the population of the entire state would fit into a 2004 baseball stadium, virtually all were white, few were landowners. most died before age 35 from malaria and other dreadful things. But somehow, plantations began and flourished, the economy grew even without those hard-working slaves.
I don't begrudge blacks credit for their heavy lifting and I don't promote the institution of slavery. It was dreadful. But they weren't the backbone of America. A little perspective please.
I am well aware of the history of indentured servitude and do not deny many did very hard work but there is a huge psychological burder they were spared which slaves had to face every moment. The former knew they would one day be free while the slaves realized freedom was for the vast majority an empty dream. Crushing the human spirit makes even light tasks seem onerous.
During the period of indentured servitude the colonies were still along the coast and none of the lands of the Cotton states were even in American control. Indentured servants did not face the conditions of the field hands there. Nor did they face the labor conditions the slaves had in the cotton fields. But it is true that the slavers would not use their slaves to do the most dangerous work such as clearing swamps for that Irishmen were hired.