The passage talks about why Virginia and many other colonies moved toward having slaves. Morgan explains how people would be transported to Virginia to work and be under a contract. Those who were under a contract were called a servitude. Servitude was the closest thing to what slavery was before slavery actually became a thing in Virginia.
A enduring issue during the time was that servitude would lead to slavery. People were given longer sentences for a mistake they had made. In the early 17th century the first African slaves were in Virginia. At first the slaves would die because their immune system was not used to the disease in the New World that people from Europe brought. Many did not see the point in buying them to do labor if they were going to die. Slaves were not a good investment for those who want workers. Tobacco fields needed a lot of labor and workers willing to work in harsh conditions. Many Virginians owned land that had tobacco fields. English servants were not efficient too. So Virginians would look toward slaves but slaves cost more then servants. Tobacco and sugar became a demand from England so those who had land needed to find a way to buy slaves. Some ways that they did this was “When they wanted to buy slaves in Barbados, they could send cattle and hogs in exchange.”(303) Slaves were treated like objects. Their conditions and treatment would only get worse. Slaves would work hard and have no break from the harsh labor. Women were not known to work but slave women were an exception. When slave women were pregnant the children they had would be enslaved since birth. They would become the property of the master and would only help the growth of enslaved people in Virginia. Laws were made more toward servants who tried to run away. Slaves never had freedom unlike servants that have to work till their contract is over and they would become free. In order to keep the slaves from running they would be punished. Masters want the slaves to fear them in order to have control over the slaves because unlike the servants they had a sort of freedom. Virginians only saw slaves as a profit because slaves would work hard for nothing in return. Virginians made profit off those who were working hard and treated poorly.
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Good write-up! You touch on most of the important points Morgan makes, but there are a few things to clarify. I’m not sure what you mean by “a(n) enduring issue during the time was that servitude could lead to slavery,” since English indentured servants could not be legally enslaved. You’re correct that purchasing a slave only started to make economic sense once it was clear they would live long enough to make a sound investment; but this had more to do with the overall health of the colony than with immunity to disease, which African people shared with Europeans (it was mostly Native Americans that died from diseases like smallpox).
Also, take another look at the law you mention, which appears on p. 311. The wording is tricky, but how did it provide for different punishments for slaves versus servants for the same “crime” (running away), and what was the likely intention behind this law?