At first, they bought the services of indentured servants, poor people who had no money or jobs. These indentured servants agreed to work for a farmer for a period of four to seven years. After that they were free to work for themselves.
In sixteen nineteen, a Dutch ship brought a group of Africans to Jamestown. They had been kidnapped from their homes by African traders and sold to the ship's captain. He sold them to the Virginia settlers. These first Africans may have been treated like indentured servants. Later, however, colonists decided to keep them as slaves so they would not have to continue paying for workers. Slowly, laws were approved in Virginia that made it legal to keep black people as slaves. By seventeen fifty, there were more Africans in Virginia than any other group.
Indians did not make good slaves because they could run away. The slaves from Africa could not. They had no place to go.
Slavery in the South affected the course of American history. It divided the people and led to a civil war that nearly tore the nation apart. Slavery in the South will be our story next week.
You can find our series online with transcripts, MP3s, podcasts and pictures at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember, inviting you to join us again next week for The Making of a Nation - American history in VOA Special English.
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2013-11-25
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