The Failure of Indentured Servitude and the Turn to African Slavery

way to the new world for a new life. For those who did not want to go overseas, their masters gave them land. Other incentives included guns, clothes, and a fully paid passage to the new world.

Soon the demand for labor grew as Europeans started to agriculture. As a result, the cost of indentured servants increased. Other than the rising cost of indentured slaves, many landowners became paranoid. Slaves whose contracts had ended started to demand land creating another problem within the indentured servitude systemfootnoteRef:2. Some indentured slaves who acquired land became rich and ventured into the profitable agriculture. This created a labor shortage making Europeans opt for Africa to solve the labor problem in the Americas.

Shortage of labor in the Americas

With the indenture system, slaves started owning land cutting short the supply of labor. Other than that, native slaves died from diseases such as smallpox, flu, and measles that Europeans brought to the new world or the AmericasfootnoteRef:3. These diseases wiped out a significant number of native slaves. Death to native slaves also resulted from heavy work in mines and plantations. Many Indians refused to work on the plantation for fear that they would. Internal warfare in the Americas also resulted in the death of many native Indians. Indians who survived the diseases started running away to other parts where they could blend with their fellow Indians. The often came back for other remaining Indians causing a revolt. This created a shortage in labor in the Americas forcing Europeans to turn to Africa for slaves.

Europeans also realized that African were immune from disease flu, measles, and smallpox brought by the Europeans into the new

worldfootnote. Unlike native Indians, African slaves could endure long and tedious working hours in the plantations with minimal effect on their productivity. This meant that Europeans enjoyed a constant supply of labor in their plantations and mines.

Demand for labor

European nations including Britain, Portugal, France, Spain, and others started pursuing plantation agriculture in the Americas or the new world. The Caribbean islands, north, central, and South America made up the Americas. European nations expanded vastly in the Americas with plantation agriculture being their primary objective. Coupled with the shortages of labor as discussed above, the demand for labor grew because the natives could not meet the labor demands that the new plantations required. Sugar, cotton, tobacco, and rice were very profitable, and the Americas provided huge tracts of land for the plantations. These labor-intensive cash crops required a lot of labor force making Africa the only destination for the required for the soaring demand. As a solution for the high labor demand, Europeans turned to Africa for slaves by establishing the transatlantic trade.

Slaves supply mainly came from West Africa a region where African elites had been practicing the trade before the Europeans came. Africans became slaves for other Africans because they could not pay their debts or as punishment for wrongs done. West African leaders readily supplied Europeans with slaves in exchange for clothes, guns, and other possessions. Europeans transported these slaves via routes established by the transatlantic trade.

The encomienda system

Indians had lived in the Americas long before Europeans encroached the new world and when they finally came, the native population started dwindling. The Europeans brought disease that killed many of the natives. The Indians were

not used to these new diseases, and they died in great numbers. In 1500, it is estimated that there were about 50 million Indians in the Americas. By 1600, after 100 years of European warfare, disease, and forced labor, this number had been reduced to about 8 millionfootnote.

The alarming rate of death experienced in the Americas led to the introduction of the encomienda system. The system was as a result of laws passed by Spain in 1542. The law put an end of using Indians as slaves. The laws stated that Indians could no longer work as slaves especially in plantations and mines. The encomienda system, which developed as a result of the new laws allowed Indians to do a given amount of work the master on whose land they benefited. The encomienda system was not enough to provide the required input in the plantations and the mines in the Americasfootnote. The native labor force had to be replaced. Slaves to replace the native Indians came from Spanish colonies, such as the Canary Islands but later an influx of slaves came from Africa mainly from West Africa.

The laws passed by the Spanish came at a time when Bartolome de Las Casas pleaded with the Spanish not to enslave native Indians but convert them to Christianity. The plea meant that Europeans had to turn to Africa for more slaves to meet their growing output in the plantations and the mines. Africans were also judged by their skin and physique.
In Renaissance Europe black skin was associated with negativity and pollution; but as well as inferiority, bodily difference was also used to reinforce suitability for work. African were

perceived to have sturdy bodies and unlike, Native Americans, to be disposed to hard work in fierce climates, but to be incapable of intelligence and creativity. Native Americans were initially thought by the Spanish and the English to be suitable laborers; however, by the early sixtieth century, the African had become the labor of choice for the Spanish.

Africans had the experience, and they were cheap too. Native Americans or Indians had no experience in sugar, cotton, or rice farming. Plantation farming especially sugar was the most profitable venture and the person with the experience was an African. Africans not only provided experience but also provided cheap labor. By European standards, African slaves were cheap as compared with the nativesfootnote.

In conclusion, Europeans turned to Africa to solve labor problems in the Americas for different demographic and socioeconomic reasons. First, indentured servitude system had failed, sparking a series of challenges ranging from shortage of labor to the high demand of the same. The shortage of labor was as a result of diseases brought by the Europeans that caused death to many Native Americans. African slaves were cheap and had the experience in plantation agriculture. Laws passed by the Spanish abolished trade among Native Americans for they were now seen as superior to Africans because of the skin color.

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