Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
History 7A
than eighteen inches between the shelves. Besides, they were chained together. Many enslaved
black people died of fever and dehydration due to lack of drinking water and harsh environment.
All of them were involuntary, and they had to work for all their lives. They didnt have any
opportunity to be free. If they tried to run away from the controls of masters, they would be
killed by the masters by whips or rifles. Besides, the children of black people who were enslaved
would be enslaved people also no matter their fathers were white or black.
In the early eighteen century, as the increase of demand of crops such as cotton and
tobacco, the demand of labors increases rapidly. In order to solve the problem of workforce
shortage, the labor form of indentured servant developed. However, the landowners wanted to
gain the maximum benefit, so they decided to get enslaved black people from Africa because
they were effective, and the most important of all, they didnt have any contract, which means
they had to work for their whole lives. Because of the reasons above, there were more than sixty
percent of black people in the Virginia.
This document was written by Gottlieb Mittelberger when he traveled to Pennsylvania.
He recorded the severe situations he faced on the vessel, the things and people he met in
Pennsylvania and Philadelphia because he tried to let people more realize the real situation what
indentured servants met. I learned that some indentured servants were deceived and suffered a lot
of unfair treatment by unscrupulous landowners, others finally became free men and increasingly
improved their quality of lives.
Citation:
1. http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bdorsey1/41docs/40-mit.html
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJJzLgtontY
3. American History
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDQSUvP9oxw
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servant