American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia

Morgan explains why and how Virginians started to turn toward a slave-labor economy.

Virginians imported workers from England to ensure their profits. Morgan suggests that as soon as Virginians found tobacco, the colony was on the road to slavery. But forcing servants into slavery might have led to massive rebellion, so rather than enslave Virginians, they bought “men who were already enslaved” (297). So, in 1660, with a decline in immigration largely due to an end to England’s population problems, it likely became more advantageous for Virginia planters to buy slaves. But the Navigation Acts prevented buying and transporting them to the colony.

Virginia planters had advantages over other planation economies: They could replace slaves at a lower rate than sugar planters, giving a greater return on investment; a rise in the price of tobacco meant they could pay for them; and tobacco required “a smaller outlay of capital for production equipment” (303). Therefore, men who wanted to get into plantation production went to Virginia. The men who arrived garnered more prestige in England. They brought slavery to Virginia by buying “slaves instead of servants” (304). By century’s end, more than half of Virginia’s labor force was enslaved.