Immigration and Slavery in the Colonies

Immigration Drives Change and Diversity

As colonies grew, European arrivals increased; by 1700 approximately 250{,}000 people of European background lived in the colonies, rising tenfold over the next 75 years.
Early immigration: mostly from England; by the 1600s about 90\% of migrants to English colonies were English. About half were indentured servants who paid passage by working 4\text{-}7\ years; they received basic provisions and, after term completion, were supposed to be free with potential land/tools.
Olaudah Equiano: enslaved African who bought his freedom and wrote influentially about enslavement, aiding the British abolitionist movement.
Key terms: \text{indentured servant}, \text{triangular trade}, \text{Middle Passage}, Phillis Wheatley.

English emigration dropped after 1660 as economic/political/religious turmoil eased; English stayed home after improvements in the economy.
The Scots-Irish: emigration rose, aided by easier access after the union forming Great Britain in 1707; about 250{,}000 Scots-Irish came to the colonies in the 1700s, many settling in the western backcountry (PA to the Carolinas).
The Scots moved in three waves: lowlands, highlands, Ulster (Northern Ireland) influx; Ulster Scots became known as Scots-Irish.
German immigrants: roughly 100{,}000 from the Rhine Valley and northern Switzerland; pushed by war, taxes, military drafts, and religious conformity pressures; many Protestants.
Pennsylvania: attracted Germans due to land abundance and low taxation; land six times larger than typical German holdings, and farms with lower taxes encouraged settlement.
Immigration drives change and diversity: new groups (Scots-Irish and Germans) altered religious and cultural balance; in Pennsylvania, diversity helped the colony prosper economically and religiously.

Labor demand in Chesapeake and other colonies grew as immigration declined; enslaved Africans became a primary labor source.
Slavery emerges: early 1600s, enslaved people could gain freedom after years of service, own land, vote; by mid-1600s, laws shifted to permanent enslavement and hereditary status for enslaved Africans and their children.
The Transatlantic Slave Trade (triangular trade): Europe → Africa for enslaved people; Middle Passage to the Americas; colonial goods returned to Europe.
The Middle Passage brutality: overcrowded holds, disease, branding, shackles; about 10\% of enslaved Africans did not survive the voyage in the 1700s.
By the 18th century, approximately 1{,}500{,}000 enslaved Africans were imported to British colonies; the majority went to the West Indies, with at least 250{,}000 to the 13 colonies.
Enslaved Africans arrived as diverse groups (Ashanti, Fulani, Igbo, etc.) and formed a new African American culture blending African traditions with colonial experiences.
Slavery and its codes expanded rapidly, shaping social structures and racial ideology in the colonies.

Slavery varied by region: by 1750, enslaved Africans were small minorities in New England and the Middle Colonies; far more enslaved lived in the Southern Colonies.
Chesapeake: enslaved people made up about 40\% of the population; coastal South Carolina enslaved outnumbered whites.
Living conditions: harsh and crowded housing; long hours (at least 12 hours/day, 6 days/week$) under overseers; harsh treatment and punishment.
Enslaved culture: Africans blended traditions with Christianity; created music (banjos, rattles, drums) and other cultural practices.

Enslaved people resisted through quiet acts (slower work, feigning illness, feigning ignorance) and larger uprisings in some regions.
Stono Rebellion (South Carolina, 1739): about 60 enslaved killed 20 whites before suppression; 18 executed.
Runaways and maroons: some fled to forests, swamps, remote villages, or Spanish Florida; others joined free black communities.
Free African Americans: a minority who could sometimes own property and gain limited freedoms, but faced discrimination and legal barriers; urban residence common among freed people.
Notable figures: Phillis Wheatley, Boston poet published in 1773, an example of free Black achievement in the era.

Early slave codes shaped status: 1662 Virginia law made slavery hereditary; 1668 allowed killing of unruly slaves; 1696 South Carolina regulation of punishment; 1699 Virginia regulation of punishment for slaves.
1715 New York: legal to execute fugitive slaves
1722–1735 South Carolina: multiple restrictions on slaves (owning animals, boats, firearms; leaving plantations without a permit; clothing restrictions, etc.)

Slavery in the North and Middle Colonies tended to be smaller in numbers; slavery more concentrated in the South due to agricultural labor demands.
Runaway dynamics and maroon communities differed by region; in South and the Caribbean, maroon communities formed as a response to brutal conditions.

Immigration reshaped the colonies with diverse European groups and a shift from indentured servitude to enslaved labor.
Slavery became a dominant institution in labor-intensive regions, especially the South, and generated a system of codes and resistance.
Diverse immigrant groups contributed to a plural colonial society, while enslaved Africans built new cultures and faced harsh conditions and legal constraints.