Misconceptions About Colonial American History

Although there are several misconceptions regarding colonial time in American history, there is widespread understanding of slavery based on conditions that existed just prior to the Civil War; however, one of the most common misconceptions is that slavery was an exclusively a Southern institution prior to the American Revolution. Obliquely, all 13 British colonies in North America depended on slavery. The introduction of tobacco market in 1620 Virginia under white servants to perform the arduous labor. Before the establishment of slavery in 1675, only a fraction of plantations held slaves. While most slaves were found in Southern states, slavery extended to middle and Northern colonies such as New England, Boston, Philadelphia and New York. Slaves in urban areas were used in several different areas; for instance, “domestic servants, artisans, craftsmen, sailors, dock workers, laundresses, and coachmen.” Few slaveholders would rent out their slaves to collect their wages; as for household slaves had a high social
status.
Furthermore, slaves were property and as such they were part of their owner’s wealth; Southern slaveholders had a greater investment in slaves; nonetheless, “Northerners, too, had significant portions of their wealth tied up in their ownership of enslaved people.”
As the economy improved in Britain, the White enslaved servants
declined since there were better opportunities in their home country. During the same time, Nathanial Bacon led a rebellion in 1676, which led planters to plantation owners to be concern regarding the risk of having an enormous class of “restless, landless, and relatively poor white men.” Causing for slaveholders to purchase slaves instead of having White servants throughout the 1660’s and 1670’s, while less wealthy plantation owners started in the 1700’s. In 1670, the Providence of Carolina was founded and was the first to introduce African slavery, which the colony later became the largest slave port in Colonial America. From this point, Slavery expanded to Georgia, Virginia, across the Appalachians, Kentucky, Tennessee and Northern colonies also purchased slaves, but on a much smaller scale. Furthermore, the number of slave increased in South Carolina, outnumbering free whites in South Carolina in the early 1700s to the Civil War. To justify slavery and prevent a rebellion, an authoritarian political culture, whereas Northern colonies slaves resided in towns, and worked as artisans and artisans' assistants, sailors and longshoremen, and domestic servants.
Presumably, in the inception of the colony of Virginia, Africans and poor whites (Britons) had the same social status. African and White females worked together in the fields and those who broke their contract were equally punished regardless of color for all were indentured servants. Throughout their servitude, the people were fed, housed and once their contract had expired they were given ‘freedom dues,’ that constituted in a piece of land, supplies, and a gun. It is understood that in the beginning, British only enslaved non-Christians regardless or color, and slavery was not a lifetime servitude; a slave could be freed by converting to Christianity. Also, Virginian colonists described themselves as Christian or Englishmen and did not describe themselves as white people. did not even think of themselves as white or use that word to describe themselves. As for their social status, they were either nobility, gentry, artisans, or servants. In 162, English and Colonial law did not define racial slavery; the census did not describe them as slaves but servants.
Additionally, Northern colonies also captured Native Americans to serve as slaves and be internationally trade, that led to the extermination of entire Native groups in certain regions; author Gallay argues that “regional politics forced some Indian groups to face the choice of either becoming victims of slave raids or becoming the enslavers.” As previously stated, the economy of the colonies was based on slavery, many household operated due to their servants.
During the1630s, the Pequots resided in the Connecticut River Valley, which was a fertile land wanted by the colonizers from the Plymouth and Massachusetts
Bay.