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"Servants and Slaves in Virginia," an excerpt from The History and Present State of Virginia Reprinted in Major Problems in American Colonial History

Published in 1993

Edited by Karen Ordahl Kupperman

"I can't forbear affirming, that the work of their Servants, and Slaves, is no other than what every common Freeman do's."

One of the first colonies to experience a widespread need for workers was Virginia. By 1612, after five years of extreme hardship, the Jamestown settlers realized they could not get rich from gold and silver (see "The Founding of Jamestown"). They realized that if they wanted to remain in North America they would have to rely on local natural resources (materials supplied by nature, such as minerals and...