“Servant” Was Not Always a Softer Word
The invention of race-based slavery.
Publication date — to be added
Introduction
Black and white laborers in the British colonies started out under the same legal status.
This visual essay traces, slide by slide, how colonial law, court cases, and economics turned servitude into hereditary, race-based slavery.
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Sources & Further Reading
- Bouie, Jamelle, and Rebecca Onion. “The Terrible Transformation.” History of American Slavery. Slate Academy, 2015.
- Davis, T. R. “Negro Servitude in the United States: Servitude Distinguished from Slavery.” Journal of Negro History 8, no. 3 (1923): 247–283.
- Galenson, David W. “The Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude in the Americas: An Economic Analysis.” Journal of Economic History 44, no. 1 (1984): 1–26.
- Nicholson, Bradley J. “Legal Borrowing and the Origins of Slave Law in the British Colonies.” American Journal of Legal History 38 (1994): 38–54.
- “Indentured Servants.” Hampton National Historic Site. National Park Service. Accessed August 30, 2026.
- “Laws Concerning Indentured Servants” (1619), “Irish Servants” (1655), “Contract for Servant without an Indenture” (1665), and “Contract and Recommendation for William Buckland” (1755; 1759). Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities.
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