Laboring

Most immigrants to early Maryland came as indentured servants. In return for the cost of their voyage, men and women promised to work for four or more years for the person buying their contract or indenture. After completing their promised term, they were free to marry and to work on their own. "Freedom dues" included a new suit of clothes, an axe, a hoe, three barrels of corn, and the right to acquire 50 acres of land. Many former servants succeeded in establishing themselves as planters, often with their own indentured servants.

When the English economy improved after 1660, fewer people were willing to come to America as indentured servants. The tobacco economy in Maryland and Virginia required large numbers of unskilled laborers, so tobacco planters turned to slavery to supply their labor needs.

Enslaved Africans were brought to Maryland in rapidly increasing numbers after 1680. By the early 1700s, life-long slavery replaced indentures as the main form of agricultural labor in the Chesapeake. The tragedy of race-based slavery shaped the subsequent history of the region.

[Captions:]
Scene of enslaved African-American women burning a field near Fredericksburg, Virginia, while the overseer watches them. This scene was common throughout the Chesapeake region during the 1700s and into



the mid-1800s.

The use of enslaved laborers instead of indentured servants increased dramatically in less than 50 years. These graphics represent that change as it occurred in four southern Maryland counties: Calvert, Charles, Prince George's, and St. Mary's.

By 1790, there were nearly 7,000 enslaved Africans or African Americans in St. Mary's County, Maryland. Little is known about them as persons. This advertisement provides one of the few descriptions we have. Harry escaped from the plantation of John Mackall, located in St. Mary's City.

[Aside:]

"to binde himselfe a servant there for five yeares, he shall be entertained (if he come within the limited time to the place appointed) upon these termes; that is to say, he shall be found sufficient meate and drink, and clothing, during the said terme; and at the end of the said terme, he shall have 50. Acres of good land..."
A Redmon...of Maryland, 1634

Lord Baltimore realized the need for indentured servants as he planned for his colony in Maryland. This form was included in A Relation of the Lord Baltimore's Plantation in Maryland," A direction for choice of servants," 1635.

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Why Is This Barn Here?
Carpenters' Marks
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Constructed With Colonial Ideas
Tree Growth Rings
To Market! To Market!
A Pressing Situation
What Happened Here After 1695?
Agricultural Change and Environmental Damage
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