Explain the rise of slavery in the Chesapeake

Question

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Answer 1

Slavery emerged relatively slowly on the North American continent, since indentured servants were cheaper and the high death rate on tobacco plantations made it unappealing to pay for a lifetime of labor. Only in the 1660s did the laws of the Chesapeake colonies address slavery. The expansion of tobacco cultivation created larger distinctions between the conditions for white indentured servants and black slaves, since planters wanted to improve the image of Virginia as a death trap that prevailed on the English mainland. At the same time, the terms of slavery grew stricter: Virginia expanded the hereditary status of slavery to the offspring of white fathers and black mothers, ended the practice of liberating slaves who converted to Christianity, barred the freeing of slaves within the colony, and severely punished white women who had children with black men. African origins and slavery grew increasingly synonymous, and between 1680 and 1700, the Chesapeake developed into a slave society with fewer and fewer indentured servants and a growing number of slaves.