Document Interpretation:#2 Calculus of Slavery & Provincials

Document Interpretation: Of the Servants and Slaves in Virginia

In the state of Virginia the owners of the slaves or servants were trying to determine
how the Negros they owned would best serve them. The people in Virginia taught that the
servants would be theres for life, which was true because in the lecture notes of Chapter 3 it
said that the planters had found a way to keep the slaves working for life. They found out
that if the slaves were given the proper care then they would live longer, which meant longer
life for the slaves. Not only were the slaves entitled to work for life but if the slaves would
have children then their children would also become the planters property, as they too would
be condemned to be a slave for life.
As in regards to the servants they would only be considered to work for a couple of
years and then be put to work in the land. Both men and women could be servants though
most women were the ones who would be servants. In Chapter 3 of the lecture notes it said
that servants would only work for about 5 years, however in the article it states that to be
considered a servant you couldnt be under the age of nineteen. Although in the video of
Crash Course: The Atlantic Slave Trade, John Green specified a time where the owners of the
slaves had found a way to use any slaves children or adults when ever they may need them.
In regards to the women who are slaves and servants they have a distinction
between the men since the male slaves are working in the lands. For that reason the women
who are servants and slaves have a different role in what their jobs permit them to do but
they are compared a white womens responsibility is. Thus the white womens are only
allowed to work inside and hardly ever to go outside unless they would be useful for them.
To make sure that the white women are not allowed to be working in the lands there was a
law made that would prevent any women to work in the lands because of the Taxes being
made against them. As it states that being a women servant is a much better choice and in
Chapter 3s lecture it says, it was good to be working as a servant.
Despite slaves and servants having to be exposed to such brutal uncertain
circumstances that they had to face during the time they were owned and mistreated there
was a way that gave them the possibility to be free. Under some laws that would defend
what the slaves and servants on how they were suppose to be treated by their owners. Since,
it had been said that the slaves and servants were being treated in the most inhuman ways
because it was their destiny to be this way. Just like John Green said in the Crash Course
Video of The Atlantic Slave Trade he mentioned that Orlando Patterson who was a sociologist

stated how taking away from where they came from soon caused them social death.
Consequently even if their were laws in the state of Virginia to help these slaves and servants
to get the respect they should have gotten a long time ago would be enough for the slave
and servant works to feel like they could even become someone one day.