The colonizing of North America was a perilous proposition at the best of times, of all the many dangers that could have derailed the settling of the New World a constant labor shortage was one of the more significant. The reasons were varied for settling in North America. Most of those that left from Europe were sold on hope and promises. Though most were too poor to pay the passage there was a better chance of making a way for oneself in the colonies than in the battered economy of Britain during the 17th century.
With the promise of securing land and the hope of moving up in society and making their fortune, many out of either willingness or necessity signed indentures that gave them passage to the new world. Unlike the clergy, officials, and some more wealthy individuals who came to the Americas as free persons, those who signed indentures gave up their liberty for a contracted length of time in exchange for not only passage to the New World but for “freedom dues”. Freedom dues often included, a new set of clothes, basic tools, seed, and most importantly, the right to claim 50 acres of land.
The labor shortage in the colonial days began as reports from indentured servants and freemen who expected easy riches in the New World began reaching Europe. These reports and letters outlined mistreatment, begged for money or goods, and plead for the ability to return from the colonies. All the unkept promises and horrible reports of sickness were the worst kind of publicity for those who saw opportunity in America and needed more people to work the vast tracts of land that were claimed and chartered from the King.
Further complicating matters for landholders in America were disease and the vastly different climate. These sudden changes of environment and workload wreaked havoc on the indentured servant population.
The time that it took for a person to adapt to life in America would become known as the “seasoning time”. When comparing my source books and Internet sites such as the Smithsonian (http://anthropology.si.edu/writteninbone/unearthing_past.html) somewhere between 25% and 50% of settlers died in the first year or so of arriving. This was caused by a combination of a lack of immunity to local disease, the heavy workload, and the climate. The winters especially were not kind to the unprepared in the 16 and 17 hundreds.
No matter how it happened, the labor shortage, unchecked, would have ended the colonization of North America by the British because it affected every facet of life. Lack of workers, and the unwillingness of the former upper class to “lower themselves to menial labor” halted development, made farming lands productively impossible, and gave the colonists little hope of defense against hostile or provoked Native American tribes let alone the troops of Spain if they had deemed it necessary to move north from Florida. So not only would it have kept the colonies from becoming profitable but it would have taken away the feeling of security that allowed the colonists to work in the open fields.
A tolerable labor force was maintained through three avenues, by positive stories that individuals and companies paid to have written, the reports of profits forced out of the colonies by landholders, and further promises and solicitations made to the poor and the imprisoned. The orphanages and prisons were even seen as a resource to bolster the ability of the colonies to survive.
Sources:
We Are the American People, Our Nation’s History Through Its Documents by Young, Sanford, and Gibson
Smithsonian Website; http://anthropology.si.edu/writteninbone/unearthing_past.html
