The opportuneness of these settlements is shown by a number of
conditions. The contest between negro slavery and white servitude had
been settled in favor of slavery. The Tuscorora Indians, the implacable
enemies of negroes, were driven out of the colony in 1772. The moral
evils of slavery had not appeared.[7] The English government in 1663, by
chartering the Royal African Company to engage in the slave trade, became
interested in the development of slavery, and, thereafter, discouraged
the importation of indented servants into the colonies in order that
this company might have a larger market for slaves.[8] It was early
recognized that the industrial life of the colonies offered practically
no place to the white servant at the expiration of his indenture. He was
not financially able to purchase land and white servants or negro slaves,
necessary to farming, nor could he find employment in the villages and
small towns, because they were not sufficiently industrialized at this
time to offer such opportunities.
These influences produced a rapid increase in the slave population of
the colonies. In 1709, Rev. John Adams, a missionary, reported 800
slaves in North Carolina.[9] In 1717, there were 1,100 slaves out of a
taxable population of 2,000.[10] Governor Burrington stated that there
were 6,000 in 1730.[11] The census of 1754 showed a population of 9,128
slaves. In 1756, there were 10,800 negro taxables and as the ratio of
taxable negroes (those of the age of twelve and above) to the total negro
population was about ten to eighteen, there must have been, at this time,
approximately 20,000 slaves in the colony. There were 39,000 in 1767.[12]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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