Winter Lecture Series: Servitude and Enslavement- Laboring in a Tobacco Economy

To be a successful tobacco planter, Chesapeake settlers soon realized the need for inexpensive labor. At first, they relied largely on indentured servants, but wealthier planters turned to enslaved labor as soon as they had the means to obtain it. While most servants and enslaved men and women shared similar work, in all other respects their lives were markedly different. HA Historian Jean Russo’s presentation will look at how tobacco shaped a labor system that permeated all aspects of colonial life.