In July 1640, two such cases appeared before the colony’s judges. Still, both Blacks and whites sought relief from their often grueling labor and difficult work conditions by running away, sometimes together. English common law, though only sparingly enforced, was meant to protect servants and enslaved people from mistreatment. They were owned by their masters or enslavers, and they worked shoulder to shoulder in the tobacco fields-sometimes even alongside their masters or enslavers and their wives.

Virginia Indians were enslaved in small numbers, as well.Īt first, the lives of servants and enslaved people were similar. Although in some cases Africans worked as servants, many more were enslaved, purchased through the Spanish and Portuguese or, beginning late in the seventeenth century, from the Royal African Company. In addition, their masters provided them with food, clothing, and lodging.

Servants signed contracts, or indentures, binding them to work for a number of years, usually four to seven, and in return received passage to Virginia. The labor of indentured servants and, to a much smaller degree, enslaved Africans made the tobacco economy of early Virginia possible. These advertisements affirmed a lingering desire for freedom on the part of enslaved people. Beginning in 1736, masters and enslavers advertised in the Virginia Gazette for their runaway servants and enslaved people they describe more than 3,500 fugitives from 1736 until 1783. In 1705 a sweeping new law allowed enslavers to discipline enslaved people with death or dismemberment or, in some cases, to kill runaways without penalty. They fled mostly into Maryland but sometimes as far north as New Netherland and New England. In October 1669, the burgesses admitted that these laws “have hitherto in greate parte proved ineffectuall,” as enslaved people and servants continued to brave numerous dangers to flee.

As early as 1643, the General Assembly passed laws that established penalties for runaway enslaved people and servants, regulated their movement, identified multiple offenders (by branding them or cutting their hair), and provided rewards for their capture. Early court cases reveal that whites and Blacks sometimes ran off together but that punishments for the latter could be much harsher. They fled from abusive masters or enslavers, to take a break from work, or in search of family members from whom they had been separated. Runaway enslaved people and indentured servants were a persistent problem for enslavers and masters in colonial Virginia.

Runaway Clothes by Mrs. D.