Yep, the recent book Savage Kingdom is an outstanding historical look at the founding and early years of Jamestown. It was more like a concentration camp than a colony. Whites died like flies, in the hundreds, from starvation, disease and overwork, for the first 15 years.
When the first slaves were unloaded at the colony, they were treated as Indentured Servants, because that was the normal framework that the English had in place for feeding/clothing people in exchange for their labor. Many of the early slaves were released after 7 years, when their term of Indenture expired. This part of Virginia eventually had the highest concentration of freed blackmen in the colonies. Many became skilled carpenters, tanners, etc.
It was only years later, that the landowners started to realize that nobody, and I mean nobody, was going to take them to court if they "forgot" to release their "servants" after seven years. So, they just continued the "relationship" for the life of the servant. Eventually, the whole charade of calling these folks "servants" was dropped, and they were just called slaves.
Mannyrock
