Competing Forms of Labour: The Reaction of White Working People to the Introduction of Slave Labour into Georgia, 1733-1775

Timothy J. Lockley

This paper explores the attitudes of white indentured servants and artisans toward the introduction and use of African slaves in Georgia between the founding of the colony and the Revolution. By examining the interaction between two markedly different immigrant social groups - one consisting of semi-free European settlers, the other of bonded Africans - insights can be gained into the competing ideologies of white and black labour in a slave society. Therefore this paper examines the techniques of accommodation used by all white working people to cope with the introduction of Africans into the colony. It concludes that only those white workers who made their skills indispensable could survive in the new economic climate engendered by slavery, while those unable to do so were forced into a subsistence existence.

[WP #96015]