The absence of labor combined with an abundance of land placed a premium on workers. Unfortunately, due to widespread unemployment in England, they had grown accustomed to not working much at all.

Those from the lower economic strata dominated the second group. One group were gentlemen for whom work remained a disturbing activity. Too many of the new Virginians could be placed in two categories. Under the Virginia Company, Jamestown fared poorly in the initial years due, according to Morgan, not from lack of organization or political leadership but rather the type of immigrants that arrived. In the book's first half, Morgan illustrates the conditions in Virginia that led to its use of indentured servitude along with the development of concurrent political processes that allowed wealthy 'big men' to dominate. Morgan explained how Virginia became a central actor in the revolution contributing to the formation of republican ideology and government leadership (in terms of contributions to the Constitution and as head of the executive branch) after the War for Independence while paradoxically championing the burgeoning use of slave labor.

Morgan divided into four broad sections: The Promised Land, The Volatile Society, and Slavery and Freedom. Morgan reveals the changing demographics, economics, social structures, and political developments of colonial Virginia that contributed to its adoption of slavery. American Slavery, American Freedom by Edmund MorganĮdmund Morgan's ' American Slavery, American Freedom' explores the dynamics of pre-Revolutionary Virginia from its failed Roanoke colony to the eve of revolution.

Edmund s morgan slavery and freedom