<p>can anyone please tell me how free labor efected colonial america? please i dont even understand what free labor is..please!!!</p>
<p>hrlp much appreciated!!!</p>
<p>please dont mind the spelling coz im really in a hurry...my 1st APUSH test is tomorro =[ really apprehensive!</p>
<p>anyone??? Please!!!!</p>
<p>I have my first test tomorrow, too.</p>
<p>Free labor - essentially the enslavement of the Indians. </p>
<p>This can be understood as the encomienda system, pacification, or slavery, however all terms basically state that the Spaniards used free labor (they forced the indians to do labor for them) to hit it rich. Spaniards had the Indians grow high yield/high profit crops that would make good money in Europe. Spaniards also had the Indians work as miners in their gold and silver mines, which bolstered the Spanish economy and government in Europe in a monumental fashion. In their attempts at Colonization, the Spaniards relied on a large amount of Indian crops to sustain their colonies (Im referring to those in New Mexico.) </p>
<p>In essence, all of the Spaniards success can be credited to the monumental amount of free labor they got from the Indians in colonial america. Example - Cortes was collecting tribute from approximately 23,000 families at one point in time.</p>
<p>The ecomienda system wasn't used in the colonial America that we now now as the US, FYI.</p>
<p>Indentured servants and later African slaves were used in the British colonies.</p>
<p>To clarify, Halie is right, the encomienda system was used in Mexico and the Caribbean. My test is on colonization and the New World in regard to the Spanish only. (we start french colonies, virgina, mass bay, etc. next)</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>thanks a lot! but i think the question is more specifically asking for american (british) colonies...right?</p>
<p>Well, neither slaves nor indentured servants were "free".</p>
<p>Slaves cost money to purchase, but their children were also the property of their master.</p>
<p>Indentured servants were paid for by their passage to America, and sometimes a small plot of land after 10ish years when they were freed.</p>
<p>But both had great impacts on the colonies, esp. in the South where agriculture meant big bucks. The tobacco industry, etc. wouldn't have thrived without cheap/free labor.</p>