Slaves in Maryland
Many wealthy people disliked the price of indentured servants. They also disliked the fact that they would have to let the servents go at some point. They began to rely on another group of workers: slaves from Africa. Slaves were more expensive than indentured servants but indentured servants worked only for a set amount of years for their masters. Slaves, on the other hand, were forced to give their masters a lifetime of labor. Also, the slave's children became slaves as well. From 1695 to 1708 alone, 4,000 slaves arrived in the colony. These slaves took over much of the painstaking labor that made Maryland's tobacco industry possible. The slaves were needed in Maryland, but not as much as in the very southern colonies where slaves were depended on.