Eventually the indentured servants were replaced with African slaves because the authorities wanted to improve the status of the white servants. They did this in an effort to make Virginia seem less like a death trap for the white man. By 1705, nearly half of Virginia's population was black, and the slave code was introduced. The Slave Code stated that slaves were property and therefore subject to the will of the white community. Slaves could be bought, sold, or inherited, but they could not own weapons, strike a white man, nor could they ever own a white man. As the population continued to grow, social changes began to occur. White society began to look a lot like English society. Rich landowners were the aristocrats of society, while small agricultural owners who were former indentured servants were at the lowest level of society. Many of these farmers were not destitute as most of them were fortunate to get land as a reward for being a former indentured servant. They earned most of their money by trading and selling the crops they produced, many members of the settler elite earned a large amount of money from the crops that slaves produced on their plantations. But with the cheap one