Chattel Slavery Dbq

Concurrently, in Europe, peasants who comprised the majority of the population worked and payed tribute to the Catholic Church. The class system was so entrenched in society that the lack of social mobility was severe, generations would all be limited to occupying the same class. Fluctuating climate changes rendered consistent growth of crops and support of a growing population impossible (Lect. 1, 1/22). Life in rural Europe was inhospitable and even though peasants were prohibited from migrating to the cities, some still risked it in hopes of a better future. The reality was that the urban centers were not fairing any better, being riddled with disease and overcrowded. All these factors contributed to the frustration of Western Europeans

Frustration with the system of indentured servitude and lack of labor resulted in the English implementing a similar system of African slavery in the Chesapeake like the Caribbean sugar colonies. (Lect. 5, 2/1). The rise of chattel slavery was another factor that served to buttress the ideology of enslaving Africans, where people were seen as property to be bought and sold. The most prominent example is in 1662, where a law was passed stating that a child’s freedom was derived from the mother. The ruling class utilized this for their own benefit, so that the child of an unfree woman would always be a slave, translating to a continuous source of labor. Furthermore, laws stating that slavery was the natural condition of black people in the 1660s were passed, neither achievement nor aptitude mattered. (Lect. 5, 2/1). Slave codes were enacted throughout time in different Southern colonies, gathering all laws regulating slavery and consolidating it into a set of rules. It was an ideological tool to figure out how to regulate and uphold slavery, transforming the white population into a surveillance force (Lect. 5, 2/1). With the establishment of such laws, it coerced black slaves to behave inferiorly and this is the way the white population became acclimated to seeing them. It became a self-perpetuating concept of sorts and over time the condition of black people was seen as this universal truth, when the reality was far from it, they were forced into their condition. The discord left by Bacon’s Rebellion was taken advantage of by the ruling class that feared future rebellion; they sought to quell the angst of the white population by redirecting their tension towards the black population. The task of the ruling class was to implement an ideological change, since indentured servitude was fundamentally different from owning a person for life. To sow division,