Danita Owens
Essay 1
History 2110
Race is a direct product of the colonization of several European controlled settlements in the New World. It is a product of the tensions between the settlers and Natives in the early 1600’s and becomes more defined and stable with the increasing control of England over Jamestown. The growing need for labor led to the production in the slave industry and pokes as the very concept of freedom sought by many of the originating colonists. We are then brought to the question of why race was a factor in Slavery and how its creation was able to influence laws. In this essay I will argue that although the creation of slavery preceded the colonization of Jamestown, Virginia; it was not a defined law supported concept
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until the mid-seventeenth century and was built over time. The past of the individual settlers is a key concept in the introduction of slavery in the colonies. Those who boarded the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery in 1607 were merely those of wealthy families or those who worked in high-class environments and wanted more adventure in their lives. They halted the colony’s prospects due to their unwillingness to do the manual labor needed to survive. It is thanks to neighboring Natives seeking peaceful relations and aiding these foreigners that they were able to survive with out the threat of starvation. A veteran soldier, John Smith, took charge of the colony by 1608. He mandated that the English Settlers do what is required for the colony’s survival saying “that he that will not worke shall not eate.” His disciplines kept the colony stable until he was injured and returned to England in 1609, leaving no proper discipline behind and resulting in the collapse of relations with the Algonquin tribes. I again feel the need to refer back to the settlers not being hard working survivalists. After Smith's leave to England, the successors felt "entitled" to the supplies so generously give from the natives. The Native’s retaliated by cutting off all supplies and this is the start of tensions within the colony and tribes. Relations between the Native’s and White leaders of Jamestown were waning, making survival increasingly difficult and settles desperate. The people were dependent on native food. They also didn’t allow themselves to obtain the knowledge it took to just grow their own food on the land that was so abundant in natural resources. They were dropping civilized contact and implementing radical laws on those still wanting peaceful relations. Those who chose to survive by living amongst the Natives, were subject to being hunted and sentenced to death. The colony needed capable labor and back in England those desperate for an alternative to prison, debt, and poverty involved themselves in the system of Indentured Servitude, paying off their debts by agreeing to serve a sentence of labor in the new world.
Their freedom was stripped of them, they were allowed to be bought and sold, and could be punished for not following orders. This system aided in the increased production and export of Tobacco, Enriched by John Rolfe. The industry promoted settlers to claim land for cultivation and indentured servants for the labor needed to grow the crop. This created fantastic wealth that led to the need for more land and more servitude. Also connecting to tension with the Natives already occupying the land. “The surrounding Native American population likewise suffered from more aggressive military tactics that made possible the expansion of the colony.” Despite the growing wealth of tobacco cultivation, it was not enough to save the Virginia Company from losing its charter and in 1622 Virginia was turned into a Royal Colony, directly managed by English Government. The English attacked natives and also tricked them with a false sense of peace. Servants that worked in the colony were also the victims of increasing violent punishments and died occasionally. This led to the need for stronger more obedient …show more content…
labor. The legality of slaves and terms regarding their freedoms were not clarified, but this lack of clarity aided some slaves in their prospect of freedom and also left open a prospect to subject them to harsher laws. Although African slaves were introduced to Northern America in 1619, they were present in Spanish settlements, such as St. Augustine, in the sixteenth century. The fleet that established Jamestown did not have African slaves aboard but no later than the 1619 Dutch slave trade was trafficking human property. In its early days a slave had the possibility to be recognized as a free and “valuable” individual in colonial society. Although this was a short lived aspect and in 1660 authorities passed an act clarifying that African slaves were that for life and that it is illegal to own a white for life. This starting the defined differenced between races and providing a clear differential between “slave” and “indentured servant” Perhaps Africans are seen as non-human where as whites were, despite many of them being criminals allowed the right to serve a sentence, and Africans not having that right and most possibly not even being defined as criminals. Lawmakers pushed to discourage cooperation amongst servants and slaves, making it illegal to aid in running away with them or assisting their escape. Since it was illegal for servants to be servants for life, the threat of time added to their sentence was enacted to prevent this. I believe this is a factor that contributes to modern segregation. Laws from here on continued to define the viewed differences between the settlers and “Negros” making slavery a stable concept accepted in the seventeenth century.
The Act of 1680 made it illegal for slaves to carry arms or roam with out permission of their “masters”. The act for suppressing outlying slaves, passed in 1691, made an effort to prevent interracial relationships. Interesting enough, if a child was mixed born to a black mother it was a slave. If a child was born to an English woman, it was an indentured servant for 30 years even though they would be equally mixed. “And be it further enacted that what Englishman, trader, or other shall bring in any Indians as servants and shall assign them over to any other, shall not sell them for slaves nor for any longer time than English of the like ages should serve by act of assembly,” This being another defining moment of race relations between the colonists, Natives, and Africans. The Natives are allowed the ability to be servants although they are not White. This being some innuendo that the settlers didn’t believe them to be as good as white, but not as bad as
black. In arguing that the relations between the three races are key concepts into how they are treated in this society, we can conclude that race started with the struggling of early colonists. Then they grew though the malice of colonists toward the natives and the need for more labor. The strength of that labor applied to the adoption of African slavery in Virginia and the laws imposed from the English Government. These laws then defined, perhaps minimalistically depending on perception, that there was a view in the difference of those involved: Native, African, English. And finally these laws over time subjugated the only clear difference was a superficial concept known as Race.
In Myne Owne Ground, the authors argue that it was not inevitable that black men and women were made subordinate to white colonists in colonial Virginia because in the early days there was more about wealth, economic standing, and religion than the color of one’s skin. For example, when a white man, Richard Ackworth, ask John Johnson to give testimony in a suit which Ackworth had filed against another Whiteman (Myne Owne Ground, 16). They were unwilling to allow a black man to testify in legal proceedings involving whites at first, but when they learned that John had been baptized and understood the meaning of an oat, they accepted his statement.
There are many contradictions pertaining to slavery, which lasted for approximately 245 years. In Woody Holton’s “Black Americans in the Revolutionary Era”, Holton points out the multiple instances where one would find discrepancies that lie in the interests of slaveowners, noble figures, and slaves that lived throughout the United States. Holton exemplifies this hostility in forms of documents that further specify and support his claim.
John Rolfe arrived in Jamestown with the intent to profit off tobacco by creating his own. Rolfe’s contribution of tobacco farming in Jamestown helped establish the characteristic of individualism in the American mind because he decided one day to try to make money off of tobacco farming, which meant that he had developed the skill that is self-reliance since he was the first to do this with no help from anyone but himself. As years passed, his tobacco business had grown and earned him a lot of wealth. When other settlers noticed, they chose to copy Rolfe’s idea and establish their own tobacco farms as well. Due to so many people participating in tobacco farming, they had to seek better soil and resources elsewhere which led to isolation. Since these farms were so spread out, farmers had to rely on themselves when problems occurred which again adds to the concept of individualism.
From 1750 until 1800 the colonial United States endured a period of enormous achievement along with a substantial amount of struggle. Before 1750, the new colony’s first struggle was between the colonists and England over who would have leadership within the New World. Once settled, the issues emerged from within the colonies themselves, particularly with the “belongings” they brought and imported. African American slaves were seen as property, and were not given any innate rights such as liberty or freedom when following their master to the New World. The revolution for the colonists from England began, with new freedoms received by the colonists; the slaves began to question their rights as humans. Innate rights such as liberty and freedom
Winthrop D. Jordan author of White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro 1550-1812, expresses two main arguments in explaining why Slavery became an institution. He also focuses attention on the initial discovery of Africans by English. How theories on why Africans had darker complexions and on the peculiarly savage behavior they exhibited. Through out the first two chapters Jordan supports his opinions, with both facts and assumptions. Jordan goes to great length in explaining how the English and early colonialist over centuries stripped the humanity from a people in order to enslave them and justify their actions in doing so. His focus is heavily on attitudes and how those positions worked to create the slave society established in this country.
The controversies surrounding slavery have been established in many societies worldwide for centuries. In past generations, although slavery did exists and was tolerated, it was certainly very questionable,” ethically“. Today, the morality of such an act would not only be unimaginable, but would also be morally wrong. As things change over the course of history we seek to not only explain why things happen, but as well to understand why they do. For this reason, we will look further into how slavery has evolved throughout History in American society, as well as the impacts that it has had.
John Rolfe played a major role in history in 1614 when he found a way to harvest tobacco. The tobacco crop is what restored Jamestown, Virginia and it would not exist today without this cash crop. Restoring Jamestown is not the only significance the tobacco crop holds; it is also responsible for the early stages of slavery. Since tobacco became the cash crop of Virginia, it was more in demand. There was a shortage of laborers to plant and harvest the tobacco crop and as a result settlers were unable to meet the European quota for tobacco. Since it was increasing in demand more laborers were needed to maintain these large plantations ; therefore more indentured servants were needed. The higher the demand for tobacco, the higher demand for laborers. Company agents advertised a few years of labor bondage and exchange would receive a new and better life in America. In 1619, the first Africans came to Jamestown. They came...
The American Revolution was a “light at the end of the tunnel” for slaves, or at least some. African Americans played a huge part in the war for both sides. Lord Dunmore, a governor of Virginia, promised freedom to any slave that enlisted into the British army. Colonists’ previously denied enlistment to African American’s because of the response of the South, but hesitantly changed their minds in fear of slaves rebelling against them. The north had become to despise slavery and wanted it gone. On the contrary, the booming cash crops of the south were making huge profits for landowners, making slavery widely popular. After the war, slaves began to petition the government for their freedom using the ideas of the Declaration of Independence,” including the idea of natural rights and the notion that government rested on the consent of the governed.” (Keene 122). The north began to fr...
Throughout this course we learned about slavery and it's effects on our country and on African Americans. Slavery and racism is prevalent throughout the Americas before during and after Thomas Jefferson's presidency. Some people say that Jefferson did not really help stop any of the slavery in the United States. I feel very differently and I will explain why throughout this essay. Throughout this essay I will be explaining how views of race were changed in the United States after the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, and how the events of the Jeffersonian Era set the stage for race relations for the nineteenth century.
Slavery was the core of the North and South’s conflict. Slavery has existed in the New World since the seventeenth century prior to it being exclusive to race. During those times there were few social and political concerns about slavery. Initially, slaves were considered indentured servants who will eventually be set free after paying their debt(s) to the owner. In some cases, the owners were African with white servants. However, over time the slavery became exclusive to Africans and was no limited to a specific timeframe, but life. In addition, the treatment of slaves worsens from the Atlantic Slave trade to th...
Early English settlers in the lower Chesapeake Bay region learned to cultivate tobacco from the Native Americans and it would prove to have profound influence in the development of Chesapeake society and the colonies of Virginia and Maryland as a whole. Between 1627 and 1669, annual tobacco exports climbed from 250,000 pounds to more than 15 million pounds. (p39. The American Journey). The Chesapeake region became the New World’s largest producer of tobacco. Since tobacco was a labour intensive crop to cultivate, the planters sought indentured servants from England as a source of cheap labour. However many servants died in alarming numbers from disease as a result from the supply of indentured servants declined, and larger planters who were wealthy managed to buy slaves. Slave population increased rapidly from 1,708 in 1660 to 189,000 in 1760. (Smith, Billy G., and Nash. Encyclopedia of American History).
Chesapeake colonies of Virginia and Maryland were settled in the early 17th century. It was a difficult live for the first colonist; they had limited labor and were constantly raided by Native Americans. Colonist tried to use the Native Americans as a source of slavery. Most of the colonist’s farms were by forest areas so Native Americans would just leave in to the woods. Colonists were afraid of pressuring them from the fear of getting ambushed by gangs of Native Americans. Another reason Native Americans men made bad slaves was because the women in the tribes did the agricultural work in the Native American villages.
The term slave is defined as a person held in servitude as the chattel of another, or one that is completely passive to a dominating influence. The most well known cases of slavery occurred during the settling of the United States of America. From 1619 until July 1st 1928 slavery was allowed within our country. Slavery abolitionists attempted to end slavery, which at some point; they were successful at doing so. This paper will take the reader a lot of different directions, it will look at slavery in a legal aspect along the lines of the constitution and the thirteenth amendment, and it will also discuss how abolitionists tried to end slavery. This paper will also discuss how slaves were being taken away from their families and how their lives were affected after.
Slavery has been a part of human practices for centuries and dates back to the world’s ancient civilizations. In order for us to recognize modern day slavery we must take a look and understand slavery in the American south before the 1860’s, also known as antebellum slavery. Bouvier’s Law Dictionary defines a slave as, “a man who is by law deprived of his liberty for life, and becomes the property of another” (B.J.R, pg. 479). In the period of antebellum slavery, African Americans were enslaved on small farms, large plantations, in cities and towns, homes, out on fields, industries and transportation. By law, slaves were the perso...
In the book “Freedom on My Mind” it states, “the legal status of blacks in early Virginia remains controversial because laws regulating slavery do not appear in the colony’s legal statutes prior to the 1600s.” Since laws regulating slavery did not appear, English colonists were able to create codes which determined who could be a slave. I will go into detail about these codes and how it made an impact on the development of black history. This will also answer the legal status of people of African descent in colonial Virginia and how blacks where distinguished from other Virginians.