African American Racial Research Paper

Other Europeans, Native Americans and West Africans were the groups thought to be most suitable for the economic demand of labor. Many of the early views of West Africans were received through the bible until written accounts of encounters with these people were made. These written accounts of the encounters of West Africans led to the idea West Africans could be brought over and sold in the Americas to work in chattel slavery. This in turn made them the ultimate choice for the labor force of the English. However the famous sale of twenty Africans to the colonists at Jamestown in 1619 by Dutch slave traders did not equate to the introduction of chattel slavery just yet. Many early African slaves were treated similarly to indentured servants brought in from England. They could work the land for a set number of years then after their term was up be freed and given a piece of land. Indentured servitude was not hereditary but their contract could be sold, bartered, given away or gambled away. These contracts gave away the servant’s labor but it did not give away the servant’s person. Despite this African presence, slavery was slow to arrive in Virginia because the mortality rate for indentured servants was so high during the first decades of the Virginia colony. Indentured servitude remained the primary source of labor in Virginia through the 1680s, until economic considerations made slaves the cheaper alternative.

In 1662, the state of “Virginia enacted a law of hereditary slavery meaning that a child born to an enslaved mother inherits her slave status. Massachusetts reversed a ruling dating back to 1652 that allowed blacks to train in arms. New York, Connecticut, and New Hampshire passed similar laws restricting the bearing of arms. In 1663 Maryland legalized slavery. In 1664, New York and New Jersey legalize slavery. In 1664, Maryland is the first colony to take legal action against marriages between white women and black men. In 1664, The State of Maryland mandated lifelong servitude for all black slaves. New York, New Jersey, the Carolinas, and Virginia all pass similar laws. In 1666, Maryland passed a fugitive slave law. In 1667, Virginia declared that Christian baptism will not alter a person 's status as a slave. In 1668, New Jersey passed a fugitive slave law. In 1670, The State of Virginia prohibited free blacks and Indians from keeping Christian (i.e. white) servants. In 1674, New York declared that blacks who convert to Christianity after their enslavement will not be freed.”

The slave trade in the North American colonies began to grow in the 1600s. The African slave trade sourced their slaves from many different West African villages and countries. The business of slavery was a growing and profitable field, not only for the slavers, but also for the slaveholders. With the decrease of indentured servants, settlers in the English colonies looked for a new source of labor to satisfy their growing labor demands. The next source was Africa. “By the 1690s slaves outnumbered indentured servants four to one” (45). Europeans largely disregarded the ethical dilemma posed by slavery due to the European view of Africans and their culture as uncivilized, foreign, and heathen (44). The largest forced migration in history (44)

Tobacco farming required much labor, and colonial America could not supply that labor with just the settlers already living there. This need for labor was satisfied by indentured servants and African slaves (3). Indentured servants raised the population by bringing in people who could not afford their way over to America (Weeks 1). The indentured servants were promised freedom and land after serving for a set amount of years (Pecquet 469). Soon after, as the indentured servants were getting less and less land than promised, if any at all, Bacon's Rebellion broke out in Virginia (Lorenz 14). This forced the colonists to find a different servitude option. They turned to African slavery to quench their desire for a cheap, reliable labor source (Weeks 1). At least 350,000 Africans were needed to produce the amount of tobacco to supply for the demands of the people (1). African slavery started racial tensions and

The first African slaves arrived in Jamestown in 1619 as indentured servants4 , much like the poor whites in that area became in order to earn money and land to strike out on their own after their term of servitude had ended. Not too long after this event it was found that blacks could be bought cheaply and then kept for an unlimited term of bondage. This seemed a much more economical alternative to the indentured servant, to whom their owner would provide them with land after their term had ended. Many years would pass before the limitless bondage of slaves became common practice, it wasn’t until 1680 that slavery became the foundation of the plantation. So it was in the interest of saving money rather than in racism that accounts for the enslavement of blacks.

The history of West Africa has its inhabitant traces is almost 6000 years ancient, but the earliest human beings who came here first were almost 12000 BCE. The enhancement in the farming took place after the arrival of a modern ancestor in the fifth millennium. After making connections with other civilizations like Mediterranean ones, the development of iron industry took place in every use of daily life. The common or traditional business of trade for them consisted of cotton, leather, metals, gold against horses, clothes, copper, salt, etc. They were modifying their lifestyles and politics as more as they were coming closer to other communities of the world (Ajayi, 1970).

In about 1613, the South’s crop was tobacco. (Morrison 52) Tabaco was a great crop and made the plantation owner lots of money with slave labor. The slaves were was not allowed education or good working conditions. Some of them were taught to cook, carpentry, but most were agriculture workers. The slaves were a possession, of the Plantation owner, like land, a house, a dog, or a horse. At first, they chose Indentured servants, who were poor whites who could not afford to be on their own. They worked for the Plantation for a number of years and then got their freedom. Usually the indentured servant was still poor after they were set free. He usually was not paid for any of his services. Nevertheless, the plantation owners needed a lot more slaves than poor whites. Therefore, they picked the American Indian to be slaves, and they were not good workers. They were always getting sick and dying from small pox or other diseases brought over by the Europeans. The American Indians were not large by body size, and did not work well under all that heat. They knew the land, so they just ran away and went back to their tribe. When this did not work out the Southerner has, started getting their slaves from the Dutch. These were slaves from the West Indies and Africa. These Negro slaves were larger than the American Indian and were immune to Malaria and small pox. This new slave was a good match for the southern climate and with the invention of the

Slavery began when the African American people were brought to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. Hundreds and thousands of African Americans were packed into a ship. Men, women, and children were crammed inside in every available space with minimal breathing space. This caused majority of the slaves to contract diseases easily. Slaves were considered as movable property and labor workers. Slaves experienced a strain workload, harsh punishments, and the worry that their family members could be sold at any moment. “During the first half of the nineteenth century, renting out excess slave labor to temporary masters for a few weeks, months, or even years at a time was a common practice among slaveholders in Maryland and throughout much of the upper South” (Polgar, 2011).Agriculture became a large part of the economy for Southern farmers. The great amount of cotton grown during this time produced a need for slave labor during the first half of the 1800s. Slaveholders obtained a huge number of slaves to plant, care for, and harvest their crop. “Children were propelled into adulthood by

Boudless. (2014, Noverber 14). The platation Economy and Planter Class. Retrieved from U.S History Boundless: https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/textbooks/boundless-u-s-history-textbook/slavery-and-reform-1820-1840-16/the-old-south-121/the-plantation-economy-and-the-planter-class-645-6993/

As the Europeans set up colonies in America, they brought the plantation ideas with them, which led to the need for labor hence they tried to enslave the Native Americans to work in their mines and fields. The Native Americans were prone to diseases hence most of them died as a result of diseases and overworking. Apart from the ones who died, a number rebelled and formed alliances forcing the Europeans to look for other sources of labor. They started to acquire African slaves due to a number of reasons: The African slaves were more stronger and immune to a number of diseases in Europe and America; the Africans had no friends and family in America hence it was not easy for them to form alliances or to escape; they provided a permanent and a cheap source of labor; and most of them had worked on farms before in their

Slavery in North America began when Virginia needed workers in 1619, to aid in the production of crops as tobacco. Slavery was a big deal in North American colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries, and African-American slaves helped build the economic foundations of the new nation. The Creation of the cotton gin in 1793 solidified the central importance of slavery to the South’s economy. By the mid-19th century, America’s westward expansion, along with a growing abolition movement in the North, would provoke a great debate over slavery that would tear the nation apart in the bloody American Civil War.

The reading touched on how the building of black schools was financed. I found it interesting that most of the financial contributions were personal contributions from Blacks and taxes paid by black while the philanthropists gave less than 20 percent of the amount needed. However, because the elementary schools were referred to as Rosenwald schools the contributions of Blacks were often relegated to the background. Although, the contribution of the philanthropists did not equal that of the Blacks we see a usurping of power in how they stipulated that, as part of their agreement, the school would be deeded to the southern local school system.

In 1612 John Rolfe a Jamestown planter began to experiment with tobacco that the local Indians had been growing for years (Brinkley 37). He produced high quality tobacco crops and sold them to buyers in England. The problem with farming tobacco was that it required a lot of land and the tobacco would exhaust the soil after only a few years so these farmers would need more land and there wasn’t enough land for them. These farmers originally used white indentured servants on their farms to grow tobacco until 1619 when the Dutch brought over the first 20 African Americans (Brinkley 38). The future of these first African Americans in the English colonies remained unknown. It is thought that the colonist didn’t consider them slaves and thought they were the same as the European indentured servants who were being used. They would be held for a number of years and then freed like the European indentured servants that were currently being used. For the time however planters continued to prefer the use of European indentured servants and the use of black labor

During the establishment of the English colonies, slavery became a key component to the growth and development of the colonies. Slavery began when the Puritans began migrating over to America in 1620. Most Europeans brought indentured servants to America to work on their land. This worked well for people who settled in areas further towards the north, which was a prime location to have a farm. Plantations in the south usually grew crops like tobacco, rice, indigo, and sugarcane. These crops are many day crops which means that it is labor intensive and requires more days to grow, the crops are also high profit crops. Slavery became important in the southern plantations because plantation owners needed more workers to be able to produce their crops rapidly. Without the labor the slaves provided, the tobacco would dry up before it could be harvested and the cotton industry would not have succeeded.

The controversy over slavery was introduced during the 17th century and is presently impacting the United States. The first African slaves emerged from the Middle Passage to the American colony Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, to support the production of cash crops. American westward expansion and the invention of the cotton gin were contributions of expanding slavery into the nation. The abolitionist movements of slavery and series of compromises impacted the colonist of the northern and southern colonies, thus precipitating the Civil War. After the war, the Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery in the United States.