American Slavery, American Freedom by Edmund S. Morgan Review

As Colonial Virginia entered into the 17th century, it was a land marked with opportunity to make a new and also, most importantly, profitable life in the New World. (Cutter Lecture) When the century began, however, it was not the citizens as a whole hoping to make a profit from this new land but rather a small group of greedy landowners profiting off of the work of their indentured servants. (CL) Sure the indentured servants were given a chance to fulfill their contract and one day become free to pursue their own dreams, but the likelihood of this in the beginning was next to none due to harsh living conditions. (CL) According to Richard Frethorne in 1623, "nor is there nothing to be gotten here

When the first nineteen slaves arrived in Virginia in 1619, an institution that would last more than two hundred years was created. These first slaves were treated more like how the indentured servants that came to the New World from England were. However, as time passed and the colonies grew larger, so did the institution of slavery. Even after the importing slaves internationally was banned in 1807 by Congress, the internal slave trade expanded exponentially. The growth and durability of slavery persisted until the end of the Civil War, a time period greater than the entire existence of the United States. The institution of slavery was not only able to endure through two hundred fifty of turbulent change in America, but it was able to advance. This is due to the mindsets of slavery as a “necessary evil” and a “positive good” coupled with the dependence on them for such a large portion of the economy. These factors can be observed in the narratives written by Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs.

“Virginia Laws Governing Servant and Slave” reveals the rebellions of servants and slaves who united to fight against their masters. Bacon’s Rebellion, in 1676, occurred in the Virginia Colony in opposition to Virginia's Indian policy (Roark, The American Promise, p. 79). Bacon’s Rebellion demonstrated that poor whites and poor blacks could be united in a cause, and it shows that they are capable of challenging the ruling class together. Virginia lawmakers enacted the laws to prevent the servants and slaves from uniting to fight against masters. According to "Document 2: Law Making Slave Status Inherited from Mother, 1662" the Virginia legislators punished interracial sexual relations, "And that if any Christian shall commit fornication with a negro man or woman, hee or shee soe offending shall pay double the ffines imposed by the former act"

In reviewing the book American Slavery, American Freedom, historian and author Edmund S. Morgan provides a chronological approach to the growth of slavery in North America. Morgan starts his journey with the first settlements in Virginia and continues until the start of the American Revolution. Morgan gives explanation of how ideals of freedom and English sense of superiority came to be a major stepping stone for independence and racism. Morgan’s question of how a country that proclaims liberty, equality and religious virtue can at the same time foster the opposing ideals of slavery and subjugation is the underlying question throughout the book. Morgan puts the critical issue on display, broken down into four areas or books, to guide our understanding of colonial Virginia, the development of slavery, and the link between racism and equality.

The Salem Witch Trials and Bacon’s Rebellion both reflected economic class tension in their respective colonies. The purpose of Bacon’s rebellion was not to overthrow the social and political order of Virginia, but rather secure economic opportunity. During the second half-century, Virginia’s quality of life was improving; the maturation of apple orchards eliminated the consumption of dirty water, ships were bringing in new servants at a healthy time of year, and indentured servants were finally serving out their periods of indenture. Despite the improvement in quality of life, Virginia’s economy was on rocky ground for the poor. The government was being controlled by men using it to gain wealth, leaving the colonist with low-cost tobacco and high taxes.

Masters gain profit by exploiting the servants and slaves through the political powers. As more African slave mothers bore more children, the “Virginia Servant and Slave Law” of 1622 states, “that all children borne in this country shalbe held bond slave or free only according to the condition of the mother [sic]” (“Virginia

Breen and Innes do a great job suggesting that a person’s conduct, not necessarily their race, played the major role in early Virginia. They make an inadvertent argument that dominance and submission were the real issue when it came to owning property at the time, not race. The large plantation owners intimidated the smaller farmers and landowners. Blacks were on the same playing field when compared along with the small farmers and landowners. Sadly, this did not last with the entrance of racial mindsets as aforementioned. There is also an argument that even though the hardest working blacks could work their way out of slavery and into freedom, they could maintain the wealth it took to perpetuate that freedom. The growing plantation system and the growing black population is what brought an end to the equal status of the free, black

Life in England during the early 1600’s was harsh for a multitude of the poor. The country was just coming out of the Thirties Year’s War with a flood of citizens and laborers displaced. In fact, PBS (2015) indicated that “the timing of the Virginia colony was ideal.” The Thirty Year 's War had left Europe 's economy depressed, and many skilled and unskilled laborers were without work. A new life in the New World offered a glimmer of hope; this explains how one-half to two-thirds of the immigrants who came to the American colonies arrived as indentured servants” (para. 3). This opportunity for those willing to receive free passage to the New World and start a new life was enticing. Granted, the work was difficult it was not without reward.

Edmund S. Morgan’s famous novel American Slavery, American Freedom was published by Norton in 1975, and since then has been a compelling scholarship in which he portrays how the first stages of America began to develop and prosper. Within his researched narrative, Morgan displays the question of how society with the influence of the leaders of the American Revolution, could have grown so devoted to human freedom while at the same time conformed to a system of labor that fully revoked human dignity and liberty. Using colonial Virginia, Morgan endeavors how American perceptions of independence gave way to the upswing of slavery. At such a time of underdevelopment and exiguity, cultivation and production of commodities were at a high demand. Resources were of monumental importance not just in Virginia, but all over North America, for they helped immensely in maintaining and enriching individuals and families lives. In different ways, people in colonies like Virginia’s took advantage of these commodities to ultimately establish or reestablish their societies.

The land became rapidly exploited and cultivated to produce tobacco. After the establishment of this cash crop, tobacco was glorified and largely advertised in both the colonies and England. As well as its large cultivation of tobacco, its connection to what became known as the Chesapeake Bay served as a prominent economic aspect to Virginia. By mid-century, the establishment of indentured servants had been regulated and used frequently by plantation owners. This being a prominent factor to Virginia's social development, its downfall and rise of slavery also played a prime role in social transformation.

The Phases of Conversion: A New Chronology for the Rise of Slavery in Early Virginia by John C. Coombs is a scholarly article published in Williams and Mary quarterly, which is a historical magazine dedicated to publishing studies of slavery in the Americas. The purpose of this document was to offer a new

The Emancipation Proclamation. John Hope Franklin. Wheeling, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, 1963, 1965, 1995. 155 pp.

The film “Slavery and The Making Of America” covered the beginning of American slavery in the British colonies until the end of slavery in the southern states and post-civil war reconstruction. This film shows viewers remarkable stories of individual slaves, providing new perspectives on how unjust the slaves experiences were, and besides all the trouble they were facing still having to survive and shape their own lives. The British colonies in North America had an abundance of land and a scarcity of labor ended up producing money crops with the forced labor of African slaves, literally being treated as if they were machines for production.

The book “American Slavery 1619-1877” is a book on slavery unlike anything I have ever read. Most books on slavery look at it through extremely common perspectives and have flooded the nonfiction genre. However, the author, Peter Kolchin, decides to show the reader that his studies on slavery are different from any previous study done. He brings up a lot of arguments that were actually thought to be unarguable, and shuts them down. It is miraculous to think that someone finally got to the very root of American slavery and can finally give Americans of today a real feel for the reasons behind slavery.

Slavery became more and more profitable for the settlers of Virginia. As it became more popular and the slaves were living longer, the abuse of slaves began to grow rapidly. Racism was introduced in order to make the slaves seem different and abnormal from their slave holders. Slaves were no allowed to be emancipated, baptized, have sexual relationships. In the end of the novel, the author suggests that the slavery in Virginia eliminated the competition for land for the non-wealthy whites which increased the amount of non-wealthy land owners. These poor whites now had something in common with the wealthy whites; as they both now owned land which started the growth of our