Englishmen and Colonization in the Seventeenth Century Essay

This play may have been inspired by the visit to Elizabeth’s court by the Moorish ambassador from the King of Barbary, whom Shakespeare would have witnessed when performing at court with the Chamberlain’s Men during Christmas time 1601. “The African slaves were brought in by force and then removed also by force when Queen Elizabeth issued a proclamation for the transportation of all “Negroes and blackamoors” out of England” (Damrosch & Dettmar 1273).

In the article ‘Black People in a White People’s Country’ by Gary Nash, he explains how slavery gave Africans a low role in America’s society, and how because slavery was allowed in the New World, they were “Socially and legally defined as less than people...”. It wasn’t just the fact that they were enslaved that made people treat them horribly, but also where they came from. In the eyes of a European, Africans were very different,

In America, the lives of Africans did not get any easier. Once the demand for labor began increasing dramatically, more and more Africans were imported to America. Originally, white people and black people worked together in the plantations. As a result of the increase in Africans in these British colonies, less white people took jobs on plantations. Eventually, enslavement became based on race. Numerous slave codes were developed, which included denying slaves the right to be out past sunset and denying slaves the right to meet in groups of three or more. These Africans forced to live enslaved in America were treated as if they were inferior to white people. It is discouraging to think about the fact that this country, though it was long ago, once accepted this kind of social injustice.

Throughout the 17th century, many European countries sent explorers and settlers to America. The two most eminent countries that colonized area of America were Spain and Great Britain. Britain began to establish colonies in the northeast; in the area they called New England. The Spanish interest lied in the southwest. Living in two unassociated areas caused the Spanish settlements and the New England colonies to be quite unlike each other. When faced with the task of finding similarities between the two, not much can be found. It is the differences that stand out when studying the English and Spanish, from religion to politics to ideals.

As times got tough, people reverted to racism and discrimination to appear superior. As a result of this, African Americans were deprived and forced into poverty based on skin color. White men of the time used

1. The main contours of English Colonization in the 17th century were Protestant motives to strike Catholicism, along with solving England’s social crisis. With the rumors of the Spanish Empire’s atrocities reaching England, one motive to colonize the America’s was to strike the Catholics, and save the natives from captivity (Foner 51). This shows an interesting aspect of the English Colonization: the English allowed their people to go colonize just to strike the opposing religious country. Along with this, England sending emigrants over solved their social crisis. Because of England’s growing population and economy, the amount of peasants in cities grew. This is because of landlords using land for sheep, which kicked out peasants from their land (Foner 51-52). England hoped that some people of the lower classes would then go to America: to be out of the big cities where important people were, while still helping England in it’s economy.

In Europeans’ eyes, Africans were an example of the “other”, a collection of people whom they did not

England was included with the tri-continental slave exchange between Europe, Africa and the Americas. African slaves were subjected to sea captains and traders, farm owners and military staff. This stamped developing proof of the dark nearness in the northern, eastern and southern regions of London. There were likewise little quantities of free slaves and sailor from West Africa and South Asia. Huge numbers of these individuals were constrained into beggary because of the absence of occupations and racial separation. There is confirmation that African men and women were once discriminated when dealing with the law in view of their skin differences. The nineteenth century was additionally a period when "scientific racism" thrived. Many white individuals asserted that they were the predominant race and that blacks were not as smart as whites. They attempted to hold up their records with logical confirmation, for instance the span of the mind. Such claims were later demonstrated false, however this was only one more obstruction for the blacks in London to leap over. The late nineteenth century successfully finished the primary time of African migration to London in eminent numbers to Britain. This decrease in migration offered path to the steady consolidation of blacks and their descendants into this overwhelmingly white

The term “black” dates to the 1960s and 1970s and the civil rights movement. The Black Power movement advocated strongly for the use of “black” to replace the outdated “negro,” and many Americans of African ancestry started to embrace the term. In the 1980s, “African American” began to see common usage, and the term quickly became very popular. The argument for not using “black” is that it is a term, which refers purely to skin color, recognizing the fact that people from Africa come in a variety of shades and hues. The argument for using “black” also allows people to distinguish between Americans with slave ancestors, who may not have a close connection with Africa, and recent immigrants from Africa. This term also includes Americans of slave ancestry who immigrated from the Caribbean, as these individuals may feel more closely connected to places like Haiti or Jamaica than Africa (wisegreek.org).

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

Why would anyone want to go through the trouble of colonizing? The English had such motives that compelled them to leave their motherland. It was for the reasons of seeking freedom, seeing there was nothing in Britain for them, and success accessed by other nations.

The key to find the “Black Nationality” was by establishing an American colony in Africa. Christianity, Commerce and Civilization were the plane to build the colony. Whereas the Africans will be converted to Christianity and that what the Americans and English would prefer to happen: generalization of the Christianity over Africa. “Delany 's efforts, epitomized this approach. In an open letter to the Eng-lish, Garnet stated the Society 's goals: "We feel it to be our duty, as well as privilege, to give the Gospel and Christian Civilization to our Father-land .... With the blessing of God we hope to secure, as the result of our efforts, the triumph of the Gospel in Africa, and the consequent overthrow of idolatry and superstition” (Blacket). And the commerce which it would bring the profits to the colonizer, it would motivate the colonizer to establish and aid the colony financially. “"It is possible that a settlement of American blacks near Lagos if under special British protection might obtain some aid from Englishmen” (Blacket). Christianity and commerce would be a strong foundation ideologically and financially to initiate a strong civilization in Africa that would form the Africans nation. Then, the African nation could be the home to receive the African descendants and be the original home for the Africans who will stay in America after the Civil War. “no nation can exist as a viable entity without a homeland, to which allegiance can be given and from which

This term was used to refer to North Africans, West Africans, non-whites, or Muslims. Without categorization for race, all foreigners were met with hostility from the Europeans. With that being said, it was not a matter of hostility toward race alone, but the different cultures and religions brought to the country, threatening the foundation set by the views and policies of Queen Elizabeth I for the

Surprisingly, the “Dictionary of race, ethnicity and culture” does not contain a definition of the word ‘black’ on its own, although it does include a description of negro and coloured. Research learned that Negro, which derives from the word niger, meaning the colour black in Latin, refers to a person with black skin, that is, of Negroid origin. The term Negro became offensive during the times of slavery. The term coloured was coined to replace black to avoid prejudices even though it was sometimes used in a negative way. Originally, coloured was used in the USA and in the UK by those who define themselves as white to refer to those with darker skin colour. In the 1930s the term Negro was used again without any pejorative connotation in the field of sociological studies and by black writers to refute the supposed inferiority attributed to them. During the 1960s (as in Black Power, Black Panthers, Black Muslims) the term ‘Negro’ was replaced by Black (Bolaffi et.al.2003: 204). Nowadays the term Negro is considered politically incorrect. Institutions such as the Police and the Social Services conduct an ethnic monitoring, the ‘Ident Code Key’, based

In the mid-sixteenth century, England began encountering Native West Africans. Their appearance in London began as early as 1554 and by 1601, which led Elizabeth I to convey her displeasure