Helping the Poor Whites in the Book, American Slavery, American Freedom by Edmund S. Morgan

Slavery was created in pre-revolutionary America at the start of the seventeenth century. By the time of the Revolution, slavery had undergone drastic changes and was nothing at all what it was like when it was started. In fact the beginning of slavery did not even start with the enslavement of African Americans. Not only did the people who were enslaved change, but the treatment of slaves and the culture that each generation lived in, changed as well.

Bacons’ Rebellion of 1676 was a rebellion by the Virginia settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon against Governor William Berkeley.There was a large amount of impoverished freemen, who were frustrated by their lack of land, drifting about the Chesapeake region at the end of the 17th century. In 1670, the Virginia assembly denied most of the landless the right to vote because they did not have interest in the country and were chaotic at the elections, which displeased Governor Berkeley. The Virginians were bitter against Berkeley for his friendliness towards Indians, and for monopolizing their thriving fur trade. When Berkeley refused to retaliate against Indian attacks on frontier settlements, about a thousand Virginians retaliated, lead by Bacon.

During the 1800s, Virginia had been composed by a few grandees and many lower classes villagers, such as farmers, white servants and black slaves. Most of fertile land was dominated by the grandees and the poor farmers had to settle in barren and dangerous land where it is closer to Indian’s territory. Due to the poor environment, their productions did not reach the quality to deal with the heavy taxation. In addition, they had to live with the fear to be attacked by Indians all the time. Nathaniel Bacon rose up as the leader of lower class villagers to demand improving of their environment. According to Foner, he demanded “removal of all Indians from the colony, a reduction of taxes, and an end to rule by ‘grandees’” (48) as primary complains

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.

As Jamestown became more self-sustaining community, indentured servants began to live longer. As a result, the number of free servants increased. Even though, they still had some difficulties planting tobacco. "By the 1660s, freemen who wished to plant found themselves facing a difficult choice. They could move to the frontier, where it was often impossible to ship tobacco to market and the danger of Indian attack was ever present"(Hollitz, Contending Voices, 22). American Indian began to cause problems in freemen's lives. In addition, Bacon believed that the American Indians were enemies the government should not trade with them as he states in his manifesto," they have been for these many years enemies to the King and country, robbers and thieves and invaders of his Majesty's right and our interest and estes, but yet have by persons in authority been defended and protected even against his

Soon this need for cheap labor was replaced with a need for even cheaper labor. Slavery filled this need, but when Africans arrived to America in 1619, the colonists initially treated them as indentured servants. It was not until 1641 that the first slave codes were passed in the colony of Massachusetts and 20 years later in Virginia, marking the

According to the English, Native Americans in early seventeenth century Virginia left an imprint on the New England earth. They traditionally settled near water and in small groups, and not in a larger population. They also made little benefit of their land, being never fertile. The English settlers were very taken at the fact they didn’t use the land to the best it could be used. They were tall, brown and proportionate appearance. Also the men were fewer than the women and children. The English felt the Indians had the right to use the land, but letting them have ownership of the land and having it all to themselves was not an accepted English view. The English view also had many limitations to what the natives really were like.

The Indian-White relationship had long been breaking down, due to a developing question between the pioneers and the Indians. One of the reasons of this doubt was that the pilgrims were exploiting the positive attitude of the Indians. The King Phillip's war was a contention between the Native Americans and the pilgrims. This contention was the aftereffect of numerous abuses toward the Indians executed by the homesteader. The King Phillip's war was an advocated war. Numerous elements added to the flare-up of this war, for instance numerous Indians felt that they did great to the pioneers and that the settlers were the first doing incorrectly. Another variable was that Englishmen were exploiting the Indians when arranging land; the pioneers were

The relationship between the English and the Native Americans in 1600 to 1700 is one of the most fluctuating and the most profound relationships in American history. On the one side of the picture, the harmony between Wampanoag and Puritans even inspires them to celebrate “first Thanksgiving”; while, by contrast, the conflicts between the Pequots and the English urge them to antagonize each other, and even wage a war. In addition, the mystery of why the European settlers, including English, become the dominant power in American world, instead of the indigenous people, or Indians, can be solved from the examination of the relationship. In a variety of ways, the relationship drastically alters how people think about and relate to the aborigines. Politically, the relationship changes to establish the supremacy of the English; the English intends to obtain the land and rules over it. Socially, the relationship changes to present the majority of the English settlers; the dominating population is mostly the English settlers. Economically, the relationship changes to obtain the benefit of the English settlers; they gain profit from the massive resource in America. Therefore, the relationship does, in fact, change to foreshadow the discordance of the two groups of people.

Looking throughout the overwhelming events the American Revolution had on everyone involved, allows us to examine how the governments’ policies toward the Indians changed over time. It shows how the policy changes effected the Indians as well as the Americans’, their attitudes toward each other as the American’s pushed westward and the Indians resisted. Then the actions on both sides which lead up to the final removal of all Indians to west of the Mississippi in 1830’s.

Nathaniel Bacon, the leader of the rebellion, fought for the reduction of taxes, dismiss the Indians

The institution of slavery, which was a system in which African Americans were forced into labor and had their freedom restricted, was seen as a positive necessity to Southerners. Slavery was seen as though it was essential, it was seen as an entity they could not live without. The Peculiar Institution began in 1619 in Jamestown, Virginia when the colonist first began arriving in Colonial America. Slavery was first introduced when the colonists, who happened to be privileged in the sense that they never did their own work, needed to get their work done. Since no one wanted to do the work such as building houses, farming

Prior to the Revolutionary War, the Native Americans were considered to be an essential part to learning and living on the North American landscape. However, after the relationship between the Colonists and British tensed, the Native Americans found themselves in the middle of a war that would divide the Native American people. However, during the course of the war, the Native Americans had to consider who they should fight with/for. While both sides, the British and the Colonists, professed the benefits of fighting with/for them, the Native Americans’ decision would determine the fate of many Indian generations during the course of expansion in North America. On one side, the British offered diplomacy, land, and economic expansion; on the other, the Colonists promoted freedom, equality, and the promise of land. The struggle of the tribes to decide which side to fight for would prove to be the true battle that many of them would face. However, the relationships of the Native Americans and the English people did not start with the Revolution; it began almost two-hundred years prior in the settlement of Jamestown.

Because of the squabble between a white planter and native people (that lead to the murder of the planter's herdsmen and the retaliation by frontier vigilantes, killing about 24 Indians), scattered attacks resulted in the killing of Nathaniel Banach's farm manager. Bacon went to the governor (William Berkeley) because he wanted to take action against the Indians. When Berkeley refused, Bacon decided to take matters into his own hands. His rebellion consisted of landless servants, small farmers and slaves. By developing this type of "army" he set forth an example that African American if slaves could be used to as servants of war, they could also be used as servants, which is a form of indentured servitude.

The labor demands grew and Europe’s desire to have trade with Africa for slave labor began the ownership of slaves of America in 1630’s. The economy improved with the English and fewer people agree to indentured servitude, making the demand for enduring slavery great. This was the end of indentured servitude, and the beginning of race dependent slavery and true ownership of slaves. Laws were passed that every African female slave that gave birth set the condition of the child. If the mother was a slave then the child would be a slave for life also and was owned by the mothers