How Did Race And Class Affect The Southern Colonies

There is a upcoming war with France and we don’t know where it will be, so we will need to know about the New England, Middle, and Southern colonies. Based upon the areas of geography and climate, resources, political and social life, the Southern colony will prove to be problem in a possible war with France.

In contrast to the other three colonies discussed, the institution of slavery in South Carolina was initiated, legalized, and maintained for distinct reasons; the founders of the colony felt that slavery was absolutely necessary for economic prosperity and their unwavering urge to protect the institution at all costs contributed towards the severity of the slave-enforcement acts and codes. By looking at the legislation passed in South Carolina, one can grasp the extent to which slaves were legally stripped of every right imaginable, suffered barbarous treatment, and were attempted to be rendered psychologically and physically powerless--all because of the deep-seated fear of the enslaved population that was instilled within white slave owners and law-makers. In South Carolina, slavery was a horrendous business that was never questioned ethically or legally. The white settlers coming from Barbados--who had already been involved in the slave trade for years--migrated to South Carolina equipped with slaves already accustomed to difficult climate conditions (similar to South Carolina), which made them more pleasurable to slave owners expecting a strong work force. Another unique aspect to South Carolina was the overwhelming black majority in the colony for it is true that, “by 1708, less than twenty years after the decision to move from white indentured labor to black slave labor, the number of blacks in the colony exceeded whites,” (Higginbotham, 1978, pg. 152). Due to the

The politics of the southern colonies first began in 1607 during the founding of Jamestown, Virginia. This was the first British colony in America and the new world. The colonists sent to Jamestown were sent to the new world to attempt to make money and to try to find gold for the joint-stock company. The southern colony of Virginia started off as to being governed by the Virginia company. What this meant is that until 1624 Virginia would be a royal charter governed and controlled by the Virginia company. But, before Virginia would be controlled by the king and the British colonies the first British assembly in the Americas took place. The house of Burgesses in 1619 was the first representative democracy in the colonies. But Virginia was not the only colony that at one point controlled by another group other than the king, it is the colony of Maryland. Maryland was a proprietary colony giving its control to the calverts. The calverts had the right to

In the south, for social, they still had problems with race. New laws made it hard for southern African Americans to enjoy the improvements of transportation. Politically, there were laws that allowed segregation and made it really hard for African Americans to enjoy their free life. economically, although the south remained mostly agricultural the south began to develop timber industries, also because there main source of profit was slaved, after slavery was abolished that took away a lot of the South’s major income, also iron and coal deposits in the southern Appalachian mountains gave rise to steel production in Alabama.

     In the later 1700’s to 1863, slavery was an intricate part of the South. Slaves were needed for plantation work like planting, caring for, and harvesting crops to maintaining the land. After

The Changing Concept of Race in the South Throughout the years, the concept of race has changed in the South.

The Southern Colonies developed race-based slavery because of the rising need to increase labor and to decrease costs. The move toward profit-based agriculture over subsistence farming meant that there was an expanding need for laborers, which would increasingly expand with success, necessitating a further increase of cheap labor. In addition to being labor intensive, the Southern crops: rice, tobacco, sugarcane, and indigo were grown for cash rather than for immediate need. Technically there is no such thing as enough with a goal as abstract as profit and so would not end with a fulfilled, finite, need but rather with means and a desire to expand. With profit as a goal expansion is only limited by available, usable, acreage and becomes a goal in and of itself. With expansion as a goal, a self-replenishing and unpaid workforce allows for greater profit and thus greater expansion. It was a snowball effect creating a market for humans.

With the Union victory in the Civil War in 1865, millions of slaves were given their freedom. Although these millions of slaves are now free, the rebuilding on the South during the Reconstruction introduced many obstacles. These obstacles include sharecropping, tenant farming, the “black codes”, and not to forget the lack of education and rights African Americans had at the time. Sharecropping is consisted of a slave renting land from a white man and having to give up a portion of their crops at the end of each year. The black codes were basically laws against what type of labor African Americans can be given. In the state of South Carolina, blacks were only able to work as farmers or servants; the same jobs these free people worked as slaves. After decades of slavery, blacks were still under the control of the white people due to lack of education and rights.

During early 19th century, the entrenchment of Southern slavery, there was discussion between planters who benefitted from it and abolitionists who fought against it. Most Americans, especially those in Southern states, understood that slavery system could not help parting from their economic and social system. Southern slavery system brought big economical benefits. However, it negatively influenced American society as a whole rather that positively.

Africans were always seen as slaves rather than free people. It came to a point were generation from generation, people with African ancestry were legally enslaved for life. European colonists’ even committed to legalizing enslavement of hundreds and thousands of people, but it led to Africans being slaves based on race. Slavery was a big part in Virginia and South Carolina. The history of slavery in Virginia first appeared in 1619 where the Africans were indentured servants. As for South Carolina, majority of their population were African Americans. 65% of their population of about 18,000 people were African American slaves. Upon the social, economic and political development of slavery in Virginia and South Carolina, it impacted their race, class and gender.

During the 17th Century, Europeans established colonies in North America. The English colonies were established because proprietors were granted a charter so they could settle and govern lands. The New England colonies were very different from the south, between the use of slaves, the climate, and their religion. The south relied on the use of slaves because of their plantations, which the weather played a big part in, and their religion due to the people who settled there. Although, the colonies were under control of the English and had many commonalities, along with different origins and dissimilar purposes for settling, each region created a distinct culture.

Although slaves and slaveholders were significantly different, the Institution of Slavery negatively impacted the American South and its entire population.

The American colonies had clear class divisions and from them arose much conflict. The elite wanted to stay on top so they created laws to oppress the poor and also tried to get the middle class to side with them by making “concessions to the middle class, without damage to their own wealth or power, at the expense of slaves, Indians, and poor whites.” I think Zinn said it best when he said, “New York in the colonial period was like a feudal kingdom…where barons controlled completely the lives of their tenants.” The use of slaves and indentured servants benefited and brought profit to only the elites. The American colonies were societies of “contending classes.”

In the late 1700’s, dozens of historians learned about events and forces that drove many colonial people to an armed rebellion. Among the patriots and economic determinists, fundamental agreement prevails, and the immediate cause is The American Revolution. Although the people of the colonies all lived in the same country, there were many similarities and differences between the southern and northern colonies, such as religion, economics, politics and governments.

In this essay the question as to how race relationships in the southern area of the United States can be understood as social facts and further this essay will illuminate if being of black skin colour in the southern area of the United States can be regarded as pathological in respect to Durkheim’s sociological views.