Racial Slavery and the Development of Our Nation Essay

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.

In 1676, the English colony of Virginia experienced a revolt. This revolt, led by Nathaniel Bacon, was backed largely by lower class, white farmers, and was directed towards both the rich landowning Virginian farmers and the nearby Native Americans. This revolt, now known as Bacon’s Rebellion, reflected both the racial and class tensions held by the majority of settlers in seventeenth century Virginia, and would greatly affect the dynamics of colonial society.

Slavery of the Black man in America was the cruelest ever known to man. Europeans transported slaves from Africa as early as 1505. The African Slaves were first exploited on an island named Hispaniola, in the Caribbean by the Europeans to do labor work, before they were sent to the Americas. The women usually worked the interior cooking and cleaning while the men were sent out into the plantation fields to farm. These Africans were stripped of their homes, cultures, and languages. Slaves were treated like animals.

So many people wanted slaves, especially in the South. They had more farms than they could handle on their own. Northern owners wanted them because they would have to do less work. Very few owners treated their slaves nicely and paid them to do work around the house. They would not be treated like family but would get treated a whole lot better than your “typical slave.” Those kinds of circumstances occurred more in the Northern states than the Southern states.

First English settlers had slaves from the beginning, but along with using Indians and indentured servants as its labor force. Geographical location, weather conditions, and motives for immigration caused colonies ' slavery institutions to develop in different directions. From the beginning of 18th century, the Chesapeake colony concentrated on tobacco plantations, and trading with the mother country, Britain. The year of 1676 became a point of no return for American slavery. Bacon’s Rebellion occurred in Virginia during William Berkley governance.

Slavery, as an institution, has existed since the dawn of civilization. However, by the fifteenth century, slavery in Northern Europe was almost nonexistent. Nevertheless, with the discovery of the New World, the English experienced a shortage of laborers to work the lands they claimed. The English tried to enslave the natives, but they resisted and were usually successful in escaping. Furthermore, with the decline of indentured servants, the Europeans looked elsewhere for laborers. It is then, within the British colonies, do the colonists turn to the enslavement of Africans. Although Native Americans were readily available and were initially numerous, Africans became the primary slave used in the colonies because the Native American

The causes and results of Bacon’s Rebellion had a significant impact on Virginia politics. It was the part of the continuing struggle to define between the Indian and white lands in Virginia. There were numerous disagreements on policies toward the natives. It revealed the bitterness of the competition between eastern and western landowners. Moreover, it was the potential for instability in the colony’s large population of free, landless men, who were former indentured servants that were propertyless and unemployed. These men had formed the group of Bacon’s supporters during the rebellion. They had become a large, unstable population, who wanted for access to land. Land owners in both eastern and western Virginia began to have a common interest in preventing social unrest. It was one of several reasons why they turned increasingly to the African slave trade to achieve their need for labor. The social unrest was created by the former indentured servants, who were propertyless and unemployed.

‘Modern’ slavery in America began in 1619 when the first wave of slaves, were brought from Africa to a North American colony in Jamestown, Virginia. From 1619 to 1807 (when The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves was made) according to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Database 12.5 million african were shipped to America. Prior to this slavery had existed as early as 1400 in europe. In America their sole purpose was to facilitate the production of lucrative crops such as Tobacco and cotton. By the 18th century this form of labour was exercised throughout a majority of the American colonies in the plantations, as it allowed for a very large economic profit, which southern America became dependant on. By the 19th Century with America’s westward expansion and the growing abolition movement, a debate was provoked over Slavery that would eventually lacerate the already deteriorating ties between the north and south in the Civil war. Although the victory of the north ‘freed’ 4 million slaves, the repercussions of slavery continued even after a century in the civil rights movement. There are a range of perspectives from the past and present, however most extremists whom were for slavery came from the past and in contrast most extremists whom are against slavery exist in the present. At the time, in the south the majority were for Slavery as it was their ‘way of life’ and it was the backbone of their economical system. In the North there was a lot of grey area, as some believed it was

Before the Civil War, the Virginia Laws were established to denigrate African Americans and defined the absolute power the masters held over their slaves. Initially, Virginia was established as a colony that created its own government, customs, legal system, and mainly focused on making profit. Jamestown had great success in profit due to tobacco, its economic salvation, which was first grown by indentured servants, but in 1619 when British ships loaded with “negroes” arrived in Virginia, tobacco’s labor slowly began to shift from indentured servants to African-American slaves; this established the roots of racism and slavery, which in turn gave rise to the Virginia Laws. African-American slaves did not immediately replace the indentured servants because to purchase a slave, who was property for life compared to a servant who served only for seven years, was very expensive and not worth the cost since the approximated lifespan of a worker in the 1600s was about seven years. Though, near 1660, as Virginia became more economically stable and living circumstances ameliorated, the population of slaves increased as

The development and institution of slavery in the United States began when the U.S didn't even exist. When British colonies where beginning to pop up all over North East America there was a very noticeable problem; too much land and not enough people to work it. In order to work the land as much as possible many wealthy British colonist would pay to have indentured servants come to the new world and in return the indentured servants would work for them for seven years for free. At this time the servant would become free, however many servants died or ran away therefore fewer and fewer Europeans wanted to come to the New World. A very quick and very devastating solution to this was slave labor from

Dutch traders brought African slaves to Virginia in 1619. These slaves were often traded for casks of rum.

African American Slavery began during the 1600s where Europeans first used Africans as their laborers and moved the Africans to the new settlement in the colonies. Though it seemed unlawful and unconstitutional at the time it served very well to the economy, especially to the southern colonies which mass-produced cash crops such as tobacco and indigo in South Carolina and Georgia by the early 1700’s.

Throughout history, the African people have always struggled with society going against them and their humanity. One main focus of study is the treatment of Africans in the Americas. It seemed to all have started when America was first founded in the 1600s and many white plantation owners had slaves transported from Africa to work on their land, act as servants, or crop plants.

Slavery is one of many unfortunate commonalities among cultures, along with war, governmental corruption, and poverty. Nearly every country on the planet, at some point in their history, has condoned the owning of humans by other humans. It may be tempting to view the establishment of the United States as an idyllic endeavor in which enlightened people joined together to create a new republic; however, choosing this view is ignoring the truth. Slave labor built this country from its infancy, and hundreds of thousands of African men, women, and children were exploited for the sake of cheap labor.

In the mid-1660s, the landlords of the Virginia in North America wanted to make profit as they had already done in Caribbean. They attracted the Caribbean and the English workers with the freedom of religious and the expansion of rights for the English. At the same time, the Tobacco agriculture played an important role in the economic of Virginia. Since the profit was so observable, the settlers acquired land by taking the land of the Native American. They recruited workers from England which was the large part of labor in Virginia until 1680s.