Racism In The Southern Colonies Essay

By the 1700’s, The northern and souther colonies had evolved into two distinct societies. This is so because the northern and southern colonies had different environments and also different reasons of settlement. The North was established for mainly religious freedom, while on the other hand, the south had been established for economic freedom. The climate also affected the different turnout of the north and the south. The north was much colder and so their soil was not beneficial for farming, so the people of the north found other jobs, while on the other side, the south had rich soil and the colonists there used that idea to set up huge plantations and farms.

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

The Chesapeake area in the seventeenth century was a unique community that was almost absent of racism. In this community, at this time, property was the central and primary definition of one’s place in society. The color of one’s skin was not a fundamental factor in being a well respected and valued member of the community. Virginia’s Eastern Shore represented a very small fellowship of people that were not typical of the Southern ideals during this time period and gave free blacks owning property a great deal of respect and merit usually equal to that of any white man around.

The Southern colonies, Middle colonies, and New England colonies created their own ways of economic gain during their development in the early eighteenth century. The climate of each colony was a huge impact on imperial goals. Southern colonies based their economy on farming and producing crops such as tobacco, rice, and indigo. This was possible due to the south being a tidewater

Agriculture was the main economic activity in these colonies. They had fairly bad relations with the Native Americans. The leaders were not religious leaders, too. The ‘religion of the colonies’ was not Puritan, but Anglican and Baptist. The colonies were not founded by charters, which is another difference from the other two colonies. There were more royal colonies than not. The education was not a public school, but hired tutors. The Southern Colonies had much religious freedom. The geography made it so that it the Southern Colonies depended on agriculture as their main economic activity. The land was moist and fertile, and there were many plains and swamps. They needed slaves to work the vast fertile

Indentured servants where men and women who signed a contract to work for a certain number of years, usually between four and seven, in exchange for transportation to the colonies. The Chesapeake Bay colonies, Virginia and Maryland, where especially condition to use indentured servants. During this essay I will explain why the Chesapeake Bay colonies were in such need of the servants and why eventually they turned to slavery to fill the void left by the indentured servants.

Indentured servants were used in early colonial times as a means of passage to the new world. The cash crops of the early settlers were exhaustingly labor intensive. In fact, U.S. History (2015) indicated that “the growth of tobacco, rice, and indigo and the plantation economy created a tremendous need for labor in Southern English America” (p. 1). The technology did not exist at the time for machinery that clears the ground and works the land as it does today. The work had to be done by hand; from clearing and prepping the fields to harvesting the crops, it was all manual labor for which the new land did not have ample supply of.

Race and class affect the southern colonies in many ways. If you were not from a certain class, you were a nobody. Social class is defined by what they did, the planters were known to be the richest and most powerful and everyone else was less. The servants were less than the planters because they worked and did everything for them. Planters had the ability to do whatever they wanted with the servants and most times they took advantage of that. The lowest class were African Americans, and at the time they were nothing else but slaves. They were treated worst then the servants. They had no rights to vote, or to own land. They basically took over the servant’s positions. Slaves cost more than indenture servants because they were sold as lifetime

Slaves existed in the England's North American colonies throughout the 1600s. However, indentured servitude was very common before the 1680s. “For half a century or so after 1620, most laborers were indentured servants; only a small proportion were African slaves” (Clark, Hewitt, Brown& Jaffee, 2007 p64). Indentured servants were people who signed an indenture, a contract by which they agreed to work for a serval number of years in exchange for transportation to colonies; in addition, they would get food, clothing, land, and freedom.

People would offer themselves up to work the land and do other miscellaneous work in exchange for a passage to America. Although it is generally believed that indentured servants, as a whole, were treated better and more fairly than slaves, that is not completely true. Some indentured servants were treated kindly by their “owners”, while others were physically abused and had no rights in the eyes of whoever had control over them. Just like regular slaves, these servants were treated like property and were passed down through the family. If the primary owner of a servant died while they still had time to serve, then they were passed on to someone else in their family to allow them to finish their sentence. Frequently, indentured servants were beaten so badly that they would die, in which the master beating them would face little to no

During the colonization era, most of the laborers came from Great Britain as indentured servants. An indentured servant is a person that signed a contract to pay for their passage to America by working. They usually worked on a farm since the colonies were based on agriculture. These servants were young laborers that intended on becoming permanent residents of the Chesapeake Bay settlements. Some servant owners treated them the same way they treated their family members, whether it was good or bad. Sometimes, convicted criminals were transported to the colonies as indentured servants instead of being imprisoned. Indentured servants weren’t considered slaves. However, when they came to Virginia they were required to work four to seven years to pay for the cost of their transportation. Some found that the major problem with indentured servants was most of them left after several years after they became skilled. It was estimated that over half of all of the white immigrants came as indentured servants. The number of indentured servants was the highest in the South.

As tobacco became a profitable crop in the seventeenth century, the demand for labor increased. Due to the labor shortage, planters started to buy indentured servants, who were cheaper than slaves since they only serve for a certain time period. Indentured servants signed contracts to work to travel to America and to acquire promised freedom dues. The freedom dues could include land, clothes, money, or food. Servants would generally serve for four to seven years; children would serve for a longer time. Many signed the contracts without being fully aware of the actual conditions of labor and living. Indentured servants were treated only slightly better than slaves; the small difference is that the servants did not have to serve for life, and they were able to own land. Overall, the lifestyle provided to servants was horrible since they were not properly clothed, received minimal food, and were abused; even laws could not protect their rights.

The conclusion of the Civil War in favor of the north was supposed to mean an end to slavery and equal rights for the former slaves. Although laws and amendments were passed to uphold this assumption, the United States Government fell short. The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments were proposed and passed within five years of the Civil War’s conclusion. These amendments were to create equality throughout the United States, especially in the south where slavery had been most abundant. Making equality a realization would not be an easy task. This is because many problems were not perceived before and during the war. The reunification of the country would prove to be harder than expected, and entry into a new lifestyle would be

In Schweikart’s view, the development of racism and slavery in colonial America gave economical advantage to America. Schweikart described that slavery became popular when the settlers and Indians refused to work in tobacco and rice plantations in the South. Europeans figured out that African slaves were easier to enslave than the free whites and Indians since Africans were separated from their homeland and culture. The slave trade was already in action, and the migration of African slaves across the Atlantic began by isolating tribes and language to prevent communication. The colonists treated the slaves harshly with a mindset that Africans were property with laws like black codes that lowered their status. The horrible work condition led

Historically, United States battle against racism has come a long way from the days of colonialism, slavery, racial hierarchies, racial demarcated reserves, strict policies and segregation. And yet, discrimination and inequality continue to persist in our society. Howard Winant, an American sociologist and race theorist, stated that, “the meaning of racism has changed over time. The attitudes, practices and institutions of epochs of colonialism, segregation… may not have been entirely eliminated, but neither do they operate today in the same ways they did half a century ago (Winant 128).” The meaning and how racism operates may have changed over time but its negative connotations and implications in society continue to limit the individual’s understanding, explore and accept the complexity of each individual. Presently, racism appears less blatant and may appear “more acceptable,” but its existence and effect is undeniable. As a result, it continues to destroy society’s cohesion and ideas for equality. Racism is the ideology that devalues and renders other racial and ethnic group as inferior and it is reflected through the individual’s interaction, expression and attitudes towards others (Racism No Way). It is deeply rooted from historical, social, cultural and power inequalities. Racism has indeed shifted its course from previously stricter policies and practices of racism to individuals who promote multiculturalism, equality