The Truth and A Lengthy Excuse An essay on Eric Williams and Winthrop Jordan In Eric Williams' essay, "Capitalism and Slavery", the first thing he stresses is that racism came from slavery, not the other way around. Of course I was immediately put off by this statement after reading Winthrop Jordan's "White over Black: American attitudes toward the Negro, 1550-1812", which has quite the opposite idea stated in it. Fortunately, Eric Williams' essay nearly tears itself apart on its own without any help from me, as he failed to recognize his own inherent classism and racism. It is his idea that because blacks were not the first to be used for free labor, just the cheapest form of free labor, that it was not racism that made the English, Spanish, and French use them. That, of course, is complete bullshit. Here's why. Eric Williams starts his essay by telling us about the use of Indians as slaves. He mentions that it was attempted to only enslave those Indians that didn't give up their heritage for Christianity. This brings me back to Winthrop Jordan's essay in which we recall the Christians encountering heathenism in Africa which certainly applies here: "Heathenism was treated not so much as a specifically religious defect but as one manifestation of a general refusal to measure up to proper standards, as a failure to be English or even civilized." The first encounter with and eventual poor treatment of the Native Americans was all too similar to the relationship formed between the whites and blacks in Africa. Eric Williams goes onto say: "The Indian reservoir, too, was limited, the African inexhaustible", which sounds as if he was speaking of a resource rather than groups of human beings. Interesting. And as if this were to completely prove his point, Williams speaks of how "not the Negro", but poor whites were used next to make rich whites richer. It started off as indentured servitude, where a person would sign a contract to work for someone for a certain number of years in exchange for his passage to America. It was later that kidnapping and forced shipment of humans was used for labor. This might not be an example of racism, but it would be a good example of classism.
This document acknowledges the different set of rules about what the master expect from his slaves to do and not to do. The plantation rules described in this document is accounted from the diary of Bennet Barrow’s, the owner of 200 slaves on his plantation in Louisiana on May 1, 1838. No one will be allowed to leave the plantation without Barrow’s permission is the first of many plantation rules. To add, no one is allowed to marry out of the plantation and allowed to sell anything without their master’s consent. Rules implemented by Barrow is strictly dedicated to the safety and security of his plantation of from encroachment of outsiders. He is more concerned about his
Slavery was mainly used to support tobacco plantations in the Chesapeake Bay. Malnutrition, disease, and death were prevalent in the Chesapeake. Slaves were a cheap and an abundant resource, which could be easily replaced at any time. The Chesapeake took advantage of the use of black slaves just as many other parts of the world would have at the time.
Apes accurately portrays the racism that Native Americans suffer. Racism exists in both the individual and within politics. During the late 1800's, when this article was written, it was illegal in Massachusetts for whites and Indians to intermarry. He labels this as a clear infringement on individuals to make their own decisions. He also raises the point that many white people do not even consider the Indian to be qualified for the rights of an individual. This dehumanization allows white people to steal the Indians' land and murder them with out a second thought. He calls on the whites, as Christians, to reassess these racist views. People cannot call themselves Christians and persecute others, based on skin color, in the name of Christianity. Apes says that words must be supplemented by actions, backing himself up with scripture such as I John 3:18, "Let us not love in word but in deed." Although Apes convincingly argues against the biases within the Christian community, he bases his arguments on several assumptions, neglecting to address problems such as the language barrier and problems that arise when two different cultures try to occupy the same land.
Since the settling of the English colonies in the early 17th century, pioneers have been destined to expand into the North American frontier and to domesticate it with their Christian faith and progressive nature. In their exploration of the frontier, however, the Puritan colonists often encountered Indians whose savagery challenged their discipline and morals. Just as the colonists expanded, Indians also saw their native lands of many years vanish. The situation naturally compelled the Puritans and the Indians to fight each other for their mutual interests. Thus, while most accounts of Western history focus on the heathen threat, both Indians and colonists experienced the harshness of the captivity myth and its evolution into other mythology that defined American history.
In George E. Tinker’s book, American Indian Liberation: A Theology of Sovereignty, the atrocities endured by many of the first peoples, Native American tribes, come into full view. Tinker argues that the colonization of these groups had and continues to have lasting effects on their culture and thus their theology. There is a delicate balance to their culture and their spiritual selves within their tightly knit communities prior to contact from the first European explorers. In fact, their culture and spiritual aspects are so intertwined that it is conceptually impossible to separate the two, as so many Euro-American analysts attempted. Tinker points to the differences between the European and the Native American cultures and mind sets as ultimately
During the nineteenth century, there were a variety of diseases that affected both slaves and their masters in the Antebellum South of the United States. Tuberculosis, yellow fever, whooping cough, malaria, worms, cholera, and diphtheria were some of the many medical conditions that affected much of the population. Childbirth also had a large impact on the health of women and newborn children, due to a lack of knowledge about proper nutrition and prenatal care. As a result, there were many accidents during childbirth and a high mortality rate ("Plantation Medicine and Health"). The same medical solutions to these diseases were often used for both masters and their slaves, however it was ultimately the slave master's decision about the health care of their slaves. James O. Breedon, editor of Advice Among Masters: The Ideal in Slave Management in the Old South, stated, “In matters of health care, slaveowners often extended their ideas concerning domestic medicine to their slaves. In many cases, the owner provided the same care for the slaves as he did for himself and his family. In order to exercise what they felt was their
Before the influence of the Europeans, the different tribes scattered throughout Latin America would be viewed by “western” standards as somewhat barbaric. The European friars were horrified by native practices and felt obligated to “eliminate” them. (Gibson 72) An extremely Christianized view of the natives was formed which viewed them as ignorant pagans. Some accounts reported that, “The natives were so savage and stupid as to be beyond belief. For the say, these early tribes were bestial, and that many ate human flesh; others taking their mothers and daughters for their wives, besides committing other great sins, having much
American South slavery demonstrates how slavery was unfair and how slaves were treated badly. However, nowadays there is not as much slaves or abuse to them then there was in the past.
The Europeans’ preconceived opinion about the Natives Americans had a big impact in the life of the Native Americans . Many Indians died not only because of the diseases that the Europeans carried, but the cruelty of the settlers and the brutality of slavery also contributed to the destruction of the native population. The ones that entitled themselves as Christians and grabbed about their holiness, marched through the continent expelling people from their own land, raping women and killing people. The Native American culture suffered a great loss as well “European trade goods quickly became part of Native American material culture, and their efforts to gather furs for trade for these goods altered the ecological balance in much of the New
A Leon Higginbotham Jr.’s argument in The Ancestry of Inferiority (1619-1662), is that the people of Virginia had already began to think of black people, be it they were free or indentured servants, as inferior to themselves before slavery was institutionalized. The Colonist’s had already begun to strategize legalities in regards on how black people were to be disciplined. Higginbotham has two reasons why Africans were not afforded the same liberties as that of the white indentured servants in Virginia. The first reason he states is that the majority of white indentured servants came to Virginia on their own free will. Once they had completed their five or seven-year contract with their master, they were free to buy land and begin working for themselves. Unlike the African’s that he claims were brought here against their will or for desperation. The second reasoning is that the English thought that the black represented evil or danger and because African’s skin coloring was black, they must be evil. Higginbotham offers a couple of examples representing just how the English prior to the actual term of slavery being used, were already creating a racial difference in the judicial system. From court cases that he has reviewed, he states one must find what the case is not saying verses what it is. When the English identified people with names the only time skin color was not used in context is when that person was a white person. Another case he made use of is a good example of black inferiority to white superiority in the early 17th century is in the case In Re Graweere, 1641. The court made certain that a particular African father had no value in society when attempting to get his child back. However, because his son was...
The most prominent demonstration of racism in America had to be the slave codes that were in place in all states where slavery was practiced. In “From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans,” John Hope Franklin went into detail on slave codes on pages 137-138, “…these laws varied from state to state, but most of them expressed the same viewpoint: that slaves are not people but property and that laws should…protect whites.” One law stated that those enslaved could not bear arms or strike a white person, even in self-defense, but when a white person killed a slave it wasn’t even considered murder. Africans had no standing in court, they couldn’t testify or be a party to a lawsuit and their marriages were not legally binding. Raping an African American woman by her master wasn’t considered a crime either. The slave codes were designed to oppress, persecute, and humiliate blacks by the hands of the whites. With the slave codes and the eventual Jim Crow laws and any oppressive laws and segregation practiced in America, the idea of blacks being inferior was stamped into the minds of any person living in the country. African Americans were treated as subpar, they weren’t considered human beings and to this day the same belief is held unto, although not nearly as outright or not as blatant as in the past centuries. Slavery in itself is a large example of how racism is and may always be embedded into American society; blacks had to fight to even be considered citizens, be able to vote, and be given basic human rights. Though many would deny the existence of racism, the sad truth is that racism may be an ever-present concept in American society.
Phillips' book is an attempt to provide an overview of the practice and institutions of slavery in the Americas from its beginnings to the 19th century. Writing in 1918, Phillips hoped to provide an account of slavery based upon historical evidence and modern methods of research, rather than ideological motivations. He drew his evidence from the plantation records and letters of slave owners; contemporary travel accounts; court records and legal documents; newspaper articles; and in some instances, the recordings of slaves themselves, rather than what he viewed as more biased sources such as abolitionist writings. While this approach was not systematic and led him to base many of his conclusions upon subjective evidence and an over reliance upon particular chroniclers of the South, the bulk of his findings are supported by subsequent scholarship.
1. Slave’s lifestyle in the 1800 was anything but enjoyable. They lived, breathed, and sweated work.Their hours were from sunrise to sunset. Not only did they live in poor living conditions, and work in undesirable conditions, but they also were often taken from their families, and had religion forced on them. To sum it up, the lives that slaves led were unfavorable due to the way they had to live, and the lifestyle that was imposed on to them.
Abraham Lincoln once said,"If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong." Slavery is a cruel part of history that the United States is not proud of at all. Kidnapping innocent Africans from Africa migrating them to the states and making them do inhuman work for more than likely the rest of there lives. Cruel beatings and treating human beings like animals is something that will never be forgotten in the eyes of every single African American today. Those 300 years of slavery truly changed the African person.
Slavery has been around for a very long time - and with no doubt existed before the Transatlantic slave trade. A major key difference between those forms of slavery compared to slavery black Africans suffered during the Transatlantic slave trade, however, is the justification of keeping the people enslaved. For example, take the ancient Greek’s justification of their slavery - “On the one hand, the natural slave, due to an innate defect in his capacity to engage in practical deliberation, is morally inferior to those who are naturally free” (Harvey, Martin). Influential thinkers of the time didn’t endorse racially based justifications of slavery, either. “Aristotle himself concedes the essential hopelessness of attempting to draw a substantive master/slave distinction on the basis of putative physical differences between the two” (Harvey, Martin). This is an example of justification of slavery in ancient Greece, far before the Transatlantic slave trade - and racist ideas were not used in justification. Since racist justifications for slavery didn’t exist before the Transatlantic slave trade, the conclusion that racism is rooted in the trade can be drawn. There is also the argument that if slavery is inherently racially based, and if racism against black Africans existed before the slave trade, black Africans would’ve been the