Chesapeake colonies transitioned from a society with slaves to a slave society. They needed slaves to work on the tobacco plantations. The demand for tobacco was high and kept growing. This unfortunately encouraged the continuous of slave imports. Chesapeake planters invested in the slave trade to support their tobacco economy. Prices for tobacco dropped but some planters shifted to other production. The majority of slaves both males and females worked in the fields. Not all salves worked in the fields. Some became cooks, seamstresses, or personal servants. Slavery became very common on not just plantations but small farms as well. Almost half of Virginia’s white families owned at least one slave. Slavery expanded over the years. Wealth among the whites became more concentrated. Chesapeake developed a hierarchy based on degrees of freedom. At the top of the hierarchy were the plantation owners, then were the lesser planters and the men that owned land, and at the bottom were convicts, servants, tenant farmers, and then slaves at the very bottom. The existence of slavery put an economic gap between the wealthy and poor. The wealthy dominated the political life. …show more content…
This restricted blacks’ access to freedom. Slavery became very violent, with whippings daily. Race divided society. Whites thought free blacks were dangerous. Eventually free blacks lost the right to employ white servants, bear arms, had to pay special taxes, couldn’t vote, and could be punished for going against a white. Virginia laws required that freed black slaves be put out the colony. A few stayed, but only less than four percent of the population. Chesapeake colonies transformed into a slave society. Society turned horrible for slaves. Being white and being free became virtually the same
This obstacle caused Blacks to not have a voice in the USA’s political decisions. Furthermore, they were left with the worst jobs in town and had the poorest schools because of segregation (The Change in Attitudes.). In the southern states, compared to White schooling, the Blacks received one-third of school funding. The White people dominated the states and local government with their decisions and made sure that the Blacks were weak. They weren’t being treated in hospitals because the doctors refused to do treatment on them.
Groups of people soon received new rights. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. It gave black Americans full citizenship and guaranteed them equal treatment. Also, it passed the Fourteenth Amendment to make sure that the Supreme Court couldn’t declare the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional. The amendment made blacks citizens of the United States and the states in which they lived. Also, states were forbidden to deprive blacks of life, liberty, or property without due process. Additionally, blacks could not be discriminated by the law. If a state would deprive blacks of their rights as citizens, it’s number of congressional representatives would be reduced. The Civil Rights Act as well as the Fourteenth Amendment affected both the North and the South.
With the combination of the above mentioned, the freedmen had many basic rights stripped away from them. They couldn’t vote, were killed and preyed upon mercilessly and many other terrible matters. White Southern Democrats took advantage of their over whelming power in Congress and didn’t pass rights to protect the freedmen; groups such as the KKK and White Leagues intimidated and killed freedmen and those who supported them; and Congress didn’t have a plan for the slaves when they freed them. With all of these events together, the freedmen had far from equal rights. They were ‘separate but equal’. With the mixture of these incidents, the consequence was that Congress ultimately failed in their efforts to provide equal rights for freedmen.
Since it was easier to grow grain and livestock in the Mid-Atlantic region, there was a diverse group of farmers, fishermen, and merchants who worked in those colonies. The environmental conditions were ideal for farms of various sizes and the Middle colonists could trade in market areas where the colonial regions met. Although a lot of money could be made by growing tobacco (in Maryland especially) and other cash crops, they were bad for the soil and people needed more land. However, this resulted in a newfound lack of labor, which was an issue. For instance, families procreated too slowly, there was a high infant mortality rate, African slaves cost too much, and, according to the colonists, Native Americans didn’t make good slaves. Eventually white indentured servants from Europe were recruited to work on plantations, but it was a difficult life for them- even after they were freed they continued to earn low wages. This high demand of cash crops in Maryland and other Middle colonies led to an overall decline in the wellness of the
Following the success of Christopher Columbus’ voyage to the Americas in the early16th century, the Spaniards, French and Europeans alike made it their number one priority to sail the open seas of the Atlantic with hopes of catching a glimpse of the new territory. Once there, they immediately fell in love the land, the Americas would be the one place in the world where a poor man would be able to come and create a wealthy living for himself despite his upbringing. Its rich grounds were perfect for farming popular crops such as tobacco, sugarcane, and cotton. However, there was only one problem; it would require an abundant amount of manpower to work these vast lands but the funding for these farming projects was very scarce in fact it was just about nonexistent. In order to combat this issue commoners back in Europe developed a system of trade, the Triangle Trade, a trade route that began in Europe and ended in the Americas. Ships leaving Europe first stopped in West Africa where they traded weapons, metal, liquor, and cloth in exchange for captives that were imprisoned as a result of war. The ships then traveled to America, where the slaves themselves were exchanged for goods such as, sugar, rum and salt. The ships returned home loaded with products popular with the European people, and ready to begin their journey again.
Free blacks from the south were facing many situations from the whites from the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were to prevent free blacks and other non-whites from being able to vote and have a voice within the government. Laws and statements were established such as the Grandfather Clause, which would prevent anyone whose grandfather could not vote from voting. Since the majority of blacks grandfathers did not vote and was not even free, free blacks in the south were denied the right to vote. Free blacks were now being denied any privilege that non slaves (whites) already had. Their "freedom" was only from slavery, now they realized that they were still a slave to the world. Also during this time blacks were being discriminated against and the lynchings of blacks were occurring. Blacks were becoming endangered and feared for their lives.
Just as slavery was starting to lessen, the South discovered a way to lasso it back into it’s grasp thanks to the discovery of the cotton gin, allowing it to quickly recuperate from the death of tobacco. The growth of slavery in the first half of the 1800’s was also aided by the expansion of land, and the cruel yet profitable slave trade, all prolonging the misery of the black Southern population.
As the 13 colonies were established, diversities already started to appear. The South was focused on cops and tobacco, known as "Cash Crops". In order to produce these, large labor was necessary. The South bought slaves from Africa in order to fulfill these labor intensive jobs. The North on the other hand grew industrialized. They build factories all over their territory. With the invention of the Whitney's Cotton Gin, it was easier to farm the fields. With this invention, time was saved and more cotton and tobacco could be produced. But in order for this to succeed, more slaves were needed. This drew to tension between the North and the South as the North was against slavery.
The first arrivals of Africans in America were treated similarly to the indentured servants in Europe. Black servants were treated differently from the white servants and by 1740 the slavery system in colonial America was fully developed.
Each colony passed in fear of rebellion laws regulating slave’s behaviors. These laws were called slave codes. Each colony had opposing beliefs about the rights of slaves. Legally slaves could not own land of their own. They could not assemble together with out a white person present. If a slave lived off a plantation, they had a spherical curfew to follow. If a slave committed a crime against a white person, the slave was condemned. Slaves could not testify against a white person in a court of law. Slave codes had devastating effects on African American society. Slaves could not be taught to read or write. White Christians taught the slaves to read the Bible. Although the same Christian did not honor marriages between slaves in the laws. By not horning marriages made it easier to vindicate the breakup of families when it came to selling one of their family members. As time went on the African Americans grew in numbers in the new world, so did the white captors. With every new rebellion, came more strict slave codes, they had very few privileges, this would distress most people (US History,
Slavery was the main resource used in the Chesapeake tobacco plantations. Conditions in the Chesapeake region were difficult, which led to malnutrition, disease, and even death. Slaves are a cheap and abundant resource, which can be easily replaced at any time. The Chesapeake region’s tobacco industries grew and flourished on the intolerable and inhumane acts of slavery. The Chesapeake colonies of Virginia and Maryland were settled in the early 17th century.
Farming, sewing, and taking care of livestock were just a few responsibilities that were left to slaves during the 1600's. White families received all of the benefits from the work done, yet they rarely had to lift a finger, unless it was to correct a slave. Today's generation reads about slavery and regards it as morally wrong. While I agree that slavery was one of America's greatest wrongdoings, it paved the way for America as we know it today.
This new slavery imposed new laws for blacks. New laws came about to criminalize blacks. There was a new law called the vagrancy law which allowed authorities to arrest blacks for minor infractions and commit them to forced labor. This lead to “convicted leasing”.
By 1860, nearly 3,950,528 slaves resided in the United States (1860 census). Contrary to popular belief, not all slaves worked in hot and humid fields. Some slaves worked as skilled laborers in cities or towns. The slaves belonged to different social or slave classes depending on their location. The treatment of the slaves was also a variable that changed greatly, depending on the following locations: city, town or rural. Although all slaves were products of racial views, their living conditions, education, and exposure to ideas differed greatly depending on their social classes and if they lived in a rural or urban setting.
Some historians think those first blacks in Virginia were considered as servants, like the white indentured servants brought from Europe. But the strong probability is that, even if they were listed as "servants" (a more familiar category to the English), they were viewed as being different from white servants, were treated differently, and in fact were slaves. In any case, slavery developed quickly into a regular institution, into th...