The Way We Lived: Essays and Documents in American Social History, by Frederick Binder and David Reimers

I have chosen to write about chapter three due to my fascination about the slavery period in our country; the reasons it happened, why it happened, and some of the missing history behind the period. As for the missing history, I have always been captivated be the underlying history that made slavery possible in America. Chapter three delves into the subject that has intrigued me ever since high school, especially how the slave trade came to be, how it was started, and those who actually began and ran it.

It was very interesting that the indentured servant concept was actually brought over from Europe. Indentured servitude is in itself a form of slavery, even though the individual would eventually work themselves to a ‘free’ status. I never quite understood the fact that people could basically ‘sell’ themselves into a certain type of slavery, but denounce other forms. This self-pronounced slavery interestingly enough is still practiced today in regards to debt and the amount owed others.

What is really interesting is what brought about the indentured servant movement decline. The reasons, as stated in the book, being “less about overcrowding at home, and rumors of mistreatment of indentured servants” (Binder& Reimers, 2008, p. 42), show that even some Europeans had opened their eyes to partial slavery. Thus, it became one of the most important causes of the shift from indentured servitude to slavery. Greed was also a prime reason that the shift occurred. This ‘greed’ forced those that had the larger farms and plantations to look for a different unending supply of cheap labor. But notwithstanding the cost of the labor, it was also about the ability to control the people working for the owner.

There is no doubt that the gen...

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...ps on others to further their own personal gain.

Dr. Falconbridge explains quite well that the crews of the slave ships did not ‘care’ for the slaves, but more so they only intended to keep them alive to save their investments. It also seems to me that the owners of the ships intended to only minimize losses to their profit, instead of treating the individuals with the slightest bit of human dignity. There is no doubt in my mind that those slave-bound individuals understood what awaited them in the New World, and could not dare to endure the hardships that awaited them.

This text selection really opened my eyes to the extent of the entirety of slavery, slave trade, and the prime incentive for such – greed.

Works Cited

Binder, F. M. & Reimers, D. M. (2008). The Way We Lived: Essays and Documents in American Social History. Sixth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Co.