This week covers the early impact of African Americans and Native Americans in North America. Despite the brutality of slavery and incessant land seizures, both groups produced enduring legacies that survived the colonial and early national periods.
Readings:
Taylor, chaps. 8-11
Equiano, intro.
Points of Entry:
slavery in colonial Williamsburg:
http://www.history.org/almanack/people/african/aaintro.cfm
Equiano Museum:
http://www.equiano.org/about_equiano.html
Deerfield Raid in New England:
http://www.1704.deerfield.history.museum/home.do
Captivity Narrative:
http://www.archive.org/details/captivity_restoration_rowlandson_0912_librivox#
Questions for discussion:
How did slavery shape colonial racial ideologies?
Do you think Native-English encounters in New England influence the way the colony evolved?
Shortly after the colonization of the New World the concept of race, racism, and "whiteness" began to form. The idea of superiority had already formed due to the advanced technology the colonists had and their belief that their religion and culture was better. Slavery was purely an economic investment that was really only found in the south of the United States and in the Caribbean. It was cheaper and was considered a longer investment to have slaves. Domination over other peoples became a symbol of wealth. The more slaves the more wealthy plantation owners were. Because slavery was seen as an investment slaves were perceived as objects. Thinking of slaves as objects allowed colonists to believe superiority and domination were acceptable. These concepts and beliefs shaped the idea of race and racism for the colonists.
ReplyDeleteUnlike many other colonists in the Americas the beliefs of the New England Puritans directly contradicted with the Native Americans. The Puritans believed that only through hard work and dedication to God would they reach heaven and find peace. To the Puritans, the Natives were people who surrendered to their worst instincts and then became wild savage pagans. Using the Natives as examples the Puritans had greater reason to be devoted to their strict beliefs. In addition, the colonists believed that the way the Natives carried themselves, men with long hair, meant vanity, and women working in the fields were drudges. Seeing the Natives as essentially the reincarnation of the devil gave the Puritans little to no trouble in killing them if they were on their land or gave the colonists "problems." Only when the colonists killed a large amount of Natives and with prompting of people from back in Europe did the colonists try to "save" the Natives. Because of all of this, the Native-English encounters greatly influenced the way the colonies evolved.
The natives helped the english evolve in two ways. One, was that the commerce between them made them dependant on each other for different reasons but of both equal importance to one another. The english supplied guns and ammunition that were never before used by natives and were much more advanced then their current way of hunting which was bow and arrow. Secondly the english suffered much in some colonies because the population of black African slaves greatly outnumbered that of the white planter population causing fear of rebellion or runaways that would be hard to control with such small numbers. In the natives dependancy on the new weaponry offered by the english, they held that much more valuable than compassion for runaway slaves and so in that way served as a border patrol to contain the runaway slaves and return them to their colonies for weapons.
ReplyDeleteWell first of all it kind of shaped the whole entire race thing. The natives had no problem with the settlers but the settlers instantly thought they were superior to the natives. Though the natives still had something to offer the settlers and so they had a dependency for each other. They needed each other for supplies and for stuff like that.
ReplyDeleteSlavery helped shape colonial racial ideologies by making European people more superior in a racial way. People of color were seen as inferior to any kind of of European decent. Slavery contributed to this seeing how people of color in the south would own slaves in order to do there agriculture work. The more slaves owned the superior you would be seen. You would have more workers for your plantations. Also owning slaves was a way were you would have your plantations worked on with out pay because you owned them.
ReplyDeleteNative-English encounters did influence the way colonies evolved. Natives and English had to different ways of seeing faith. The English saw their faith as being the correct way. Making the Natives seem as if they were less than the English, by this they were able to take over native territory and and shaped up their colonies.
Racism, was not a problem until slavery came to the Americas. Race was never a way to define a person, class was actually the way to judge people. In fact, in the early days of slavery, the slaves were treated as indentured servants, who were given freedom dues, at the end of their term. Actually some freed Africans would later work their way up to owning slaves, which Taylor says is an example of how slave was not started by racism. But as slavery evolved, Great Planters, decided to create a racial divide as to keep the lower whites from uniting with blacks and Indians to over through the people in power. They wanted to keep themselves on top, and this hatred towards race also lead to the lower class whites policing slaves, which kept them suppressed. The whole idea behind slavery was the concept of "divide and conquer", that by keeping the lower people disconnected from one another, they had less of a chance of being overthrown. Race was one way of keeping people separate.
ReplyDeleteThe English took a lot from their encounters with the natives, even if they were indirect. The natives really helped the English survive in a lot of ways. Because they knew the land so well, and had very efficient ways of growing crops they helped the colonists with food. However due to the fact that the Puritans, as well as other English colonists were there primarily for either religious and economic reasons they did not bother to learn anything culturally from the natives. They came and either tried to convert their way of life or work them as slaves. Most colonist tried to take dispose of their culture all together. So although much of their affect on the Americas lives today, the English had no intention of learning from it.
Before the Colonists arrived in the “New World” each region already had a since of superiority over each other. When they arrived in America and saw these Natives, they saw them as savage and in need of guidance, similar to a wild animal. Almost immediately that was when race began to play a huge role in superiority. Long before Africans began commonly getting traded, Natives were used to help assist the Colonists in their daily activity. From there on issues with slavery and race instantly correlated. Slavery was more than a person’s status, it commonly involved the color of ones skin or their nationality. Having been introduced as slaves, colonists began to associate African Americans as “below” them, and that is what ignited the common inferiority that is included when it comes down to racism.
ReplyDeleteThe Native-English many encounters definitely helped colonies evolve. For the longest time colonists came over to America and attempted to be independent in their work and lifestyle, but often went to the Natives for help. As a result of this, the two groups became dependent on one another in terms of luxuries and survival. When the Puritans settled in New England they had different ideas of creating a new life for themselves. For the first time since Westerners began colonizing in America, these people did not need the help of the Natives.The Puritans made their own houses, hunter their own food, believed in their own God, and most importantly, didn’t need the help of the Natives to show them how to survive. If anything the Puritans fought with the Natives in order to get what they wanted and needed. The Natives almost came off as a pest to the Puritans, seemingly always in the way of their own expansion. This was a real turning point in American history because it was the first time that colonists completely lived on their own and began fighting against the Natives, wanting to get rid of them.
Because almost all the slaves that were imported to the West Indies and the English colonies in America were black-Africans, it created a race-class. Because the majority of the manual labor workers were black slaves, the former white servants became a minority and probably began to look down at the African slaves. This led to a new race class, where the Europeans believed that the white race was superior because their culture was supposedly more advanced and took advantage of the "weaker" black race.
ReplyDeleteThe conflict between the English colonists and the Natives escalated over time until it turned into brutal warfare where English puritans could burn a village of women and children to death and have a clear conscience as it was "God's Will". This fundamentalist idealogy led to no room for compromise from the Puritans and eventually led to Indians becoming very much the minority and becoming the victims of racial prejudice from the colonists.
Slavery was in all the colonies, but was much more widespread in the South. Northern slaves were primarily in cities, Southern slaves on plantations. Because of this there were probably different attitudes towards slaves in the North and South. Racism may have been more prevalent in the South because it was in the interest of the slave holders to dehumanize their slaves. This probably wasn't as much of a problem in the North.
ReplyDeleteContact with the native inhabitants of North America led to the spread of diseases and epidemics which rapidly depopulated the area and allowed the colonists to settle and expand to the West much more rapidly and with less resistance than they would otherwise have had.
"Racism" as people know it today, did not really develop until the early seventeen hundreds. The modern concept of racism is that certain people, based on their genetics, are predisposed to be superior or inferior to other people based on their genetics. Under this definition, people who are born with unfavorable genes are destined to subversion, with no hope of reaching the level of persons with favorable genetics. The older version of racism claimed that certain people, mostly Native Americans and Africans, were inferior to Caucasian Europeans, not because of a difference in genetic buildup, but because of the differences between their belief systems and culture. The Native Americans and Africans were considered savages because they were not Christian, possess advanced technology, or live in permanent settlements. These "savages" still had the opportunity to attain the privileges and and the esteem that Europeans possessed if they disavowed their culture and belief system. Slavery caused a transition between the older to the newer concept of racism, since it reinforced the inferiority of non-white persons. In the early sixteen hundreds when indentured servitude was widely used, settlers could not distinguish between a white indentured servant and a black slave, since they were similar in their status, although not the permanence of their status. As indentured servitude gave way to slavery, the settlers increasingly began to associate poverty or inferiority in general with black people, who comprised the majority of all slaves brought to the new world. The white settlers came to believe that black slaves were inferior, since fewer indentured servants were around that could be compared to them in status. In this way, the new concept of racism emerged.
ReplyDeleteThe people of New England were little effected by their contacts with the natives. Whatever contacts they made only served to reinforce their detestation of non-Christians and "uncivilized" people. The Native Americans offered the New England settlers a supply of people from which to capture or enslave. The natives also aided the colonists in the cultivation of native crops. The natives gained little from the settlers, other than foreign diseases and low-end trinkets, thought by the natives to be rare and exotic.
Slavery was in a sense the first type of outsourcing work for owners who could not or did not want to do the work. When the Americas numbers of new english migrants started to decline the only way to survive was to "outsource" the out and find a way to get the job done for cheaper. Lazyness seems to be evident even in early times. I know they say that hard work was the premise of coming over here however actions seems to speak louder then words in this instance. When the season changed and things got rough, when crops didnt flourish, and when food became more scarce, English migrants gave up and decided to settle. It was slavery that built the Americas literally from the ground up. Slaves in my mind could be considered the backbone to America because without slavery the Americas could have failed.
ReplyDeleteSlavery helped racial ideologies in the colonies by merely existing. Before the slave trade was ever brought to the colonies, there was some kind of racial difference between the natives and the colonists. They were not on the same terms of how everyone should be living, but they were civil enough with each other that they kept most of the "drama" and issues out of their lives. Once slaves were introduced, the colonists felt they had power over the saves because they always had the upper hand. Once they determined that they were superior to the slaves, the racial difference sky-rocketed and lead to the unpleasant outcomes that were yet to come.
ReplyDeleteI think that their encounter with one another really helped the colonists expand and expand rapidly. With them, the colonists brought so many foreign things that the natives had no defense. They were left helpless against the many diseases that were carried overseas and the more that people died, the more the colonists decided that the land was theirs to take over and they went for it.
As it was already, colonies had a "superior" mind set. Why not, they had conquered the Natives and took the land and its resources. They were the kings and they were the ones who knew what to do in everything. They were colonies.
ReplyDeleteSlavery boosted this podium of superiority. Not only did colonists have land and resources but they now had people (slaves) to work for them on their plantations while colonists (slave owners) sat back and watched the economy grow and feel their wallets blow up. Anyone who was not white did not matter. Slaves did not matter, they weren't even considered people they were considered a piece of property. This created a colonial ideology that made colonists feel that they were better than everyone in every way; technology, culture, government etc.
I think Native-English encounters affected the way the colony worked in New England, again, by making Europeans think they were superior to another people.
Slavery greatly shaped racism in the Americas. The Europeans were Christian people that grew up bieliving that all humans were God's children and so needed to be taught the way to Heaven. So how were the European colonists in the Americas able to embrace slavery into their daily lifes? They needed a cheap source of labor and so African slaves provided that. To be able to own slaves the colonists had to view the slaves as something other than human. This is how racism came to be, black Africans were now being viewed as subhuman. Africans were subhuman because they were not "civilized", did not know about Christianity, and eventually were not white; everything that the colonists were. Slavery led to racism because of all the justifications the colonists attributed to it. In the end the colonists created a sense of superiority so it was easier for them to become racists.
ReplyDeleteYes, the Native relations with the Puritan colonists did influence the way the colony evolved. The Puritans were disgusted with everything that had to with the Natives. Their lack of work ethic, their sense of vanity, no sense of religion, etc. Seeing how "uncivilized" and "immoral" the Natives were, made the Puritans work harder in their colony. They tried to extremely contrast themselves from the Natives, so in God's eyes they could be worthy of heaven.