Slavery in Colonial America - Essay Example

Slavery has become one of the most intriguing periods in American history. While most people associate slavery with the southern half of the countryduring the early nineteenth century, few know that slavery has been a stain on America's fabric since the colonists first settled on America's shores. The history of slavery in America is one of betrayal and abuse. It is a gritty and complicated history that sprung out of greed and prejudice. Nonetheless, it is part of America's history, and needs to be told. To first understand how slavery became a part of life in colonial America, one must first examine the history of slavery from its origins. The Portuguese first utilized the slave trade around 1562 (Sylvester, 1998). The prime area for slaves was on the west coast of Africa called the Sudan. The peoples inhabiting the Sudan and surrounding areas were known for their skills in agriculture, farming, and mining. Europeans soon realized the commodity these skilled laborers could bring to their countries and began trading them regularly. African tribal wars produced captives, which became a bartering resource in the European slave market. Black and white slave hunters obtained those not captured during war. The main sources of barter used by the Europeans to secure African slaves were glass beads, whiskey, ivory, and guns. Jamestown The first slaves to arrive in America were brought to the Jamestown settlement in 1619. A Dutch slave trader exchanged his cargo of Africans in that year (Becker, 1999). This was the first time an African set foot in the New World. The first slaves were brought to Jamestown as indentured servants, having to serve seven years for a master before gaining their freedom, the same as white indentured servants. This became a problem in latter years however, when the indentured servants were done with their time, they became competition for their masters and caused outrage among the predominantly white business world. There is some argument among scholars today about the use of the phrase "indentured servants" to describe the first slaves brought to America. There is a school of thought that since the word "slave" didn't appear in historical documents until the late 1660's that slavery was not being practiced before than. Some argue however, that the word servant as was used to describe the African slaves by the white settlers was the same inference that the word had in England, which was more akin to the more modern definition of slavery. These same scholars argue that southern plantation owners and slave masters still used the term "servants" to describe their slaves right up until the end of the Civil War. While white indentured servants where still the primary source for cheap labor in the colonies, tensions were growing between the poor workers and the newly emerging merchant class. The merchant class was now able to seize land and hold it as their own, regardless of the poor farmer's objections. The merchant class was also given the right to vote since they were technically landowners. This had the former indentured servants angry, and they were beginning to revolt. Bacon's Rebellion Slavery in the colonies grew in necessity following Bacon's Rebellion. Bacon's Rebellion occurred when a settler named Nathaniel Bacon disobeyed direct orders and seized a tribe of Native Americans for allegedly stealing his corn. Bacon was reprimanded and soon he began leading revolts against the Native Americans who had been attacking small out-lying farmers and their property. While Bacon was repeatedly reprimanded, his attacks continued and grew in their ferociousness. Bacon's rebellion ended when a group of his men surrounded Jamestown and burned it to the ground. The rebellion led the wealthy landowners of the time to begin to look elsewhere for cheap labor, fearing they too would have to endure another rebellion similar to that of Nathaniel Bacon (Bacon's 2005). With the emerging slave class in the colonies, twenty-five thousand and growing by 1700, came new laws guaranteed to keep the African slaves at the bottom of society's ladder. Legalized Slavery Massachusetts became the first colony to legalize slavery in 1641. They were also the first colony to link slavery with religion. Although Massachusetts legally sanctioned slavery, they also recognized slaves as both property and men, which was uncharacteristic of how slaves would eventually become viewed in the south. Massachusetts used religion as a basis for ruling over the issue of slavery. When two Massachusetts slave merchants joined with London slave raiders in a massacre of an African village in 1645, the colonial government registered its indignation, because the two men were guilty of the Biblical crime of "man-stealing". This meant the men kidnapped the African slaves, rather than bartering for them, which was socially acceptable at the time. The court was also outraged because the slaughter of 100 or so villagers had taken place on a Sunday. Because of its scriptural foundation, Massachusetts' attitudes toward slaves in some ways were more progressive than those of other colonies. While Massachusetts was the first colony to legally acknowledge slavery and bondage, it was in Virginia and Maryland where the slave population was growing by leaps and bounds. Having discovered the use of slaves on tobacco and other plantations, the number of slaves eventually began to grow in the south. It was in the south that their masters could use them year round thanks to the warmer climate. The tobacco farms in Virginia and Maryland, more specifically the Chesapeake region, which boasted a fifty percent slave population, was famous for its tobacco production. Since the cultivation of tobacco was extremely labor-intensive, it made since to the colonists and plantation owners to use African slave labor. Tobacco cultivation rivaled the sugar production of the British West Indies. Tobacco was an eleven-month crop. Cultivation began in late January with the preparation of the fields for planting, mending tools, and laying out the seedbeds. Once the soil was ready, tobacco seedlings were transplanted to the fields. By mid summer, tobacco was growing in the fields, but the delicate plant required constant care. At harvest time, tobacco was gathered and prepared for its shipment to England (Introduction to 2005). By the 1650s some of the indentured servants in Virginia had earned their freedom. Because replacements, whether black or white, were in limited supply and more expensive, the Virginia plantation owners considered the advantages of the "perpetual servitude" policy exercised by Caribbean landowners. Following the lead of Massachusetts and Connecticut, Virginia legalized slavery in 1661. In 1672 the king of England chartered the Royal African Company to bring the shiploads of slaves into trading centers like Jamestown, Hampton, and Yorktown, ensuring the numbers of Africans kept in bondage would only grow. The Royal African Company When the slave trade first began, one company was granted exclusive rights to the trade by Parliament, this was the Royal African Company. Mostly mostly rich merchants from London who were wealthy and well connected formed this company. They took great lengths to protect their company, having forts built on the West African coast to protect their trade and to provide holding pens for slaves. The Royal African Company eventually formed a monopoly. Any other slave traders, or interlopers, had to pay a tax of ten-percent to the Royal African Company. Between 1680 and 1686, an average of five thousand slaves a year were transported to the Caribbean and the colonies (Nash, 2004). Parliament was being inundated with requests to end the monopoly of the Royal African Company, and to open the slave trade to all who wanted to own a piece of it. In 1698, Parliament did just that. With the slave trade now open to competition, the number of slaves being transported every year grew from five thousand a year to over twenty thousand. Leading to a large influx of new slaves in the colonies. Slaves were so valuable in the New World; they were often referred to as "black gold". Slave Codes There were many ways in which the colonies were able to keep their African slaves under their thumb. One way was by enacting what were called "slave codes". The slave codes were laws designed to focus on the slaves. Slave codes forbade such things as slaves carrying guns, slaves taking food, or running away. It was written that all slaves could be killed or brutally beaten for choosing to ignore the slave codes. As part of the slave codes, slaves were also required to wear I.D. bracelets. These metal bracelets identified which master they belonged to. In some states, the governments actually required the small free black population to wear the same I.D. bracelets. The slave codes were a signal that things were changing in the southern colonies. Colonies like Virginia were becoming more and more dependant on their slave labor, and therefore began to take greater steps to ensure it's longevity. In 1705, the Virginia General Assembly stated the following: "All servants imported and brought into the Country...who were not Christians in their native Country...shall be accounted and be slaves. All Negro, mulatto and Indian slaves within this dominion...shall be held to be real estate. If any slave resist his master...correcting such slave, and shall happen to be killed in such correction...the master shall be free of all punishment...as if such accident never happened." (Virginia's Slave2005). This ruling by the General Assembly of Virginia is considered the turning point in colonial slave history. It is the first time we see the slave codes take away legal rights from the slaves. For the seventeenth century slave in Virginia, disputes with a master were allowed to be brought before a court for judgment. With the slave codes of 1705, this no longer was the case. A slave owner who sought to break the most rebellious of slaves could now do so, knowing any punishment he inflicted, including death, would not result in even the slightest reprimand. Samuel Sewall While slavery had its usefulness to the colonists, there were some voices that chose to speak out against the harsh treatment of the African slaves. Samuel Sewall, a judge noted most for his participation in the Salem Witch Trials, was one of those voices. Sewall's pamphlet entitled "The Selling of Joseph" was published in 1700. It was around this time that Sewall, a court officer at the time, had an altercation with a man named John Saffin, a wealthy merchant and landowner. Saffin had a slave named Adam, who was "difficult, and unruly". Adam wanted his freedom and went to Judge Samuel Sewall for help. Sewall sided with Adam and years later Adam was granted his freedom. While Sewall's pamphlet made such statements as "It is most certain that all men, as they are the sons of Adam, are co-heirs, and have equal right unto liberty, and all other outward comforts of life." (Samuel Sewall2005). The judge still held on to the belief that Africans would not use their freedom well, and was not the strong abolitionist he could have been. He was however a catalyst in the newly critical thinking of slavery that the north would eventually begin to embrace. Conclusion While slavery continued well into the nineteenth century, it was in colonial America that it began. There in the soil of Jamestown, the first colonial settlement lays the blood of hundreds of thousands of Africans brought to America to be bought and sold like property. While most colonists were finding a new way of life away from the persecution that they suffered in Great Britain, the African slaves were beginning a new era of discrimination. They were fighting hard for their freedom and losing. They were becoming property. They were becoming the backbone of a tobacco industry, the blood and sweat of a cotton industry, yet they were unable to vote or own land. They were unable to walk freely and enjoy the splendor of their efforts. It is in colonial America that racism and prejudice began to foster and would soon take such a hold of America and her people that it would eventually lead to the greatest war ever fought on American soil, the Civil War. Sources "Bacon's Rebellion". 2005. Wikipedia. November 2005. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon%27s_Rebellion Becker, Eddie. "Chronology on the History of Slavery and Racism". 1999. Innercity. November 2005. http://www.innercity.org/holt/slavechron.html "Introduction to Colonial African American Life". 2005. History. November 2005. http://www.history.org/Almanack/people/african/aaintro.cfm Nash, Andrew. "The Royal African Country". 2004. Bristol Slavery. November 2005. http://www.headleypark.bristol.sch.uk/slavery/people/royalafricancompany.htm "Samuel Sewall Speaks Out". 2005. PBS Online. November 2005. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p271.html Sylvester, Melvin. "The African American: A Journey from Slavery to Freedom." 1998. Long Island University. November 2005. http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/aaslavry.htm#beginning "Virginia's Slave Codes." 2005. PBS Online. November 2005. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p268.html Read More