Slavery in New York and Southern Colonies - Research Paper Example

SLAVERY IN NEW YORK AND SOUTHERN COLONIES Word count (1233) Slavery s back to ancient times although total delivery from slaveryhappened a few years back. The slavery system refers to a system in which marginalized people in a given area are treated as property. This means that they are at stake of being bought and sold the same way property. Therefore, slaves are deprived of rights of leaving, getting compensation and turning down work from that moment they are captured ‘there is no true emblem of confusion either in monarchy or domestic governance than when either the subject or the servant strives for the upper hand of his prince or master and to be equal with him from whom he receives his present substance’ (Norton, et al., 2014, p. 36).1 This paper explores the development of the slavery system in the New York colonies and compares it to that in the Southern colonies. Slavery in New York dates back to the period between 1626 and 1827. Although it is not mentioned in many historical books and other slavery materials, slavery greatly contributed to the development of the NY City. The same case was copied by the southern colonies, Manhattan. Unlike in the Northern colonies, the Southern ones appeared to be more brutal in its dealings with the slaves. This is attributed to the load of work that existed in the Southern states. They relied on them in entirety in their day-to-day operations. Both the Dutch and the New Yorkers saw the Africans and the black Americans as the group fit to be slaves despite the society having had other more marginalized groups based on religion and race, even though they demonstrated in their slavery life to free themselves. The African Burial Ground is a landmark located in Manhattan. This is the place where the death victims of slavery, mostly Africans, were buried. It was discovered in 1991 during the construction of the New Federal Office Building. Over 400 dead Africans were buried here following loss of lives in the hands of the Dutch colonizers (Jones, 2009).2 This is a clear indication of the mistreatment the slaves received in the Southern colonies which amounted to in-human treatments of being man-handled ‘The graves revealed to New Yorkers and the nation an aspect of history long hidden: the large numbers of enslaved African and African American men, women, and children who laboured to create colonial Manhattan’ (Harris, 2004, p. 14). Unlike the New York colonizers, the southern colonies viewed black slaves as vessels meant to serve them the way they desired. Therefore, they cared less about their lives, and if a slave appeared to be resisting an assignment, they were bound to face bad penalties of disobedience amounting to death ‘I find it almost impossible to make a Negro do his work well’ (Norton, et al., 2014).3 Another shocking landmark in Manhattan that confirms of the brutality of the southern colonies is the City Hall Park. This is the place where slave uprising participants were burned and hanged alive. These two disturbing historical landmarks indicate why the southern colonies were regarded as the worst colonies relative to the northern ones in the early periods. Nevertheless, New York City turned worst in accepting slavery freedom. In 1654, the Dutch dealings in shipping of Africans to New Amsterdam heightened. This was in an effort to develop New Amsterdam into a major North America slave port ‘After Holland lost Brazil to the Portuguese in 1654, the Dutch West India Company began to ship slaves to New Amsterdam more consistently, in larger numbers, and directly from Africa in an effort to develop New Amsterdam into a major North American slave port’ (Harris, 2004, p. 28).4 The Dutch West India Company made a lot of great efforts in an attempt to gain dominance in the slave trade between the New World and Africa. The company, although, promoted family life among its slaves in 1628 (White, 2012).5 The Dutch were in the process of loosening the tight notch they had tied the African slaves with. However, this was not fully achieved because the British intervened and were determined to legalize slavery in New York. Although they never achieved their desire a hundred percent, they thwarted African efforts of resisting slavery with a big opposition. Based on the aforementioned facts, it is evident there was no much big difference between the British and the Dutch colonizers. Both of them regarded slavery as a legal means of being serviced. The only difference arising is the presence of killer landmarks in southern colonies that indicate how slaves in Manhattan were at more risk of dying compared to those in the Northern colonies. In addition, unlike the southern part, the northern New York side was more urban. There were no vast plantations like the case in Manhattan. For instance, in those plantations, the slaves tilled the farms and produced a range of agricultural products that comprised of tobacco, indigo, sugar, cotton and chocolate. Manhattan was in great of unskilled labor and thus slaves presented a good source of this kind of labor. This led to an escalation in the number of slavery imports between 1737 and 1771. The total number of imports rose by double totaling to 4394 slaves. The slaves in the north assisted in the work of households like collecting firewood, cooking, fetching water, cleaning houses, washing clothes, cleaning compounds etc. ‘I find the {slaves at} Fort will not finish the field as they can in this day as I expected’ (Norton, et al., 2014, p. 82).6 This perhaps explains why there was more brutality in Manhattan that in the urban landscapes. In both places, the slaves were taught other skilled jobs like black smiting, shipping, etc. Under Dutch colonial rule, Europeans of all nations united to radicalize jobs and skills in Manhattan, excluding enslaved and free blacks from lucrative occupations (Harris, 2004, p. 42). The slavery system was changing step-by-step to accommodate the rights of the slaves e.g. they were allowed to visit courts and co-existence was allowed after the Dutch shipped in female slaves, which made the masters of Amsterdam look kinder before African male slaves (Bales, 2012).7 This led to the formation of institutions like the Committee for Preventing Irregular Conduct in Free Negroes. This committee had good plans of imposing good morals in the black community e.g. schools. During the early nineteenth century, more Africans were employed to perform jobs on the lower ranks of the socio-economic ladder. More Africans were being freed during this century, and slavery was coming to an end in the New York City (Harris, 2004, p. 67).8 The black slaves used a lot of methods to free themselves from slavery including the Dutch Reformed Church, which promoted slave baptisms, marriages and education. Although this was not exactly what was happening with the British, the fact is that the slavery notch was now looser than before (Harris, 2004, p. 48). The other methods used included through mass actions, breaking tools, education on their rights, Christianity, staging slowdowns, faking illness, petitioning in courts and committing acts of sabotage thus attracting reactions from the whites (Kolchin, 2003).9 For instance, the reactions were repelled by the southerners with the area politicians denouncing the court ruling of forcing the Southern states to integrate the black schools equally as the white ones while in New York, the repelling blacks were convicted and put to death in the courts of law. References Bales, Kevin. Disposable people: New slavery in the global economy. Univ of California Press, 2012. Harris, Leslie M. In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863. University of Chicago Press, 2004 Jones, Jacqueline. Labor of love, labor of sorrow: Black women, work, and the family, from slavery to the present.Basic Books, 2009. Kolchin, Peter. American Slavery: 1619-1877. Macmillan, 2003. Norton, M. B., Kamensky, J., Sheriff, C., Blight, D. W., Chudacoff, H., Logevall, F., … Michals, D. A People and a Nation, Volume I: To 1877, Brief Edition, 10th Edition. Cengage Learning, 2014. White, Shane. Somewhat More Independent: The End of Slavery in New York City, 1770-1810. University of Georgia Press, 2012. Kevin, B. Disposable people: New slavery in the global economy. Univ of California Press, 2012. Shane, W. Somewhat More Independent: The End of Slavery in New York City, 1770-1810. University of Georgia Press, 2012. Read More