How Did Slavery Become Entirely Black?

How Did Slavery Become Entirely Black?

September 2, 2009, 12:05 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: African American Studies, GSU, slavery

I thought y’all might be interested by an assignment that I had to do for my African American Studies class, so I’ve posted it below. I know there are many more reasons and a lot more depth that could have been gone into, but I was only required to answer the questions via the textbook reading. I’ll have another one for next week too. I’ll also get back to posting some more personal posts this week.

Discuss the major events/steps leaving to slavery becoming entirely Black/African.

While there were several factors that lead to American slavery becoming exclusively Black or African, I believe it was the underlying cultural history and understandings of the English that had the strongest effect. Historically, the English always distinguished between those the culturally and physically different from themselves and subsequently treated them differently. This is evidenced by the English’s actions towards the Irish, which they tried to conquer for centuries, as well as the Native American population. Blacks and Africans, in this case, had both the cultural and physical differences that were strong and noticeable. This, most likely, lead to a more severe departure from the “normal” way the English would treat those different from themselves. This also fathered the thoughts the English held which assumed the Africans or blacks must be inferior to the English. This thinking, however, was dangerous, because it was strictly an assumption.

Initially, black slaves were cheaper than whites, because there were few whites available, thus making them more valuable. That changed when, during the 1650s, the courts in Maryland and Virginia found it acceptable for Africans to serve their masters for their entire lives, unlike before when it had only been for a specific, set term of years. Because of that, black men, women, and children began to fetch a higher price than their white counterparts because they had the guarantee that they were  given to serve for life, not just for 10 to 15 years.

How did the enlightenment effect African Americans during the Revolutionary Era?

Before the Enlightenment, when the writers of the Declaration of Independence crafted the document, they saw the idea of blacks claiming the same rights as whites inconceivable. Thus they felt no need to make the distinction that, “all men were created equal,” was really written for, not all men, but all white men. This is important to understand because it was out of this mindset and ideology that the Enlightenment came.

John Locke wrote, in his essay, “Concerning Human Understanding,” that at the foundation of all human laws were certain rights that all men should hold. While Locke didn’t see the evident contradiction between that thinking and the practice of slavery, many did, and over the following century, it became increasingly clear.

As white Patriots were demanding their freedom from the oppression of Britain, they soon saw the problem with wanting their own freedom while they continued oppressing the blacks they held as slaves. Many African Americans soon gained hope as the began to realize that the ideas of the Enlightenment and the Revolutionary Era were not compatible with slavery. They know that if the ideologies of the Enlightenment were going to be adopted, that slavery as they knew it would have to cease to exist.

Many in Britain saw, and pointed out this contradiction, such as famous writer Samuel Johnson. He wrote, “How it is that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?’

Thomas Paine also brought this conflict of ideas to light in his pamphlet, Common Sense, where he writes,”with what consistency, or decent they complain so loudly of attempts to enslave them, while they hld so many hundred thousands in slavery; and annually enslave thousands more.”

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