American Slavery Summary

A Review on American Slavery, American Freedom

Bitter rivalries and bloody struggles for power mar much of European history. Intense national conflicts plagued Europe from the middle ages until the end of World War II. Nations such as England, France, Germany, and Spain consistently engaged in some form of armed combat to determine who would be the dominant force on the continent. Logically, with Columbus’s discovery of the New World in 1492, these nationalistic conflicts would spill over into the New World. The New World not only provided new land to be conquered, but also the resources for unforetold economic gain. This opportunity could not have come at a better time for England, as its economy was struggling to provide for a growing population.

As the Spanish began to spread throughout the Caribbean and the Americas, they often eradicated or conquered entire tribes and subjected them to forced labor. Morgan quotes John Ponet, an Englishmen largely responsible for convincing the queen to venture into the affairs in the New World, describing the Spanish cruelty on the undeserving Natives:

[the Spaniards] forced the people (that were not used to labour) to stande all the daie in the hotte sunne gathering golde in the sande of the rivers. By this meanes a great nombre of them (not used to such paines) died, and a great numbre of them (seeing themselves brought from so quiet a life to such miserie and slaverie) of desperacion killed them selves. (2003, p. 8).

The English sought to eradicate this inhumanity and challenge their Old World foe through attacks on their settlements in the New World (Morgan). The justification for this deliverance came in 1568, when the Spaniards attacked English slave traders John Hawkins and Francis Drake in the Port of San Juan de Ulúa after already giving them permission to conduct business (Morgan). English sailors capitalized on this excuse to pirate Spanish vessels, with no one benefitting more than Francis Drake himself

One of the expedition’s ships, the Tyger, ran aground on a sand bar and lost a significant portion of the colonies supplies. Complicating the matter, the first group of settlers consisted of a large number of soldiers, who simply could not or would not farm (Morgan, 2003). Initially, the natives of the region were friendly (Morgan). They supplied the unprepared English with food that sustained them through their first winter. However, the hospitality was short lived, or so the English thought. The English perceived the local Natives, the Roanokes, as trying to eliminate them by baiting them into conflict with other tribes. After returning from battle, the Roanokes pledged to supply their English neighbors with food (Morgan). The natives failed to uphold this agreement, and their leaders left the island. Fearing another coup, the English attacked and killed the Roanoke leaders, ending the very alliance that sustained them (Morgan). Less than two weeks later, Sir Francis Drake arrived with more men and new supplies. When one of his supply ships was lost at sea, Roanoke’s leaders decided to pack up and head home (Quin, 1955, as cited in Morgan). The next attempt to actually colonize the island resulted in mysterious vanishing of settlers. England would not gain a permanent colony in the New World until 1607, when Jamestown was founded in