Evolution Of African American Status In The 1600's

Thomas J. Martinez
History 11
M/W 9:00AM
March 19, 2017

The Evolution of African American Status in the 1600’s

While learning about history we typically receive the watered-down version of the beginnings of our country. Narrative after narrative we consume it all until we believe. Truly, it isn’t until we are in search for the truth that we find the stories that are too harsh to share. When it comes to slavery in America we find that we can trace the root of the problem and who or what created this system that has haunted us for about 400 years. In America, slavery was based on the plantation, an “agricultural enterprise that brought together large numbers of workers under the control of a single owner” (Foner 59). This imbalance showed

In essence, it encouraged the creation in the difference in meaning of slavery and freedom.
In the early 1600’s, Jamestown was a colony in Virginia that didn’t seem to have a bright future. The colony’s leadership changed repeatedly, it’s people experienced a high death rate but still always seeking a quick profit. In 1619, “the first twenty blacks arrived in Virginia in a Dutch Vessel” (Foner 59). This event along with the establishment of a House of Burgess, set the course and would turn Jamestown from a company of people to a slave owning society of America’s plantation owners. “In this formative phase of Jamestown, the Africans worked side by side with white indentured servants whose physical hardships were similar” (Patterson 58). During the early 1600’s the colony’s élite continued to use the white indentured servants as the

One was the presumption that a black person was a slave and the second was showing hostility towards any freed blacks (Patterson 58). It wasn’t until the 1660’s that Virginia and Maryland laws refer directly to slavery. As tobacco planting spread and the demand for labor increased, the condition of black and white servants diverged sharply. The Virginia élite sought to improve the status of white servants, hoping the reverse the impression in England that Virginia was a “death trap” while access to freedom for blacks continue to decrease. Moreover, the authorities of Virginia sought to prevent the growth of the free black population by defining all offspring of interracial relationships illegitimate, severely punishing white women who begat children with black men. According to Virginia Slave Law of 1662, “…that if any Christian shall commit fornication with a negro man or woman, he or she so offending shall pay double the fines imposed by the former act”. Moving forward to 1675, Nathaniel Bacon developed plans to seize Native American lands to gain more property for himself and others and prevent the threat of Indian raids. When the planter elite in Virginia refused to provide militia support for his scheme, Bacon retaliated, leading an attack on the elite,