ipl-logo

Origins Of American Slavery Summary

1102 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Transatlantic slave trade

Kayla Wobschall
September 16, 2014
Professor John Master
HIST 121-02: Prompt 1

Economic and Racist Incentives in the Enslavement of Africans Although there were economic and racist intentions in the foundation of American slavery, Betty Wood provides more background and information that supports the economic motive. In her book, The Origins of American Slavery, she certainly declares plenty of evidence for both arguments, and attributes slavery to a combination of these issues. However, the majority of the history presented suggests an economic rationale. The landowners had selfish but purely economic intentions to use the workers to produce sugar. They wanted workers to benefit their businesses and didn’t care who was doing the labor. …show more content…

(32) The story of Adam and Eve is a main reference for many Europeans, because many believed that Adam and Eve were white, like them. This created an attitude that fair-skinned people were superior. This raised a question of why the Africans were black. They thought that the black skin signified sin, and that Africans were descendants of Ham, a biblical man who defied his father and became an eternal slave. (23) These ideas were more social than racist, because at the time they didn’t understand that people looked differently all around the world. These ideas became a reason that landowners treated their slaves so poorly, and made slavery acceptable. The natives were spared this treatment, because they were thought to be tribal people of Israel. The English thought that the Native Americans simply missed the important process of “civilizing” Europe, “and particularly the Christianizing, of Western Europe.” (33) The Native Americans benefitted from this biblical explanation, because for the most part, they could keep their freedom and their land. The English thought that they needed to be civilized, but they didn’t think that their skin color had to do with sin. The Africans however, were treated like they had sinned. The Europeans used this as a reason to treat them really poorly and to keep slavery around for years. Although racism wasn’t the cause for the enslavement of Africans, it was a reason to keep them from being freed. Some racial ideas contributed to the original enslavement, but more encouraged the economic motives to be achieved by enslaving

Show More
Related
579 Words | 3 Pages

Both the Europeans and the Indians had their own land and way of live. The Indians were people that lived off the land with less labor. In order for the colonists to be taken serious and to cut down the amount of labor they were doing, they would begin to buy and sell black slaves. This wasn't challenging for them to do because the blacks were in a foreign area, and they were

Read More
270 Words | 2 Pages

Although Europeans did bring slavery to North America, Europeans were not born with race-based slavery ideas. This was brought upon them when the economic structure changed. In class, we learned that around the 1600’s, people could move up or down the social ladder depending on how wealthy they were, it would determine their status. Around the 1700’s, success was based upon the color of your skin. For example, due to manumission

Read More
1388 Words | 6 Pages

The use of slaves has always been present in the world since the beginning of civilization, although the use and treatment of those slaves has differed widely through time and geographic location. Different geographies call for different types of work ranging from labor-intensive sugar cultivation and production in the tropics to household help in less agriculturally intensive areas. In addition to time and space, the mindsets and beliefs of the people in those areas affect how the slaves will be treated and how “human” those slaves will be perceived to be. In the Early Modern Era, the two main locations where slaves were used most extensively were the European dominated Americas and the Muslim Empires. The American slavery system and the

Read More
216 Words | 1 Pages

The ideas that the Europeans expressed and shared about both the Africans and Native Americans offered them an excuse to treat them less than human. The European's viewed themselfs as superior beings because they claimed to be civilized while purporting that the Native Americans and Africans were uncivilized savages.(10) The Europeans ability to negate the shame of enslaving the Africans and Native Americans were based on the principle that they were no better than live stock. These views perpetuated themselfs throughout European slave masters by teaching younger generations.

Read More
928 Words | 4 Pages

In the Americas, the main exports were silver and cash crops, both of which required work that was terribly tedious and exhausting. This led to the overwhelming predominance of slavery in the Americas, since the Europeans were not willing to carry out the hard work themselves. When the Europeans found they lacked a workforce, the sought slaves elsewhere. While the people who were called slaves changed, the institution never did. The same mistreatment, torture, and horrible conditions were evident in American slavery until it was abolished centuries later.

Read More
494 Words | 2 Pages

“Why were Africans Enslaved?” Two authors by the name of Eric Williams and Winthrop D. Jordan gave us their opinions on basically what caused slavery in the article titled, “Why were Africans Enslaved”. In Williams article “Economics, not racism as the root of slavery” he explained that economics was the root cause of slavery. “Slavery was not born of racism: rather, racism was the consequence of slavery...” the beginning quote stated by Mr. Williams.

Read More
439 Words | 2 Pages

The North and South American settlers viewed the Native population with the same relationship goal in mind; to enslave them and earn riches and glory along the way. The North American settlers didn't come from Europe with friendly intentions, rather to become more wealthy and powerful. They wanted more land as well, to add to their resources. “The settlers has appeared on the scene with two objectives in mind with regards to the Indians: secure their land and convert them to Christianity.”

Read More
628 Words | 3 Pages

Atlantic slavery was different from other slaveries in the past due to its commercial nature and its dependence on a singular race of slaves(Morgan, 41-42). Its commercial nature, since the labour was used solely to maintain the world economy, lead to slave owners to dehumanize their slaves. They wanted to maximize their profits, so they beat, brutalized, and dehumanized their slave to get the maximum amount of work from them. Since it only used African slaves, this dehumanization spread outside of the plantation and lead the entire populace to dehumanize Africans. The commercial nature of Atlantic slavery was compounded at the advent of the cotton industry.

Read More
319 Words | 2 Pages

It was interesting to learn that race was not an immediate issue in the colonies until the intense need for labor came into play. It’s amazing how the people who first came to America as Christians who were seeking freedom of religion and freedom from poverty were so quick to turn on members of another race to better their lifestyles. It seems strange that Whites felt differently about Native Americans in the beginning than they did African Americans. I guess the difference would be that when Europeans first settled here they needed help learning the lay of the land and realized that cooperation with the Natives allowed for better success in their adventures. This allowed them to rationalize the idea that Natives were practically White and

Read More
1754 Words | 8 Pages

The treatment of African Americans and Native Americans in the 1800s was significantly different from each other. Despite both groups facing oppression, slavery, and discrimination, their experiences varied greatly. While Some might argue that African Americans deserved it and that Native Americans didn't rightfully own the land now known as the US. African and Native Americans were treated very poorly because of the difference in race, beliefs, and the wanting to claim discoveries that have already been found. The colonists feared an alliance between African and Native Americans if they realized that their real enemy was the English, who took native land and forced Africans to work it.

Read More
1000 Words | 4 Pages

Slavery was different for America then it was for the rest of the world. For the rest of the world, it wasn’t a race thing they just enslaved the people that they had conquered. They did not care what the color of their skin was it was just about the need for labor. In the article “New of New World Slavery” it explains how slavery was different in America than in Europe. “Slavery in the classical and the early medieval worlds was not based on racial distinctions”.

Read More
660 Words | 3 Pages

This quotation is an excellent example of how european colonists, or at least Spanish colonist, did not want to exterminate natives. As for other european colonists they may have intentionally killed natives, but it was all for the sake of expanding their empire, and their killing were not based in racism or prejudice against natives. In fact, most of the natives were given a choice to assimilate into european

Read More
1163 Words | 5 Pages

They saw the Native Americans as problematic because of their culture, not because of their skin. While subtle, this key difference makes all of the difference. They saw the Native Americans as redeemable individuals that could be “cured” of their barbarism by adopting American customs as their own. It was seen as America’s mission to ensure that all of its citizens participate in institutions much like the white reformers did, as well as being guaranteed all the same rights and responsibilities that every other citizen of the United States was given. If it were really out of racist self-interest, these white reformers, who wrote about the education policies they wanted to implement, wouldn’t have written the way they did.

Read More
502 Words | 3 Pages

All discrimination, racism, and stereotyping against the Native Americans, was bound to happen the day Columbus landed in the Caribbean; after that it just went downhill. The English and French colonists joined the Spanish, and their colonization of the north-west was what led to the plight of the native population. Then the treaties started rolling over the native peoples, which at first seemed like good agreements, but then the treaties began to be violated. Some of the worst violations were made against the Cherokee Nation.

Read More
1933 Words | 8 Pages

The volatile institution of slavery saw the systematic oppression of those with melanin in their skin. This system raped those of a darker hue of their culture, history, and ultimately their humanity. The victims of this legal institution were viewed no more than chattel; a piece of property in which authoratative ownership was held by someone of European descent. Although this is how the system of slavery is generally percieved, one must take into account that within the system of slavery, slave treatment varied greatly from plantation to plantation, and from slave to slave. And though an inferiortiy complex to whites—exclding white trash—manifested itself in many slaves, not all were submissive to the will of the legal institution of

Read More

More about Origins Of American Slavery Summary

Related Topics

Open Document