Part 1: How and why did English colonial authorities in Virginia come to legally define and treat African people as property by the late 1600s?
Slavery refers to the system in which slaveowners own slaves. Slaves regarded as property whose class is like livestock. Human beings dominated by slave owners have no personality and Freedom or rights of their own and can be bought and sold. Under the control of slave owners, the fate of slaves is tragic. One of the features of slavery in the United States is that the slaves are African American. When Africans were first brought to Virginia in 1619, their status was “ambiguous” which means their status in this colony was not yet defined formally by laws. However, because of the profit-oriented origins and economic development of Virginia colony over time, the enactment of Virginia Slave Law, and the event of Bacon’s Rebellion which are prompt the English colonial authorities in Virginia, come to legally define and treat African people as property by the late 1600s.
The profit-oriented origins and economic development of the Virginia colony over time, are prompt the English colonial authorities in Virginia come to legally define and treat African people as property by the late 1600s. The first permanent English settlement in North America was Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. It was a business venture by the Virginia Company of London, a British company that planned to make money by sending men to America in search of gold and other valuable natural resources and then shipping them back to Britain. At first, the colony lacked leadership and profitable enterprise, leading to hunger and the colony’s near failure. To lure the English to the colony, the company devised a series of changes that would help the colony. The company’s monopoly on land was weakened, allowing the colonists to acquire land for themselves. Britain introduced the common law and eventually allowed a degree of autonomy. At this time, more women and families began to come to Virginia. However, there was no gold can find in the Jamestown colony, but John Rolfe succeeded in crossing the local tobacco variety with west Indian tobacco. Tobacco soon became Virginia’s primary cash crop and a valuable source of wealth. From the Textbook “US History “the author shows people that “Growing tobacco proved very labor-intensive, and the Chesapeake colonists needed a steady workforce to do the hard work of clearing the land and caring for the tender young plants. The mature leaf of the plant then had to be cured (dried), which necessitated the construction of drying barns.
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Once cured, the tobacco had to be packaged in hogsheads (large wooden barrels) and loaded aboard ship, which also required considerable labor” (Corbett 75). Tobacco farming is labor-intensive, which require much labor to work for them. Men called indentured servants were sent from England to work for the Virginia company. Indentured servants worked for landowners in exchange for money to travel to the new world, hoping eventually to get their land. More tobacco cultivation requires more indentured servants. Tensions began to rise because of the continuing need to provide land for the newly released indentured servants. Then, the African slaves were introduced to the Virginia colony in 1619. According to the article ‘ The Root of the Problem,’ the author said that, ‘ By the 1660s, the labor equation changed: increased supplies made it cheaper to buy African slaves than white indentures, and the former was also considered less rebellious.” (Patterson 1). Because African slaves are cheaper and more obedient. Eventually, planters began to rely on African slaves as are a valuable and renewable source of labor. As a result, Virginia’s colonial economy was highly dependent on slavery.
Furthermore, the enactment of Virginia Slave Law which are prompt the English colonial authorities in Virginia come to legally define and treat African people as property. From the article “ The Root of the Problem” the author state that, “as the black population grew and increasingly became the labor force of elite whites, both altitudes and laws changed by 1662 the children of all salve women were declared slaves in perpetuity. And by 1669 a master could legitimately kill his slave while inflicting punishment” (Patterson 1)., slavery hereditary and killing a slave which are legal define African slave as property and not people. The law was devised to establish a greater level of control over the rising African slave population of Virginia.
Finally, the event of Bacon’s Rebellion which is prompt the English colonial authorities in Virginia come to legally define and treat African people as property by the late 1600s. The Virginia Company established a legislative assembly, like the English parliament, called the house of Burgesses. The House of Burgesses was the first European-style legislature in the new world. These representatives were appointed by the company’s managers and elected by men who owned land in Virginia. The laws made had to be approved by the governor and the London board, but this was the first self-government of the colony. However, all colonists did not own land and therefore lacked representation. The poor were held to low status and did not get much representation and say in what happened in the establishment. The taxes that were being put into to place were not benefiting them in any way. Therefore, in 1676, Nathaniel Bacon led a rebellion demanding stricter action against the Indians in retaliation for their attacks on outlier settlements. Bacon’s Rebellion is an uprising of both whites and blacks. Bacon’s rebellion was suppressed;
However, the influence of the rebellion further weakened the contract system and strengthened its dependence on slavery. According to the textbook “US History,’ the author told people that,” Bacon’s Rebellion helped to catalyze the creation of a system of racial slavery in the Chesapeake colonies” (Corbett 79). Unity of the commoners was a perceived fear of the Virginia aristocracy, which had to be addressed, and who wished to prevent a repeat of events such as Bacon’s Rebellion. Hence, the elites feared the rising alliances of white servants and slaves, and they actively promoted a mass democracy of racism and segregation to divide and dominate black and white workers. By glamorizing whites and confining voters to them, a bond of racial solidarity emerged among all white classes, based on the permanent exclusion of blacks. On the textbook “US History,’ the author state that, “Virginia passed a law in 1680 prohibiting free blacks and slaves from bearing arms, banning blacks from congregating in large numbers, and establishing harsh punishments for slaves who assaulted Christians or attempted escape. Two years later, another Virginia law stipulated that all Africans brought to the colony would be slaves for life” (Corbett 79). The laws further established the African’s status as a slave and kept them to serve their master for life. By restricting the slave to possession of weapons. Then, make African people could not resist, and slaveowners could control them better.
Because of the profit-oriented origins and economic development of Virginia colony over time, the enactment of Virginia Slave Law, and the event of Bacon’s Rebellion which are prompt the English colonial authorities in Virginia come to legally define and treat African people as property by the late 1600s. So, the history of African Americans is an important part of American history. This is the true history of the United States, which should be known to the next generations, Hence, People cannot delete it.
Part 2 Why do we call the uncritical celebration of Thanksgiving a myth?
According to legend, in 1620, The pilgrims who from English were Separatists, their purpose is to escape religious persecution, and separate from the church. They sail to the New World and land on Plymouth of Massachusetts, where they struggle to learn how to survive on land that’s different from the one, they left. With the help of Native Americans. Such as, Tisquantum who was a member of the Patuxet and as an interpreter between Pilgrims and Wampanoag tribe, the pilgrims learned to grow corn, hunt and fish. So, they can survive in the new world. During the harvest celebration of the next year, the English settlers invited the Indians to join them in thanking god. According to legend, the first feast lasted three days, and the pilgrims and Indians shared the food after the harvest. However, Thanksgiving’ did not begin as a peaceful, friendly relationship between the pilgrims and the Pequot, Wampanoag and Narragansett people. According to the textbook ‘US History’, the Pilgrims first migrated to the Dutch Republic seeking religious freedom. They feared another attack on the Dutch Republic by Catholic Spain. Therefore, in 1620, they moved on to find the Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts. Puritans who were non-separating, their purpose is to escape religious persecution and wanted to ‘purify’ church. When they established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s, the Pilgrims at Plymouth welcomed them, and the two colonies cooperated. When the Puritans began to arrive in the 1620s and 1630s, local Algonquian peoples had seen them as potential allies, as a conflict between rival groups in the region was brewing. In 1621, the Wampanoag, led by Massasoit, signed a peace treaty with the Pilgrims at Plymouth.
In the 1630s, the Puritans in Massachusetts and Plymouth joined forces with the Narragansett and Mohegan people against the Pequot, who had recently expanded their claims into southern New England. Tensions between the puritans and the native Americans who controlled southern New England existed from the beginning and worsened. As the puritans continued to aggressively expand their settlements, which increasingly disturbed the native Americans’ life. These strains led to King Philip’s War (1675–1676), a massive regional conflict that was nearly successful in pushing the English out of New England.
Roger Williams is a person claimed Puritans not pure because they would not separate from the polluted Church of England. He questioned the Puritans’ taking of Indian land. Williams also argued government officials should confine themselves to civil affairs and not interfere with religious matters. Puritan authorities found him guilty of spreading dangerous ideas, but he went on to found Rhode Island as a colony that sheltered dissenting Puritans from their brethren in Massachusetts. In May 1637, the Puritans attacked a large group of several hundred Pequot along the Mystic River in Connecticut. To the horror of their native allies, the Puritans slaughtered everyone they found. By the middle of the seventeenth century, the Puritans had reached deep into the interior of New England. There seemed to be no end to their expansion. Wampanoag leader Metacom or Metacomet, also known as King Philip among the English, was determined to stop the encroachment. The Wampanoag, along with the Pocumtuck, Narragansett, and Nipmuck, took up the hatchet to drive the English out of the land. From history, people know that the relationship between the colonists and the Indians is not peaceful and friendly. Therefore, Thanksgiving just a myth.
