HIST 405 Week 1 Discussion: The Cost of Expansion

This week’s discussion requires us to deal with the difficult topic of the growth of slavery in the colonies. The development of large scale agriculture and the transition from indentured servants to slavery forever changed the path of the nation. According to the “Slavery in America” website, 6 to 7 million African slaves were imported in the eighteenth century alone. (Slavery in America)
As you interact with your classmates this week, consider not only the factors that led to the development of slavery but also the human consequences for both slaves and free people.

Please remember to use at least one outside source and cite in APA format.

Works Cited:

“Slavery in America,” Retrieved from https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery.

Slavery was more than a labor system; it influenced every aspect of colonial thought and culture .In America, after colonization initiated to become more stable and their citizens started tobacco farming, after starting that farming few months later they believed that the tobacco leaves were hard to maintain and same time they noted farmers needs to be participated more for more profit in farming, which led them to investing on indentured servants. African slavery provided white in the colonies with a shared racial bond and Identity (Dahlberg, Sandra L). Slavery had been accepted European practice long before the exploration of New World. When the Portuguese Slave traders began to buy slaves for export to the new World colonies. The European demand for New World cash crops, especially sugar, tobacco, rice, and cotton, led to a demand for labor to cultivate these crops. The Africans were well suited to tropical climates, they also brought special skills and knowledge for crops such as rice, which the British found useful. Slavery and the African slave trade quickly became a building block of the colonial economy and an integral part of expanding and developing in the British commerce empire in the Atlantic world. Ships departed Europe for African markets with manufactured goods which were traded for purchased or kidnapped Africans. These Africans were transported across the Atlantic as slaves and were then sold or traded for raw materials (Wickremasinghe, Nira, and Alicia Schrikker).

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Virginia was the first British colony to legally establish slavery in 1661.The vast majority of slaves shipped across the Atlantic were sent to the Caribbean sugar colonies, Brazil or Spanish America. In the Caribbean, tropical diseases took a large toll on the population. Africans had limited natural immunity to yellow fever and malaria, however, malnutrition, poor housing, inadequate clothing allowances, and overwork contributed to huge mortality rate which further increased the demand for the importation of African replenish the labor supply (Wickramasinghe, Nira, and Alicia Schrikker).

The African slaves labor played important role for the financial life for British North America. American slaves never successfully overthrew the system of slavery in the colonies and would not gain freedom until legislative decree made after the United States Civil War.

Slaves are sold by African kings and can be gathered from people who were captured from war or were imprisoned. unliked indentured servants, slaves had fewer / no rights. Indentured servants had more rights than slaves and were still free by law. Indentured servants differ because they can be granted freedom after a specified period of time, the servants services, can be exchange for food, lodging, clothing, transportation, and other amenities during the indentured years. Once obligation has been completed, the servant can once again have the chance for a more liberal life. (Dahlberg, Sandra L). Some servants will even receive a monetary incentive known as “freedom dues” upon completion of their service. They are now regarded as free members of the society. They are entitled with the right to own real state or Properties. Slaves are not given freedom even after many years of hard work. Therefore, slaves for as long as they live as such, they were literally become the property of their master and have no rights.

References

Dahlberg, Sandra L. “‘Doe Not Forget Me’: Richard Frethorne, Indentured Servitude, and the English Poor Law of 1601.” Early American Literature, University of North Carolina Press, 1 Jan. 2012, www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-286718515/doe-not-forget-me-richard-frethorne-indenturedLinks to an external site..

Wickramasinghe, Nira, and Alicia Schrikker. “The Ambivalence of Freedom: Slaves in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: The Journal of Asian Studies.” Cambridge Core, Cambridge University Press, 20 June 2019, www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-asian-studies/article/ambivalence-of-freedom-slaves-in-jaffna-sri-lanka-in-the-eighteenth-and-nineteenth-centuries/0DA019FA2028635360498C72E37FDE21.

Manage Discussion Entry

For these week’s post I selected to analyze the Chesapeake and New England colonization of America.

A review of the assigned reading shows two different groups, venturing across the sea for both similar and different reasons. Currently, in England the population was growing, people were hungry and there were inflated stories of riches of gold, land, and food in the new land. People were encouraged to seek out new territory.

The Chesapeake Bay colony founded by young men seeking a fortune and coming with them, just a few women. They found tobacco and began to cultivate this cash crop and found it very lucrative. However, they were lacking manpower to keep up with the tobacco harvest.

Also, they did not have a good relationship with the natives and were often battling them for territory and resources. Without the help of England, that sent over supplies, the possibility of widespread starvation loomed.

The New England colony members left England for a different reason. They were seeking refuge from the Church of England. Wood (1999) described how the puritans felt the church of England was “too catholic.” Pp.28 They were known as the Puritans and wanted stricter rules and censorship. They were able to set up a successful community as it was comprised of families, including the wives and children, whom they felt it was their duty to start work as soon as possible. They also sought out a peaceful coexistence with the natives and worked to bring them over to Christianity.

Wood, T.L, (1999) “A Church still by her first Covenant”: George Phillips and a Puritan View of Roman Catholicism, The New England Quarterly (3)72 pg. 28-41

Open Stax (2019). U.S. history.

https://cnx.org/contents/p7ovulkl@6.18:gMXC1GEM@7/IntroductionLinks to an external site.

I also compared the Chesapeake Bay and New England colonies. I think its interesting how two different groups who came to a new land for different reasons both ended up abusing their power over the native population in order to gain more land and wealth for themselves. Even though the Puritans originally established an alliance with one of the tribes they later turned on them when their leader tried to stop the puritans from taking over more land. It makes you wonder how different things would have been if the colonists had formed solid alliances with the Native Americans instead of fighting them.

The New England Colonies. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.ushistory.org/us/3.asp

U.S. History. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://openstax.org/books/us-history/pages/3-3-english-settlements-in-americaLinks to an external site.

It was interesting to see the two different groups set off from England for two different reasons: religious freedom and riches and then see how they both treated the native Americans the same.

The Puritans were interested in peace with the native population until they decided they needed more resources and territory. Then it became okay to a launch a massacre against them.

I do wonder what would have happened if they considered peaceful coexistence as well.

U.S History (n.d) Retrieved from https://openstax.org/books/us-history/Links to an external site.