THE ORIGINS OF LIBERTY AND THE FIRST ENGLISH SETTLERS ARISTOCRATS, SERVANTS AND SLAVES

THE GREAT PARADOX OF AMERICAN SLAVERY “How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty from the drivers of Negroes?” - Dr. Samuel Johnson

1.) How can “Liberty” and slavery evolve together? 2.) How and why did Americans invent “race”? 3.) Is the U.S. built on a paradox? *critical race theory = is racial categorization an anomaly, or is it integral to American identity?

I. COMING TO AMERICA A. “Mercantilism” - provide natural resources - provide markets - absorb excess people Richard Hakluyt

B. Impediments 1. Financing - poor, cheap, pre-occupied 2. Labor

II. JAMESTOWN

A. FINANCING 1.Joint stock company - Virginia Company public/private stock - compulsory labor

B. LABOR 1.The New Eden - promise of return 2.Indentured Servitude

C. NEAR DISASTER 1.Investors want quick profits John Smith 2. Conflict with Indians Wahunsonacock (Chief Powhatan)

3. Bad geography “the Starving Time” 60/500

III. ORIGINS OF RACE SLAVERY

A. PRIVATIZATION / REORGANIZATION 1. George Yeardley distributed land for cash crops and food - Headright System - combine individualism w/ deferred rewards

2. House of Burgesses - unequal representation - planter supremacy Tidewater Aristocracy *characteristic of southern colonies

3. Social tensions - class conflict What ensured “liberty” for the poor? Scots-Irish The “backcountry”

IV. VIRGINIA ON THE EDGE A Indian War 1. Opechancanough Waterhouse Declaration 1622

2. Political scandal - James I “Divine Right” Royal Colony 1624

A. WHY AFRICANS? 1. Availability - West African Slave Trade 2. Distinction - easy to isolate

3. Were the English “racist”? I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs. - Othello Historiography

s, little difference between black & white laborers - socialized w/ each other - coerced by planters So why does “race” enter the picture? The Case of Katherine Watkins…

B. BACON’S REBELLION Tidewater v. Backcountry Nathaniel Bacon William Berkeley

C. RACIAL HIERARCHY 1. Laws from Jamestown s black “servants” willed to family no “Negroes” allowed to own guns lifetime “slavery” first mentioned in law baptism will not bring freedom blacks/Indians cannot own white I/Ss blacks cannot congregate in large numbers no mixed-race marriage; separate trials no free “Negroes or Mulattos” in the colony

2. Last major white / black cooperation (1880s) * Southern society divided by race as well as class * White skin would come to mean better treatment * Racial caste system (racism) invented to preserve economic hierarchy IDEOLOGY OUTLASTS INSTITUTION

GREAT PARADOX OF AMERICAN SLAVERY Liberty (for whites) dependent on slavery Leaders of Independence movement from planter class Vested interest in this system (Civil War)