Download presentation
Presentation is loading. Please wait.
Published byLenard Myles Pope Modified over 8 years ago
1
Aristocrats, Servants and Slaves The Founding of the Virginia Colony and the Great Paradox of American Slavery
2
I. Motive behind English colonization Like the Spanish - wanted gold and/or land Like the French - pursued “extractive” industries BUT English had no use for the Native Americans Need for labor led to introduction of slavery
3
The Great Paradox... The English will pursue genocide and slavery… They will also introduce Liberalism and a culture of independence
4
A. Economic opportunity and crisis 1. Richard Hakluyt (1557-1618) “godfather” of British mercantilism 2. Enclosure movement (Price Revolution) - social dislocation
5
3. How to deal with these problems? Colonies! - soak up excess people (Thomas Malthus) - provide natural resources - provide markets
6
B. Two impediments 1. Financing - poor, cheap, pre-occupied 2. Finding settlers
7
II. How to start a colony Finance & Labor
8
A. Financing 1. Joint stock company Virginia Company, 1606-24 2. Public/private stock 3. Compulsory labor
9
B. Labor 1. Lie like a dog “new Eden” settlers promised that they could return
10
2. Indentured servitude 3. Virtual slavery Conflict: lure of wealth v. need for labor [individual v. communal good]
11
C. Near Disaster 1. Investors want quick profits John Smith 2. Conflict with Indians Wahunsonacock (Powhatan) 1609-10, “the Starving Time”
12
3. Bad geography
13
III. Privatization - there must be incentive to save the colony - combine individualism w/ deferred rewards
14
A. Colonial reorganization 1. 1619 - George Yeardley - distributed land for cash crops and food 2. Unequal distribution Headright System *characteristic of southern colonies
15
3. House of Burgesses - unequal representation - planter supremacy 4. Indentured servants - eventual freedom, bounties, land - frontiersmen [Scots-Irish] 5. 1619 - African slaves
16
IV. Origins of Race Slavery
17
A. Class distinction 1. Prior to 1676, little difference between black & white laborers - socialized w/ each other - coerced by planters
18
B. Virginia on the edge 1. 1622 Indian War 2. Working conditions create scandal in England James I Royal Colony, 1624
19
C. Why Africans? 1. Traditional: blacks inferior to whites (just rationalization) 2. Real reasons - economic - owned for life - children (compare w/ Mestizo culture) - easier to exploit / distinguish
20
D. Aristocracy of labor 1. Institutional racism (Jamestown) - 1630s black “servants” willed to family - 1639 no “Negroes” allowed to own guns - 1662 lifetime “slavery” first mentioned in law - 1667 baptism will not bring freedom - 1670 blacks/Indians cannot own white I/Ss - 1680 blacks cannot congregate in large numbers - 1691 no mixed-race marriage; separate trials no free “Negroes or Mulattos” in the colony
21
E. Bacon’s Rebellion, 1676 1. Tidewater v. Backcountry Nathaniel Bacon William Berkeley
22
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!!!
23
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)
Similar presentations
© 2025 SlidePlayer.com. Inc.
All rights reserved.