Chesapeake In The Seventeenth Century

Cole Dutko
History 152B
Professor Nash
2/09/17
Seventeenth Century Chesapeake The foundation of liberty in the Chesapeake region in the seventeenth century was a gruesome battle for African Americans to achieve and maintain their freedom. They had to suffer through intensive years of being servants and slaves in hopes of owning their own land and property freely. However, this did not come easy due to the selfishness of white landowners who were not eager to hold up their end of the bargain. Through this, the foundation of liberty in the seventeenth century, Chesapeake region, was based on the property of land, slaves, and livestock shifting towards a white supremacist nation allowing for African Americans and as well as other ethnicities
“In 1652 a group of planters disgruntled about high colonial taxes and poor communications with the Virginia government described the ‘Countie of Northampton as disjointed and sequestered from the rest of Virginia’” (T.H. Breen, “Myne owne ground”). The separation from Jamestown and the rest of Virginia allowed the people in the Chesapeake counties to create their own government and guidelines. The population of the Northampton planters composed of, “…the lesser gentry of many western European nations. They were perhaps a bit poorer and less polished than were their counterparts in England and France” (T.H. Breen, “Myne owne ground”). Without a population of ruling elite, it caused many planters to make bargains or deals with the servants to gain their freedom. “Of course, a rich Englishman stood a better chance of entering the county’s ruling elite than did an Angolan slave, but to depict Northampton society solely in terms of class or race would be misleading” (T.H. Breen, “Myne owne ground”). This would lead to African Americans, like Anthony Johnson, the ability to be free at
Reynolds says, “Indentured servitude got Virginia and Maryland going but, as wages rose in New England after the end of the civil wars, the supply tailed off. So, the planters made a fateful decision, turning from white servitude to black slavery” (Reynolds, America, Empire of Liberty). At this point, the views of African Americans shifted, forcing African Americans to lose their land and property. What caused this change in views was economic status. “…economic status rather than racial identity seems to have been the chief factor in determining how blacks and whites deal with one another” (T.H. Breen, “Myne owne ground”). Whites wanted to take away their rights in order to take over their land and other properties they may have earned. To take away their rights they implemented laws. For example, in 1691 a law was created that stated, “For the prevention of that abominable mixture and spurious issue which hereafter may increase in this dominion, as well by negroes, mulattoes, and Indians intermarrying with English, or other white women, as by their unlawful accompanying with one another…” (Lanham, Virginia Codes Regulating Servitude and Slavery, 1642-1705). This law prevented anyone of color to marry any white or English man or woman. Laws like these stripped any hope for freedom that people of color strived for. “By the 1670s it would have been nearly