How Did Colonial American Culture Affect Society
In the beginning of the 1600s, the culture of the English colonies negatively reflected one of the largest forced migration that would significantly affect the society and history for centuries. During the early 1600s, European servants would work along the side of African servants. However by the end of the century, workers would be separated by skin color and millions of Africans would be taken away from their homeland and experience a nightmare of inhumanity, and this was known as the Terrible Transformation.
The origins of slavery began when the Spanish were in need of workers to grow crops and dig for gold in the Caribbean Islands during the era of Columbus. To fulfill their need in human labor, they began to bring in Africans to work for them. Moreover, the Spanish needed more workers due to the discovery of more mines; therefore, a contract called the asiento was created. This allowed over 220,000 African slaves to be imported to the Spanish colonies as slaves during a span of 50 years. Because of these events, it inspired other countries to take part in using Africans for labor. For instance, enslaved Africans were working on sugar …show more content…
plantations for the Portuguese and producing molasses for the Dutch. Overall, 90% of the African slaves were sent to the Caribbean and South America, whereas 6% of them were brought to British North America.
In Virginia and Maryland, new laws were created towards enslaved Africans that prevented them from having their own rights. For example, slaves were no longer able to accuse or make a deposition against a white person in court. Also, they were not allowed to learn how to read, write, or receive any form of education. Laws like these made it very difficult for slaves to fight for themselves. Unfortunately, slavery became hereditary- therefore, the children of African slaves would automatically be enslaved. Even if slaves obtained Christianity, they still could no longer receive freedom. These kind of laws made it clear that slaves and their offspring had no rights and no choice but to work for life, whereas servants of any other color could work for a certain amount of time and get help in return.
As the need for inexpensive labor skyrocketed in the English colonies, the transatlantic slave trade offered a substantial amount of workers that consisted of enslaved Africans, indentured Europeans, and captured Native Americans. However, African slaves became the dominant choice of labor later on in the early 1700s. During the Atlantic slave trade, over 12 million African slaves were brought to the Americas, however only 10 million of those slaves would actually survive the travel due to the poor conditions they experienced on the ships. For instance, the middle passage (or the atlantic passage) was known for overly packing slaves into the ships where they would face a lot of pain and form blisters from laying down for a long period of time. Also, they were so compacted that they didn’t have the ability to move, urinate or poop in private. All in all, enslaved Africans would be taken away from their homeland to go through traumatic travels just to arrive in the Americas where they would work for free and get treated inhumanely. The relationship between enslaved Africans and colonists was very unfortunate. Because of colonists, Africans were deprived from having legal rights, a family, and freedom.
With all the hardships that enslaved Africans had to encounter- came along a turning point where they started to rebel. In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon, a Virginia planter, led a rebellion against Governor William Berkeley and Native Americans. Reasons for the rebellion were based on economical and personal problems. For instance, tax prices increased, tobacco prices decreased, servants or slaves were not being treated fairly for the hard work they were accomplishing, and they were not getting enough representation. Followers of Bacon consisted of enslaved Africans, European indentured servants, free men, and farmers hoping to own land. Together, they chose to raid Native American villages and kill men, children, and women for the economical issues they were affected by. Governor Berkeley was strongly against the actions of Bacon and his followers- however, Bacon continued to rebel and marched to Virginia, Jamestown, and burned down everything. An event like this is significant because of how enslaved Africans, European indentured servants, and free men took a stand for what they believed in and what they deserved. Not only did slaves face harsh working conditions, they also faced severe punishment. Slaves of white families often escaped to leave behind their ‘masters’ and have a chance at freedom. However most of the time, they would get caught. Moses Roper, a biracial slave, wrote a narrative on his life as a slave. In his story, he ran away from his ‘master’ multiple times, and in response- he would get whipped, burned, and beat as his consequences. Although Roper would always get caught, he refused to give up on the hopes of being free. For slaves that would successfully escape, an “underground railroad” was created, which helped about 40 to 100,000 slaves find their way to freedom. Unfortunately, it was not until later on slaves experienced freedom. In spite of the fact that enslaved Africans and European indentured servants worked equally at one point, there came a time where indentured servants started to get treated better than slaves. Servants and slaves were somehow similar by how they worked for others, but indentured servants would receive something useful in return. In 1607, European indentured servants arrived in Jamestown, Virginia- where they started their labor on tobacco crops. Indentured servants worked for a fixed period of time in exchange for help once their labor is done. The contract, called an indenture, is what indicated the time period of labor between the planter and servant. During the contract, they would have access to food, shelter, and clothes. Also once their labor was completed, they would have the opportunity to live independently and have their own landowning in exchange. Planters often seeked for indentured servants so that an additional 50 acres would be added to their land. This quickly became an issue to indentured servants due to the fact that they had a high rate of death; therefore, most of them would not live long enough to finish their contract and have their own land. The relationship indentured servants had with colonists was slightly similar to enslaved Africans by how they were not allowed to get married or have children.
However, servants had the chance to get permission from their masters if they wanted to. Also, they were allowed to sue their masters if they felt mistreated. Indentured servants were also punished for their wrongdoings- such as running away or breaking the law. In most cases, time was added to their contracts as a form of punishment. The conditions that indentured servants faced were often so harsh and unhealthy that they would die from it. Eventually, indentured servants stood up for their worth and resisted by assembling rebellions and escaping from their masters. To add on, indentured servants participated with Bacon’s Rebellion as another form of
resistance. After learning about European indentured servants and enslaved Africans, it’s obvious that race is socially constructed. Although human beings are physically no different from each other, society has chosen to differentiate people by the color of their skin, languages, and cultures. Because of social constructivism, racial hierarchies were easily formed during the Colonial Era. Unfortunately, society chose to rank people by the pigment of their skin- by classifying that lighter skin tones are better than dark skin tones. Social constructs like these played a big role in slavery for Africans. However, racial hierarchies was not the only problem in society; social stratification also played a big part in not only affecting Africans, but also white people. Social stratification is what separated people by their wealth, social status or power, job, and income. This played a big part in affecting the whole society, not just Africans. Social stratification was maintained because of resource extraction, labor exploitation, and the transatlantic trade. These contributed to social stratification by how they forcefully take people from their homeland to work on resources the society needs. If the need for labor on resources never existed, servants and slaves would not have been thought of as the lower working class. Overall, conditions like these maintained social stratification by keeping the cycle going. People that were too poor to take care of themselves chose to put themselves in a slightly better position by working for others to have a shelter and food. This cycle is what kept social stratification alive. After hearing about European indentured servants and enslaved Africans, it’s understood that there are minor similarities and major differences. To start off, they are both similar in how they were used as a source of inexpensive labor. They arrived in Jamestown with the same laws and same rules. As of punishments, they both got punished for escaping or disobeying the law. In 1676, servants and slaves stood up for themselves and argued against economical issues and participated in Bacon’s rebellion where they had a riot in the villages of Native Americans and in Jamestown, Virginia. Unfortunately, there came a time where Africans had different laws than European servants. Although they were both not allowed to have their own families- servants had the possibility of getting permission from their masters. Also, slave laws made it impossible for Africans to fight in court- and if they attempted to do so they would get punished. Whereas servants could easily file complaints if they felt mistreated. Unfortunately, African slaves were no longer compensated for their efforts in labor. Servants had contracts that gave them shelter and food as long as they worked for a period of time. In contrast, slaves were forced to work for free and faced harsh working conditions while doing so. Overall, social constructs, social stratifications, and the need for labor is what led to racial hierarchies. If occupation, power, and wealth were not cared for- the need for ‘low class’ workers would have not existed. However, since it was very much needed to others, it led to the terrible transformation that divided enslaved Africans and servants from everyone else.
The origins of slavery began when the Spanish were in need of workers to grow crops and dig for gold in the Caribbean Islands during the era of Columbus. To fulfill their need in human labor, they began to bring in Africans to work for them. Moreover, the Spanish needed more workers due to the discovery of more mines; therefore, a contract called the asiento was created. This allowed over 220,000 African slaves to be imported to the Spanish colonies as slaves during a span of 50 years. Because of these events, it inspired other countries to take part in using Africans for labor. For instance, enslaved Africans were working on sugar …show more content…
plantations for the Portuguese and producing molasses for the Dutch. Overall, 90% of the African slaves were sent to the Caribbean and South America, whereas 6% of them were brought to British North America.
In Virginia and Maryland, new laws were created towards enslaved Africans that prevented them from having their own rights. For example, slaves were no longer able to accuse or make a deposition against a white person in court. Also, they were not allowed to learn how to read, write, or receive any form of education. Laws like these made it very difficult for slaves to fight for themselves. Unfortunately, slavery became hereditary- therefore, the children of African slaves would automatically be enslaved. Even if slaves obtained Christianity, they still could no longer receive freedom. These kind of laws made it clear that slaves and their offspring had no rights and no choice but to work for life, whereas servants of any other color could work for a certain amount of time and get help in return.
As the need for inexpensive labor skyrocketed in the English colonies, the transatlantic slave trade offered a substantial amount of workers that consisted of enslaved Africans, indentured Europeans, and captured Native Americans. However, African slaves became the dominant choice of labor later on in the early 1700s. During the Atlantic slave trade, over 12 million African slaves were brought to the Americas, however only 10 million of those slaves would actually survive the travel due to the poor conditions they experienced on the ships. For instance, the middle passage (or the atlantic passage) was known for overly packing slaves into the ships where they would face a lot of pain and form blisters from laying down for a long period of time. Also, they were so compacted that they didn’t have the ability to move, urinate or poop in private. All in all, enslaved Africans would be taken away from their homeland to go through traumatic travels just to arrive in the Americas where they would work for free and get treated inhumanely. The relationship between enslaved Africans and colonists was very unfortunate. Because of colonists, Africans were deprived from having legal rights, a family, and freedom.
With all the hardships that enslaved Africans had to encounter- came along a turning point where they started to rebel. In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon, a Virginia planter, led a rebellion against Governor William Berkeley and Native Americans. Reasons for the rebellion were based on economical and personal problems. For instance, tax prices increased, tobacco prices decreased, servants or slaves were not being treated fairly for the hard work they were accomplishing, and they were not getting enough representation. Followers of Bacon consisted of enslaved Africans, European indentured servants, free men, and farmers hoping to own land. Together, they chose to raid Native American villages and kill men, children, and women for the economical issues they were affected by. Governor Berkeley was strongly against the actions of Bacon and his followers- however, Bacon continued to rebel and marched to Virginia, Jamestown, and burned down everything. An event like this is significant because of how enslaved Africans, European indentured servants, and free men took a stand for what they believed in and what they deserved. Not only did slaves face harsh working conditions, they also faced severe punishment. Slaves of white families often escaped to leave behind their ‘masters’ and have a chance at freedom. However most of the time, they would get caught. Moses Roper, a biracial slave, wrote a narrative on his life as a slave. In his story, he ran away from his ‘master’ multiple times, and in response- he would get whipped, burned, and beat as his consequences. Although Roper would always get caught, he refused to give up on the hopes of being free. For slaves that would successfully escape, an “underground railroad” was created, which helped about 40 to 100,000 slaves find their way to freedom. Unfortunately, it was not until later on slaves experienced freedom. In spite of the fact that enslaved Africans and European indentured servants worked equally at one point, there came a time where indentured servants started to get treated better than slaves. Servants and slaves were somehow similar by how they worked for others, but indentured servants would receive something useful in return. In 1607, European indentured servants arrived in Jamestown, Virginia- where they started their labor on tobacco crops. Indentured servants worked for a fixed period of time in exchange for help once their labor is done. The contract, called an indenture, is what indicated the time period of labor between the planter and servant. During the contract, they would have access to food, shelter, and clothes. Also once their labor was completed, they would have the opportunity to live independently and have their own landowning in exchange. Planters often seeked for indentured servants so that an additional 50 acres would be added to their land. This quickly became an issue to indentured servants due to the fact that they had a high rate of death; therefore, most of them would not live long enough to finish their contract and have their own land. The relationship indentured servants had with colonists was slightly similar to enslaved Africans by how they were not allowed to get married or have children.
However, servants had the chance to get permission from their masters if they wanted to. Also, they were allowed to sue their masters if they felt mistreated. Indentured servants were also punished for their wrongdoings- such as running away or breaking the law. In most cases, time was added to their contracts as a form of punishment. The conditions that indentured servants faced were often so harsh and unhealthy that they would die from it. Eventually, indentured servants stood up for their worth and resisted by assembling rebellions and escaping from their masters. To add on, indentured servants participated with Bacon’s Rebellion as another form of
resistance. After learning about European indentured servants and enslaved Africans, it’s obvious that race is socially constructed. Although human beings are physically no different from each other, society has chosen to differentiate people by the color of their skin, languages, and cultures. Because of social constructivism, racial hierarchies were easily formed during the Colonial Era. Unfortunately, society chose to rank people by the pigment of their skin- by classifying that lighter skin tones are better than dark skin tones. Social constructs like these played a big role in slavery for Africans. However, racial hierarchies was not the only problem in society; social stratification also played a big part in not only affecting Africans, but also white people. Social stratification is what separated people by their wealth, social status or power, job, and income. This played a big part in affecting the whole society, not just Africans. Social stratification was maintained because of resource extraction, labor exploitation, and the transatlantic trade. These contributed to social stratification by how they forcefully take people from their homeland to work on resources the society needs. If the need for labor on resources never existed, servants and slaves would not have been thought of as the lower working class. Overall, conditions like these maintained social stratification by keeping the cycle going. People that were too poor to take care of themselves chose to put themselves in a slightly better position by working for others to have a shelter and food. This cycle is what kept social stratification alive. After hearing about European indentured servants and enslaved Africans, it’s understood that there are minor similarities and major differences. To start off, they are both similar in how they were used as a source of inexpensive labor. They arrived in Jamestown with the same laws and same rules. As of punishments, they both got punished for escaping or disobeying the law. In 1676, servants and slaves stood up for themselves and argued against economical issues and participated in Bacon’s rebellion where they had a riot in the villages of Native Americans and in Jamestown, Virginia. Unfortunately, there came a time where Africans had different laws than European servants. Although they were both not allowed to have their own families- servants had the possibility of getting permission from their masters. Also, slave laws made it impossible for Africans to fight in court- and if they attempted to do so they would get punished. Whereas servants could easily file complaints if they felt mistreated. Unfortunately, African slaves were no longer compensated for their efforts in labor. Servants had contracts that gave them shelter and food as long as they worked for a period of time. In contrast, slaves were forced to work for free and faced harsh working conditions while doing so. Overall, social constructs, social stratifications, and the need for labor is what led to racial hierarchies. If occupation, power, and wealth were not cared for- the need for ‘low class’ workers would have not existed. However, since it was very much needed to others, it led to the terrible transformation that divided enslaved Africans and servants from everyone else.