The Chattel Slavery In Colonial America

Significance:
The Iroquois, originating from present day New York, began to prosper after their dealings with the French, and later the Dutch in the fur trade. Eager to expand their territories strategically, they divided into the five nations of Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks, compiling into a confederation. Granted from the fur trade, these Natives had ample access to guns, steels and other goods to help conquer and wage on both European and fellow Native American settlements as far as Carolinas. Their claim of dominance and the consequencing turmoils among the other Native American communities essentially derive from the aggressive influence the Europeans spurred during their attempts at establishing superior colonies.
African Slaves are one of the pivotal pillars that served to build the English colonies, and subsequently today’s nation, into something dominating and prosperous.
Initially brought in from the Portuguese slave trading market in only small numbers, making less than 2% of the American population, however in the early days, ‘chattel slavery’ was not addressed in the English common law. Technically free in a legal sense, these Africans once familiar with the customs of their English masters could unbound themselves. Some had been able to accomplish in purchasing land and often employing contracted English servants. The triumphs were short lived when rebelling English labourers were granted their freedom. Planters now in desperate need of labour were permitted by law to enslave thousands of African by the House of Burgesses, determining the racially unstable social system forever burdening the lives of African
Americans.

Personal Statement:
The defining motif among the various European colonies that caught my attention was the madden determination with which the Spanish, French and English foisted their own religion of Christianity upon the Native Americans. Although the French arguably nurtured the conversion in a more welcoming and assimilating nature, encouraging the incorporation of both Christian and Native American cultures, however much like their other European counterparts, the intent of eventually replacing and colonizing the very culture that held the Natives together demonstrates a deeply cruel ethnocentrism. Which I find ironic, as Christianity itself was born into an empire that barely tolerated it’s existence. Centuries after the holding their position as the religious pariahs within the vast, conquering Roman Empire, Christians, in the name of their God, attempt to eradicate the existence of another culture along with the religion it’s people live by. The Europeans also did not have explicit reasoning, like a Roman Emperor whose semi-divine rule would be threatened by a growing belief in someone or something else. Even so, both ascendants unrelentingly persecuted the masses solely for the purpose of discriminating and terrorizing religious views differing from theirs.

Belief Systems: The Europeans remained very insistent on imposing Christianity and converting the Native Americans. The oppressive nature of the conquest, deterred Natives from being encouraged to welcome the foreign intruders. Especially when the Natives felt their prayers to the Catholic God go unresponsive when their dire circumstances of death and destruction within their people and land continue.
Global Context: The flow of European colonist did not cease, instead happened to be increasing which meant prosperous land that would allow survival and growth were in high demand for Europeans and the Natives. When the Europeans from Spain, France, Netherlands and England graced the Americas, they considered themselves worthier of ‘inheriting’ the already cultivated land the Natives tamed. Which further complicated the competition, gradually through their colonizing, the French and English acquired the support of their monarchs and turned the trading posts into royal colonies. The Spanish had readily come prepared with their military, while the Dutch were sponsored by the West India Company hoping to expand that empire.
Geography: When the English, and most of the other European colonist first arrived, the harsh swamps, the endless grassland or the bitter cold that greeted them had tested their adaptive and survival abilities. It was even harder to survive with the unexpected exchanging of diseases like malaria, small pox, syphilis and so forth. However tobacco, corn, and potatoes helped turn things around, especially when the Fur Trade started flourishing. For the Natives, access to steel and guns gave them somewhat an equal hand when fighting the invaders.
Peopling: Threatened by brutal foreigners, the Native Americans had a hostility that reflected their pain of having the essence of their lives torn and vanquished in front of them. Attacked by distressing weapons like guns and having sicknesses crawl straight into their homes whilst having their provisions trampled upon, the populations of the Native Americans dwindled to less than about 20,000 people. Although European populations decreased from time to time dramatically, they still managed to dominate eventually.
Identity: Europeans who travelled to the Americas where most primarily men who came as merchants, farmers, businessmen and missionaries. The colonies they built were not intended for populating or settling at first, only the Puritans came with the objective of taking up residence. Nevertheless the Americas initially was home to the various Native American tribes, who had populated the area for centuries, building their communities.
Politics and Power: What primarily began as trading expeditions quickly turned into the cultivation of farmlands and settlements. The Spanish kept pursuing their goals with military and governmental goals in mind, leaving behind outposts and forts. Frenchmen tried to battle the brutal environment and the Natives, reigning in the name of their King. However, the English early one established their “great Charter” with the House of Burgesses that remained their representative government. Eventually, after conflicting interests, they became royal colonies under the Anglican church headed by an appointed governor. The enactment of the Act of Trade and Navigation (1651) permitted only the English into the ports.
Economy: The Fur Trade for the Dutch and French, and the Tobacco farming for the English bloomed the economy that seemed futile at first. New supplements of crops like corn, beans and potatoes were being introduced to Europe. While the Natives found themselves encountering guns, swords, knives, kettles, and more steel concentrated goods.