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, oris it integral to American identity?

I. COMING TO AMERICA

A. “Mercantilism”- provide natural resources- provide markets- absorb excess people

Richard Hakluyt 1557-1618

B. Impediments

1. Financing- poor, cheap, pre-occupied

2. Labor

II. JAMESTOWN

A. FINANCING

1. Joint stock company

- Virginia Company 1606-24

- 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

1609-10 “the Starving Time” 60/500

III. ORIGINS OF RACE SLAVERY

A. PRIVATIZATION/ REORGANIZATION

1. George Yeardley 1616

- 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” forthe poor?

Scots-IrishThe “backcountry”

IV. VIRGINIA ON THE EDGE

A. 1622 Indian War

1. Opechancanough

WaterhouseDeclaration 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 daughterand the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.- Othello

Historiography

4. 1600s, 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 1676

1. Tidewater v. Backcountry

Nathaniel Bacon

William Berkeley

C. RACIAL HIERARCHY

1. Laws from 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

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 preserveeconomic 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)