History 101: Week 3 (Professor Messer-Kruse)

. Lecture #7 (Mon. Feb. 6): Virginia Origins of Racial Slavery

Two Peculiarities of American Slavery:

1. Slavery and racism developed simultaneously in America. While, to us, still living amidst the living legacies of both of these institutions, this might sound like a natural pairing. But not all slave societies developed along racial lines or were supported by an ideology of racial superiority. i. RACISM DEFINED: Racism is the belief that human behavior derives from inherited racial characteristics, and that some racially defined groups are inherently, biologically and/or culturally, inferior to others. a. Racism was not as significant a factor in the slave societies of the Spanish or Portugese empires as it was in British America. In Brazil, for instance, free blacks could attain social rank and status equal and superior to whites. This was not possible in America after the spread of slavery. Why then did America simultaneously develop racism and slavery? What is the connection between these two institutions?

2. Slavery is fundamentally a system of organizing and appropriating the labor of others, one of many. It was the preferred system from the beginning in the Caribbean and Latin America. But in British North America, slavery came rather late in history. Slavery was not a significant institution until the later half of the 17c, more than fifty years after the founding of Virginia. Before then, the primary system of exploiting labor was indentured servitude. What social changes eventually shifted the colonies labor systems from indenturement to slavery?

3. We can best find the answer to both of these questions in the history of Virginia, both because it was oldest colony, but also because the development and change of labor systems in Virginia advanced ahead of other colonies.

a. Pre-slavery Virginia: African-Americans present in Virginia from its first decade. In 1619 a Dutch warship arrived at the Virginia settlement of Port Comfort and sold twenty Africans for provisions. But while all of these men and women were sold into service, they were probably not slaves in the sense we know the term. i. Prior to the 1660's, the types of service that black people were held to varied widely. No doubt that some black people were held to service for their entire lives. But some were indentured just as whites were while others were free and enjoyed all the priveleges that free whites did (they could own and convey property, marry, become members of the church, even vote and own other servants.) The legal equation of black = slave had not yet been formulated. ii. Just as significantly, while there was evidence of prejudice against blacks at this time, (black women servants were sometimes put to work in the fields, but white women were not; white servants were sometimes armed though black servants were not) but there was also evidence of a great deal of comraderie and fellow feeling among whites and blacks, especially at the lower ranks of society. Most significantly, Virginia made no effort to outlaw interracial marriages (the hallmark of a racist society) until 1691. Prior to the 1690's, Virginia had not yet become a racist society, though it had already become a slave- holding society.

4. Why did slavery develop in Virginia in the 1660's after Virginians had gone so long without it? a. The Labor Problem. Wealth in Virginia was initially a function of how many workers one could exploit. Thus Virginians reduced their fellow Englishmen to a state of temporary slavery in exchange for their passage to the colony, and then subjected them to harsh disclipline upon arrival to make them work. This system worked especially well in the first decades when the mortality rates were so high that only half of the colonists could expect to survive longer than five years. This meant, effectively, that half, if not most, servants, effectively served for life and masters only half the time had to pay the "freedom dues" that were legally required upon their servants finishing their term of service. Given this, there was no economic advantage in paying twice as much for a servant who would serve for life - namely a slave. b. But by the 1650's mortality rates began to decrease and more and more servants began to live to the end of their terms. This created both public and private problems for wealthy Virginians. i. Costs of keeping servants rose. ii. More servants lived to become free and become farmers in their own right. They then became competitors with their former masters. At this time, elite Virginians were searching for ways to reduce the amount of tobacco being grown as the price was stubbornly depressed by overproduction. More freeman meant more tobacco going to market. c. Elite Virginians moved in a number of ways to deal with the increasing population of freemen. i. created an artificial scarcity of land through engrossment. This forced some freemen into tenancy, drove others into marginal and dangerous areas, reduced others to indigency and death. ii. legally extended the term of service. iii. instituted severe penalties for poaching. iv. extorted wealth from the small planters through high taxes based on population. d. Why not just enslave the freemen? Not so much because they were white, but because there were already enough of them to pose a danger if they organized and rebelled. Moreover, enslaving Englishmen would have been politically difficult. Finally, enslaving Englishmen would have put a stop to all voluntary immigration to Virginia. e. Clearly, the easy alternative was to begin buying slaves instead of servants. Slaves could be bought as slaves, they did not have to be enslaved - that part had already been done.

i. By the 1690's, slaves accounted for half the population in many counties. ii. By 1700, the importation of indentured servants practically ceased. iii. Between 1708 and 1750, Virginia imported 38,000 African slaves. By 1756, 120,156 blacks and 173,316 whites in Vir.

This began to solve the economic problem, but not the danger of rebellion and disorder posed by the exitence of the exploited freemen:

5. The problem of order and rebellion: The problem of controlling the freemen was dramatically demonstrated in 1676 when Nathaniel Bacon led a polyglot army of whites and blacks, servants, slaves, and freemen, and suceeded, for a time, in overthrowing the government of Virginia. How did Bacon, a very wealthy and aristocratic man, organize and command the allegiance of an army composed of men who were his opposites in class and status? He united them against the Indians for his own ends (Bacon represented the portion of the elite who had been locked out of the nepotistic, corrupt oligarchy that Gov. Berkeley represented.) Bacon's rebellion proved that racial hatred could overcome class conflict. a. Virginia, after Bacon's rebellion, began consciously fomenting the growth of racist attitudes by priveliging poor whites above blacks and using the law to pit one against each other. i. 1670 - free blacks barred from owning a white servant. ii. 1680 - 30 lashes were given to any black, slave or free, who struck a white. iii. 1705 - no white servant could be whipped naked. iv. 1705 - servants made secure in all their property, while slaves' property (horses, cattle, hogs) legally seized by Parish warden and sold for the support of poor whites. v. 1705 - freedom dues increased; tax burden on poor whites lifted (as everyone knew, due to the benefits accruing to the colony as a whole of slave labor.) vi. 1691 - harsh penalties for interracial union or reproduction. vii. 1691 - manumission allowed only if transport out of colony provided. viii. 1723 - manumission outlawed except with pardon of Gov. and council. ix. 1700's - free blacks denied the vote, office, privilege of court testimony.

b. In the 18c. poor whites found their economic fortunes increasing in absolute terms with the general prosperity of the colony caused by slavery. But at the same time they felt a declining status as the upper stratums of wealth climbed even higher. Sociologists call this condition "anomie", the feeling of relative social decline and it is often the cause of scapegoating. Between the legal encouragment of prejudice in society and the poor whites willingness to find a scapegoat, racism dug in deeply into American society at the same time as Americans began to raise the banner and take up the call of Liberty, Independence, and Democracy.

Lecture #7 (Feb. 8): The Political Economy of the Atlantic World

Between the middle of the 17c and the middle of the 18c the Atlantic became the primary arena of European economic, diplomatic, and political rivalry. No area of the world was as central to the economic development of the western world in these years as was the Atlantic basin.

Over this century, the communities encircling the Atlantic from Europe in the east, North America in the west, and the Caribbean and Africa in the south became steadily more economically and politically integrated and mutually interdependent. A vast Atlantic economy mobilized goods, capital and labor on a scale unprecedented in world history. The Atlantic became the superhighway of human migration as millions of people moved, most of them involuntarily, from one side of the Atlantic to the other.

The rise of British North America economically in the eighteenth century, and its ultimatly successful bid for autonomy from the British metropolis, must be contextuallized within the expansion of the overall Atlantic economy. The colonies that would eventually proclaim themselves the "United States of America" grew wealthy and powerful as a result of their participation in this greater Atlantic economic system. Moreover, the ideas and the forces that supplied the American rebellion were the byproducts of the growth of the Atlantic economic system. The communities of sailors, slaves and artisans who were the footsoldiers of the American revolution grew as the Atlantic trade networks expanded. Without the development and expansion of the Atlantic system of trade, America would have remained the poor, weak, isolated agricultural backwater that it began as.

1. The Growth of the Atlantic Economy began in the 1630s and 40s. The engine of this growth was the rise of the sugar economy of the Carribean. During this period a trading system developed within the British empire that was mutually supportive and interdependent. a. slaves from Africa - Carribean. b. sugar in Carribean - England. c. foodstuffs in New England - Carribean. d. manufactured goods from England - Carribean/N. America.

2. The rise of the Atlantic Economy decisively molded the social and political life of the North American colonies in the last third of the 17c and all of the 18c in at least three major ways:

a. Caused English policymakers to rethink the nature of the relationship between England and the American colonies and to desire to manage its colonies more directly.

b. Transformed the primarily subsistence colonial economy into an export oriented, and diversified economy that dramatically altered the character of colonial societies.

c. Ushered in an era of conflict, both between empires vieing for supremacy over this vast trade area, and within empires as ruling elites fought over the spoils of trade and workers, slaves, and servants fought for their independence and share of this wealth.

The Rethinking of Empire

I. England began its colonization efforts in America without any overall plan or strategy for the building of the empire that it eventually controlled. The initiative for each colonial venture came from private sources, whether Sir Walter Raliegh's venture into Roanoke, The Virginia Companies colony at Jamestown, or the Pilgrims and London Company joint efforts in Plymouth. In the early years of colonization the Crown hoped only that these ventures might reap profits for the government, drain off surplus and unruly people from England, and provide military bases and supplies for forays against its traditional enemies. It did not envision that these colonies would become a vital pillar of the home economy, nor that the battle for supremacy over its European rivals would come to hinge upon control and exploitation of the colonial periphery.

A. As the value of colonial trade increased over the course of the 17c, London began to take a new look at her colonies and to formulate a new overall strategy of colonial development and control.

B. By the 1660s, the increasing volume and value of the Atlantic trade had forced English policymakers to take a good hard look at the political economy of colonialism. English intellectuals and political leaders debated and formulated a new view of the economic world and the strategy of colonialism that came to be known as Mercantilism.

The Mercantilist world-view: 1. A Wealthy nation was a powerful nation. 2. The world-wide pie of wealth was finite. 3. One nation enriches itself only at the expense of another. 4. One goal of economic policy was to create a favorable balance of trade with all neighbors so as to increase the supply of bullion in the home nation. 5. The goal of colonial policy was to a. prevent colonial trade from moving in foreign hands, b. foster the growth of industries that could supply needed raw materials, c. curtail the growth of industries that could compete with the home nation, d. and siphon from colonial trade as much profit for the crown as possible.

II. Mercantilism Implemented: From 1641-1660, England was distracted by Civil War and political turmoil and the colonies enjoyed a large degree of independence within their charters, and particularly in economic matters.

A. As the Dutch began to grab a large share of the Virginia tobacco market, Parliament, in 1651, passed the first Navigation Act that mandated that all colonial exports must be carried in English or colonial ships. This was the first step in the implementation of the mercantilist policies that would govern the colonial relationship until the American Revolution.

B. Centralization of Imperial authority accelerated in 1660 when the Stuart monarchy emerged victorious from the English Civil War. The Stuarts formulated an overall policy for the colonial empire that rested on mercantilist economic principles and more direct political control over the colonies:

1. Navigation Act of 1660 - required that all staples exported from the colonies must be sent to England or another English colony. (Guarenteed that England would receive a steady supply of raw materials and strategic goods and that its merchants and English custom revenues would profit from any reexport to foreign nations.) a. American colonists cleverly stepped through a huge loophole in this act by "exporting" products from one colony to another to satisfy the law and avoid customs, then shipping it to its better paying customers in foreign lands. b. In 1673, London closed this loophole by requiring customs to be paid at the point of embarkation of goods. This led to the introduction of an entire class of customs officials into the colonies.

2. The Stuarts also moved to tighten its political control over the quasi-independent colonies: a. Barbadoes, New York proprietary charters revoked. b. 1664 Charles II attempts to revoke the charter of Mass. Bay, but meets great protest and footdragging, meanwhile, London burns, England is racked with plague, and war breaks out with the Dutch. Finally, in 1684-5 the King revokes the charter and announces the creation of the Dominion of New England that would place all the colonies from New Jersey north under the direct control of a royally appointed governor and close all the colonial assemblies. But just three years later, in 1688, another revolution breaks out in England that forces the Stuart monarchy into exile and Parliament, now clearly supreme over the crown, replaces them with William and Mary. 3. William and Parliament cleverly decide to compromise with the colonies by scrapping the political reforms, but strengthening their economic regulations. a. Navigation Act of 1696, passed to enforce previous navigation acts by requiring the registration of vessels and masters and establishing vice-admiralty courts in the colonies to combat smuggling. b. Mercantilist policy also moved to more closely regulate the development of colonial industries: (1) Woolens Act of 1699, Hat Act of 1732, Iron Act of 1750, all aimed at preventing the growth of colonial industries that could compete with those in England. American colonists did the best they could to bypass these. (2) Molasses Act of 1733 placed a prohibitively high duty on cheaper French molasses that Americans were importing to distill into rum. This act also resulted in smuggling becoming a major American industry and the crown took few steps to actively enforce it.

Impact of Atlantic trade on N. American economy:

III. The integration of the American colonies into the Atlantic trading sphere shaped its pattern of economic, demographic, and social development. But, in particular, America was influenced most directly by its trade with the W. Indies:

A. Sugar islands maintained a positive balance of trade with England and spent this surplus on American goods, making it possible for Americans to import manufactured goods from England.

B. Provided the capital and market for the development of new American industries, particularly in: 1. shipbuilding and shipping (merchant) services. a. Because of the restrictions of the Navigation Acts, America became a shipping power within the British empire. By 1770 95% of all shipping between Sugar Isl. and New England were Am. owned. (82% for Middle colonies). 75% of all direct trade between northern ports and England carried on American ships. [England retained a near monopoly on shipping of its direct trade with sugar islands and southern tobacco.] 2. sugar refining and distilling 3. shoes 4. urban artisanal industries

C. As these export-oriented industries grew, they turned the sleepy coastal towns of the north into cosmpolitian port cities. 1. By 1750, Philadelphia, NYC, and Boston became largest cities. 2. The growing export economy of the American colonies allowed for a steadily rising per capita income throughout most of the 18c. 3. But at the same time, wealth began to concentrate in these port cities. In these three cities by 1770, 10% of the population controlled 69% of the wealth. In Boston the bottom half of the population owned but 2% of the cities' wealth.

Social Diversification and Change

IV. Proliferation and Diversification of modes of labor:

A. slavery grew into the base of the American economy and also became an important feature of port cities.

B. servitude declined but did not vanish, especially in the North.

C. various forms of wage labor, artisanship, and apprenticeship proliferated in the port cities.

D. growth in the number of sailors (the first true proletarians)

V. Altogether, the proliferation of modes of work and the concentration of all these different types of workers in their various states of servitude, created a rebellious kindling in the heart of the empire that frequently ignited over the course of the 18c and was ultimately crucial to the development and success of the American Revolution.!.

ID: NOTES-101.3.

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