Historical studies on the slave system in the United States concentrate on the period after the American Revolution where there were debates over the definition of freedom in the regions and Caucasians sought to uphold white supremacy. To that end, perceptions on the nature of black slavery revolve around a period in which the institution was not only deeply rooted in American societies but was also present in all spheres of the same. For instance, on the eve of the American Civil War, slaves formed the backbone of the economy in the South, were the rightful properties of their white masters, and were subject to an inferiority status in all the States because of their skin color. Now, primary documents on the first years of slavery in the British colonies that later formed the United States of America give a different story on black slavery. From rebellions that sought to end the system, to the mention of skilled black persons making significant milestones in their various fields of study, it is apparent that there is not enough information on the subject. Thus, while most of the literature on the subject portrays persons of African descent as hopeless before the emergence of black and white abolitionists, calls for slave emancipation were present even before the birth of the country, and it is possible those efforts later cemented laws of slave ownership.
Notably, the conditions in which slaves in the United States lived as part of their bondage restricted individual liberties that the white man considered unnecessary and damaging to the status of slavery. Education for black persons was illegal, the brutal component of the system encouraged an air of hopelessness, and as evidenced by white Northerners joining and winning the civil war, emancipation was only possible after other Caucasians offered support. Nonetheless, black abolitionists, such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, made significant contributions to the efforts of liberation by publishing works on their life narratives. Previously, Nat Turner and other slaves attempted a revolt but failed because they lacked weapons and were few compared to the whites. Still, as the details of The First Slaves in America reveal, the mentioned blacks were not the first ones to repeal the idea of whites owning colored persons as property.
Foremost, the perceptions of black persons as a submissive lot that accepted slavery without a fight are misguided and false. At a personal level, it has always been mysterious on how the first blacks allowed the whites to place the chains of slavery on their persons in the first place. In other words, the strict laws and social norms that governed racial relations and the slave system in the United States by the mid-nineteenth century made the slaves’ inability to free themselves understandable. However, said legal and communal strategies that protected slave ownership were not present from the beginning of black slavery and for that reason, there was always a loophole for individuals of color to end the system and protect their descendants. However, after reading the Anonymous Letter to Mr. Boone in London (June 24, 1720) and the 1793 penning of Secret Keeper (Richmond) to Secret Keeper Norfolk (Unknown), the mentioned claims appear flawed. Apparently, the first slaves attempted multiple revolts from the beginning; in fact, since the two texts cover the period between 1720 and 1793, the efforts spanned from colonialism to the independence of the thirteen English colonies. In the case of Anonymous Letter to Mr. Boone (1720), the writer mentions the discovery of rebelling slaves and the subsequent punishments: “some burnt, some [hanged], and some [banished]” (Zinn and Arnove, 2011, p.52). Evidently, blacks in were not meek and the enslavement of their race survived, not because of their failure to fight it, but the whites’ determination to maintain the free source of labor.
Additionally, there is the case of Benjamin Banneker, a self-taught mathematician, and astronomer who was the son of a freed slave. The uniqueness of Banneker’s situation at the time of his writing the Letter to Thomas Jefferson (August 19, 1791) was twofold: he was successfully self-educated and of the black race (Zinn and Arnove, 2011, p.58). The eye-opening information in the mentioned document revolved around the fact that there was, at least, one educated black person even before the commencement of the nineteenth century, and he made efforts to end black slavery. When coupled with the information on the slave rebellions and the Caucasians’ response to the same, the first slaves evidently formed the foundations from which the nature of slavery stemmed. In other words, the rebellions made the white man’s’ brutality to his slaves a necessity and Banneker’s success as an astronomer in the land meant for white liberties probably cemented the arguments against slave education. Thus, the Caucasians’ attitude towards slaves did not begin in the 1800s, at the height of slave ownership, but were instead, inherited from one generation of slave masters to another.
With the given facts in mind, documents on The First Slaves are evidently relevant to the history of the United States and for that reason, are essential to the country’s modern societies. History defines the future by forming the foundations on which people ground contemporary attitudes and perceptions of societal issues. Hence, the revelation of how black people in colonial America responded to slavery sheds more light on the roots of racial relationships in the United States by pointing out that the fight for equality existed even before independence. In other words, while Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King Jr. respectively dominate the stories of the abolition of slavery and black enfranchisement, others were equally involved albeit with lesser success. To that end, the stories mentioned in this text are relevant today because they prove that the need for an egalitarian society, where all persons are equal regardless of their skin color, has always been important to colored men and women in the United States. After all, the first Africans in the country shared similar sentiments.
References
Zinn, Howard and Arnove, Anthony. Voices of a People's History of the United States. 2nd. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2009. Print.
