Black people were slaves because of the White people’s belief in white supremacy. This paper explains how such belief contributes to the perpetuation of white slavery in America. The historical, economic, and political aspects in this issue shall be discussed in the succeeding sections.
It was in 1619 when the very first black workers from Africa were brought to Jamestown, Virgina (McNeese 3). Jamestown was the capital of the British colony in North America. They were indentured servants, workers required to work for a certain period like seven years then awarded their freedom. One of them was Anthony Johnson [formerly known as Antonio] who after gaining his freedom became a landowner himself with 101 hectares of land in just 30 years after coming to America (Williams np). He also hired his own Black workers. In the 17th century, in the period between 1620s to the 1670s workers were referred to as Christians or English, not as black or white. According to McNeese (4) “black and white indentured servants worked in the same tobacco fields and were relatively equal.” However, in the decades that followed, this situation changed due to the decrease of indentured servants, expansion of plantations (both sugar then cotton), and enactment of laws that controlled the increasing number of Black population.
Two decades earlier, however, the slave trade was already flourishing in the Americas among the European colonies. According to Johnston (153), Charles V of Spain awarded exclusive rights of “importing into America 400 slaves a year” to a Flemish merchant. Other merchants were able to get into the trade and slaves from Guinea were supplied to the Portuguese government. In the case of the British, a certain Sir John Hawkins, made at least two voyages to Africa and transported “eight hundred kidnapped or purchased Negroes to the West Indies” (Johnston 153-154). Before the Europeans traded the Black people, the Muhammadan empire of earlier centuries was already involved in the slave trade. According to Johnston, the Black people or the Negro was an ideal servant because the “Negro in a primitive state is a born slave.”
The Negro or the Black person “has been marked out by his mental and physical characteristics as the servant of other races.” He possesses great physical strength which makes him not only a perfect laborer in the fields but also a good soldier. He is also perceived to possess a “short memory for sorrows and cruelties and does not suffer from home-sickness” (Johnston 151). These perceptions about the Black people has perpetuated in the United States especially during the period before the American Civil War. Wright (38) explains that white people has internalized these beliefs about the Black people that they accept and hold the idea that “Black people are slaves because of their race.” Through generations these misconceptions about Black people has been passed on and accepted thus, there was a difficulty of looking at them as also human beings, equal to the White people. The means of control came in the form of deprivation, discipline, and even laws from the State. The first of which was the Negro Act of 1740 which further curtailed the rights of Blacks. More legislations were passed in succeeding years during the slavery era which were all geared towards maintaining the white supremacy. As Wright (39) has pointed out ”keeping Blacks slaves, suppressing blacks, and abusing Blacks became means to maintain White inner peace and emotional and psychological stability.”
In conclusion, Blacks were slaves because they were considered as born to it. Their physical and emotional attributes were most suitable to the role. Finally, the Blacks were slaves because those in power (empires, dynasties, colonists) did not consider them as human beings, equal to the rest of humankind.
Works Cited
Johnston, Harry H. A History of the Colonization of Africa by Alien Races. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011
McNeese, Tim. America’s Civil War. St. Louis, MO: Milliken Publishing Company, 2003.
Williams, Jean Kinney. “Africans Arrive in Jamestown.” African-Americans in the Colonies (2002): 6-7. History Reference Center. Web. 15 Sept. 2013.
Wright, William D. Critical Reflections on Black History. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002.
