This week covers the early impact of African Americans and Native Americans in North America. Despite the brutality of slavery and incessant land seizures, both groups produced enduring legacies that survived the colonial and early national periods.
Readings:
Taylor, chaps. 8-11
Equiano, intro.
Points of Entry:
slavery in colonial Williamsburg:
Equiano Museum:
Deerfield Raid in New England:
Captivity Narrative:
Questions for blog discussion:
List and analyze 2 quotes from the reading. What is Taylor arguing in these passages? How is this related to the larger themes of the week discussed in class?
Historian Cornelia Dayton concludes that the effort "to create the most God-fearing society" tended to reduce the "near-absolute power that English men by law wielded over their wives."
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that in order to make God more fearful, the Puritans sought to reduce the male authority in the household; but not for gender purposes, instead to prepare a more pure, and simple male for the ever-so coveted afterlife. This is also intriguing because it rises the question: when we increase gender parallelism in the "modern world" is their an invested interest? Better put, when the male and female set more egalitarian households, is it more to seem more moral, more modern, more up to date with the socially acceptable customs?
"City upon a Hill" [was] an inspirational set of reformed churches conspicuous to the mother country."
Although this definition does not give justice to such an important ideology, it is still a crucial conception in American history and culture. Early on this ideal sought to be exemplary to the colonies, and its mother-country, however I believe this idea still exists today but it is called paternalism. Thus, we are now the "father-country" and serve as example, of which MUST be replicated in order to be dimmed civilized, or disciplined by the "father" in order to serve the US' interests.
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ReplyDeleteOne of the most interesting aspects of the Taylor reading was the North American colonies’ success based on the success of the West Indies. The economic diversity of the New England colonies specifically benefited England’s Caribbean colony of Barbados. Taylor writes, “The New English shipped the better quality fish to Spain and Portugal and their Atlantic islands (the Azores, Madeira, and the Canaries). The inferior grades of fish went to the West Indies to feed the slaves working on sugar plantations.” (175) In addition to fish, merchants also packed a variety of products from New England including timber, cheese, barley, beef, and tar to be shipped to the West Indies. While the highly commercialized West Indies focused solely on the production of sugar, not leaving any land for the growth of other products, the colonists in New England fed the inhabitants of British islands such as Barbados with their crop surplus. In this way the Northern colonies and the West Indies relied heavily on each other to be profitable.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Taylor, “In effect, seventeenth-century New England and the English West Indies developed in tandem as mutually sustaining parts of a common economic system. Each was incomplete without the other. New English freedom depended on West Indian slavery.” (176) This last sentence is heavy with meaning. The freedom of the United States in 1776 depended on the forced labor of millions of African slaves like Equiano. Without slaves, the economy of the American colonies would not have been stable enough to break free from the England. New England would not have developed a system of trade, and therefore may not have succeeded economically as a colony. Additionally, the slave labor in Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia allowed large profits from cash crops to be earned. Consequently, I doubt that without either of these two factors that the American colonies would have been able to financially support the Revolutionary War or even produce a large enough population to incite the war.
“Where England provided too little employment for too many people, the New England colonies had too much work for too few colonists. “ (Taylor, 159)
ReplyDeleteThis quote from the very beginning of the chapter on the New England colonies, essentially sums up the way of life for people in the New England colonies. They believed in being self-sufficient. Founded on puritan ideals the Northern Colonies were not a place to get rich in a hurry. In fact they were the opposite, they were a place to make an honest living while working toward the greater cause of reformation of the Anglican Church. Given their deep rooted beliefs, they were against the use of slavery therefore they ended up with too much work to be done and too few people immigrating in that would buy into the concepts of Puritanism. This “do-it-yourself” concept created strong family bonds that were not found in any of the other colonies. Even during the earliest stages of formation the stage was clearly set for revolution and later civil war. Differing values between the North and South were entrenched as early as the first seeds were planted. This concept can relate back to one of the major differences in the New England area from the other regions.
“Carolina’s early leaders concluded that the key to managing the local Indians was to recruit them as slave catchers by offering guns and ammunition as incentive” (Taylor, 228)
Before this statement Taylor talked about the “fear of uprising” from African slaves and disgruntled Indian tribes, a concept that would no doubt be a fatal demise to the new colony. Ironically enough it was also this idea of trading ammunition and weaponry that ultimately helped the Carolinas succeed. The Carolina’s were first ravaged by lack of desire to settle the new found land. Once the colony established itself with the production of rice and other lesser goods, the export of guns and ammo became an extensive part of the trade triangle. The weapons not only allowed for profits coming into the colony but it also kept those who lived there safe from revolt. This concept of giving weapons to your enemy in hopes of protecting yourself relates greatly to the situation with the Mexican drug cartels in today’s society. The majority of those weapons come from the places in the U.S and Texas and in turn those weapons are then used to kill U.S security on the border. While the flow of weapons was largely for profit it is also interesting to think about the potential negative effects of this exchange and the way it could have been potentially fatal for colonial Carolina.
Danielle Quinones
ReplyDelete"Nonetheless, Puritans were incorrigible doers, seeking out the preached word, reading the Scriptures, perfecting their morality, and proposing radical schemes for improving society and disciplining the unruly and indolent." (pg.161)
This quote is Taylor showing how specifically, the New England colonies were set up. They were a self selected group really looking to start over and create a morally strong community through Puritan values. They had a strong work ethic which helped them to stay discipline and become as highly educated as they were.
"During planting season, the master expected every laborer daily to dig at least sixty large holes by hand with a hoe." (pg.211)
Taylor shows how strenuous and un-human like the slaves were treated in the British colonies. They were expected so much every day and would be punished if they did not produce. They were treated like cargo, and or animals to the British. The slaves held the colonies economy together but were extremely unequal to the British in all colonies except in New England.
One particular passage that stood out to me appeared in the "Slavery" section of Taylor's text. It states...
ReplyDelete-"The purchaser of slaves also never had to pay the "freedom dues" owed to the laborer at the expiration of his indenture. And, in contrast to those of servants, the children of a slave woman became the property of her master, providing additional returns on the original investment."(Taylor 212)
This quote stood out to me because not only adult men and women slaves were important, but so were their children. The children were a major influence on profit. Taylor later continues to expand on a visitor's travel to Barbados. Taylor continues to express that when children born to slaves were automatically given a value that estimated their worth. This is quite a disturbing fact due to the extremity of the effects of slavery.
This next excerpt, once again, deals with the issue of slavery.
-" The slave code began from the premise that blacks were "an heathenish, brutish and an uncertaine, dangerous kind of people. Deemed property, such brutes had no legal or political rights, not even to venture into court when especially abused. Considered dangerous, they had to be strictly watched and brutally punished for the slightest misstep."(Taylor 213)
This statement expresses the harsh reality black men and women faced during their times as slaves. They were not considered as human beings but "property". Applying this harsh term to a group of people is an unsettling past reality. As far as punishment, blacks were often physically reprimanded if they made the slightest mistake. Taylor states at one point they were thrust in cages left to starve to death.
"Faced with a declining supply of white laborers, the Chesapeake planters increasingly turned to African slaves for their plantation labor" (Taylor 153).
ReplyDeleteIn this passage, Taylor provides evidence that African slaves were not always the norm. He shows that slaves came after white laborers became too expensive. Instead of paying a decent amount for four years of a servants life, planters began paying a little bit more, but being able to get a slaves entire life.
"The planters rapidly converted their plantations from modest operations employing a handful of indentured servants to larger enterprises worked by dozes of enslaved Africans" (Taylor 212).
Here, Taylor provides more evidence for African slaves not being the first form of labor. White servants did not want to work the harsh conditions of the sugar mills, so plantation owners were forced to find other forms of labor. They would buy African slaves and bring them to the Caribbean to work the sugar mills, despite the terrible conditions.
“Compartmentalizing their slaves as something other than people, the planters rendered invisible the slave majority in their political discourse.” Pg 240
ReplyDeleteTaylor is arguing that they isolated the slaves and felt as if they were more like property to be owned. He’s saying that even though the slaves started a rebellion and created their own march, they were still treated like property instead of people fighting for their freedom. This quote goes with how we were talking about the brutality of slaves. The Carolinas, New England, Virginia, and the Caribbean all had slavery and it was rare for slaves to be treated like actual people.
“The Barbadian economy stagnated during the late 1630s as the land became crowded and the tobacco crop became unprofitable.” Pg 208
In this quote, Taylor is arguing that the Barbadian economy was going down hill because they were making too much tobacco. Because of this, the demand for tobacco went down, therefore they needed something else to profit from. It was then that they figured out that harvesting sugar could make them a sufficient amount of money.
"Compared with other colonial regions, New England was a land of relative equality, broad (albeit moderate)opportunity, and thrifty, industrious and entrepreneurial habits that sustained an especially diverse and complex economy." (186)
ReplyDeleteThis quote is the most inclusive quote concerning the colony of New England. It is important in dtermining an overview of the colony instead of focusing just on the few details. There were aspects that were not favorable such as the witch trials but with those trials came the greatest opportunity for religion that the new colonies of the Americas had seen to date. Besides religion, the quote covers the basic goal of profit and sustaining a lifestyle away from England. The family based labor was a bit different than other colonies which used more slave labor but New England could not afford to add slaves to their population. This sets them aside as a different group of people but not entirely innocent from using and exploiting native/slave labor as they instead managed to turn the natives against themselves. The complex economy allows others of the time and those into the future that there are a multitude of different ways to establish an economy. Not all profit has to come from warm tropical climates or strictly slave labor. New England was definitely an exception to colonial settlements of their time.
"Sugar making required costly equipment, precise timing, technical knowledge, and especially strenuous labor by a large workforce under strict supervision." (208)
Sugar in Barbados required a large number of slaves which eventually outnumbered the European settlers. The workforce was mainly slaves brought over from Africa and began a large population influx and started to further the master/slave relationship in the Caribbean. The way these two groups interacted which consisted mostly of exploited labor on the slaves end and profit on the master's side of the equation, helped to form the economy for the area which was still very new but sugar was the reigning crop after trial and error. Without these sugar crops, the area would not have seen the money it had setting certain parts of the Caribbean aside from others. Sugar was the first step of many toward a more industrialized process of agriculture and showed just how important the slaves were to this process which could not have occured without them to the immense degree it had.
"The indiscriminate slaughter contradicted Indian custom and shocked the Narragansett and Mohegan allies, who had expected to capture and adopt the women and children." (Taylor 195)
ReplyDeleteThis quote is basically telling us about the Pequot war that was one of the most bloodiest wars between New English settlers and Natives. The war socked the Natives because of the brutal slaughter of all the Pequot Natives. They looked to only shed a little blood, but the colonist wanted more then blood they wanted to get rid of the natives. The Narragansett and Mohegan did not want to kill all of the Pequot because they wanted to make them part of there own to grow more in number and strength.The colonist warfare was not to what the natives thought has humane.
"Men conducted the heaviest work including clearing, constructing, tending the livestock, harvesting hay,etc. Women maintained the home and nearby garden, cared for the numerous children, made clothing and soap, and prepared and preserved foods." (Taylor,172)
Here Taylor is arguing that each person in a puritan house hold had different rolls. Everyones work was almost equal and was required in order for the family to survive. The natives were not so different from the colonists. Each family member had there own role in the family that made a contribution to the success of the family and village. All though native men worked hard to find food their women had more responsibility then the native men. The colonial women seemed to work the hardest because they had a more dynamic way of living and needed to make sure that everything was perfect for the family.
“Historians have long debated whether the Puritan faith or economic aspirations took precedence in mobilizing migration from England to New England.” (166)
ReplyDeleteHere Taylor explains the debate of whether the Puritans moved across the Atlantic into New England because of economic or religious aspirations. It is still unclear because of the some believed that moving to New England would take them away from sinners of England to a more pure land in which they could practice their faith by purifying churches, keeping watch over one another, and enact the laws of the bible. While to some, religious aspects of the move took precedence, but to others, the economic prosperity that New England offered was too much to ignore. With more land than the English could dream of, New England became man’s economic utopia (except for its underlying danger), for if they were to make it there, they would own land and make a better living exporting their crop to England than working there.
“It took a family to cope with the diverse and constant demands of building and maintaining a farm in New England.” (172)
Taylor argues that unlike other European colonies, the English were much more dependent on the family structure in their American colonies than the other European settlers. New England settlers ran family and individually ran farms rather than the mass crop growing of other colonies. The work was divided up between the family, specifically male and female responsibilities. Men conducted the heaviest work while women and children were in charge of the family garden for meals and the up keeping of the house.
“The sugar planters needed a large and captive body of laborers to perform especially hard, monotonous, and dangerous work in tropic condition.” (Taylor 211)
ReplyDeleteI think the way Taylor began his passage about the slaves used for working in the sugar plantations was exactly how we described their hard labor in class. When the sugar plantations needed these large labor forces that are described, slaves was the resort at the time. It describes how the West Indies had struggled with the idea at first but later were desperate for servants and began to accept growing numbers of convicted criminals and political prisons.
"Faced with a declining supply of white laborers, the Chesapeake planters increasingly turned to African slaves for their plantation labor" (153).
Taylor displays evidence that African slaves were not the only one effected by the harsh laborer. African slaves were the resort of white laborers becoming too expensive to employ. Instead of paying four years of a servants life, planters began paying more to have the slaves in a almost lifetime of debt.
"Between 1645 and 1655 the English government shipped to Barbados some twelve thousand captives taken in the suppression of the rebellions at home"(Taylor 211).
ReplyDeleteTaylor was explaining in this statement that there was massive amounts of slave trafficking to the caribbean. During these ten years there were so many slaves taken there to work on the plantations. This was part of "the other Trade triangle" because the colonies was not involved in this trade.
"Meanwhile, slave imports surged, swelling the black populationto 55,000, eight times larger than the white numbers, a ratio greater even than the three-to-one of Barbados"(Taylor 220).
This is a Reiteration of how the slave transport was very substantial. Like it said there were eight times the amount of blacks than whites. This makes me wonder why didn't they just almagate and fight back?
"As the colonists made the land more familiar and profitable to themselves,they rendered it more alien and hostile to the Indians"(193). The colonists taking of land not only helped their profits directly but also indirectly. Because Indians viewed them as a new tribe instead of an invading force, they were able to make pacts with tribes who were rivaled by the tribes they had a current conflict with, this would not only decrease their enemy's numbers, but also their ally's, thus rendering them at a disadvantage if conflict ever broke out with them. The pacts also would open up further trading and even avoid conflicts at times. "The fisherman primarily pursued cod in the nearby Gorges Bank"(175). The establishent of large fishing and ship-building ports was key to the strength of Britai both economically and militarily. The large amounts of timber in New England allowed for strong, sturdy ships and the fishing produced large numbers of food, even still today. The ships also allowed for the construction of the most powerful navy in the world. Both sea-faring products were key to the Atlantic Trade triangle that would become the cornerstone to the British economical wealth.
ReplyDelete"Comfortable in their own culture, most Indians balked at converting to English ways and beliefs. One native pointedly asked why his people should convert when 'our corn is as good as yours, mad we take more pleasure than you.'" (p. 198)
ReplyDeleteHere, Taylor describes one facet of the relationship between the colonists and the natives in colonial America, mostly with the Puritan communities. Aside from the wars that went on, everyday colonist-native tensions are underrepresented in today's world, and it's important in understanding colonial life to understand how these groups interacted.
"In effect, seventeenth-century New England and the English West Indies developed in tandem as mutually sustaining parts of a common economic system. Each was incomplete without the other. New English freedom depended on West Indian slavery." (p. 176)
This is an idea we went over thoroughly in class. Though the New England colonies didn't get much of the direct effects that we commonly associate with colonial slavery, it is just as important that slavery was going on in other British colonies, as it provided much of the support that the New England economy needed.
"In seeking reform, Puritans divided over the details. Most remained within the Anglican Church, seeking to capture and reform it, preserving the link between church and state. The more radical Puritans, however, became "Separatists," determined immediately to withdraw into their own independent congregations."(Taylor 161).
ReplyDeleteTaylor is talking about the background of the English and how the church and state helped bond modern England. Since the church played such a key role in their beliefs and lifestyle, this lead to the introduction of puritans, or people who wanted to change both the Church of England and the larger society. The main goal of Puritans was to reform the American Church and make their beliefs the same as that of the Puritans.
"During planting season, the master expected every laborer daily to dig at least sixty large holes by hand with a hoe. Each hole contained one cane plant and required the shifting of up to twelve cubic feet of earth"(Taylor 211).
At this time slavery was a huge part of the Caribbean with their labor force and production. Since they so heavily relied on sugar, the slaves would be working twenty four hours a day. This is because once the sugar cane is cut down, it has to be processed within twenty four hours so it does not lose any nutrients. This made slavery just as important as the sugar that was being grown.
"Although slaves continued to tend to small gardens for substistence, they rarely had time or energy to raise a surplus to market on their own, which precluded their purchase of freedom" (Pg 155)
ReplyDeleteThe slaves and African American were held back from their freedoms for a long period of time. They were worked so hard everyday because they looked different. This is a huge reason why they got their freedom and rights so late. The Europeans set back there culture because they wanted an easy profit and less work for themselves. Working in sugar plantations, rice fields, tabacco fields, and fishing became second nature to the Africans.
"Only 1,500 in 1690, the African population grew to 4,100 by 1710" ( pg. 238)
In Carolina the population grew dramatically beacuse of the rice they grew in a surplus. They got most of their slaves from Barbados. The one thing that was great, due to the great enslavement, was that africans preserved African traditions, languages, and built a better life style amoungst each other.
The new world was widely dependent on products produced for sale in Europe. Carolina, Virginia and the Caribbean were the powerhouses of industry during this time era. However of these the Caribbean's production of sugar was one of the most prominent factors in the success of colonization.
ReplyDelete" Sugar making required costly equipment, precise timing, technical knowledge, and especially strenuous labor by a large workforce under strict supervision".
The process of making pure granulated sugar is tricky. the sugar needed to be processed immediately after being cut. A sugar plantation would need a mill to crush the juices out of the cane, a boiling house to turn the juices into brown sugar crystals, a draining house to remove the molasses from the sugar, a distillery to turn the molasses into rum, and a warehouse to store the sugar after. This process would require a great deal of labor and the natives and african slaves were at the time the ideal choice. This was because they were not paid besides food and shelter, and were not confused with Free men like many of the forced white workers were.
"Because white men could more easily escape toto pass as free on another island or aboard a pirate ship, planter increasingly saw an advantage in employing only permanent slaves of a distinctive color immediately and constantly identified with slavery".
The need for labor came so quick and in such quantity that these plantation owners would take anything they could to keep there plantations running smooth. the work of slaves was the main reason for the success of the plantations of the Caribbean.
“Puritans insisted that the Christian God meant for them to enjoy the land, in reward for their godly industry and to punish the Indians for their pagan indolence. John Winthrop explained, ‘As for the Natives in New England, they inclose noe Land, neither have any setled habytation, nor any tame Cattle to improve the Land by, and soe have noe other but a Naturall Right to those Countries, soe as if we leave them sufficient for their use, we may lawfully take the rest.’ The colonists appointed themselves to judge how much land the Indians needed, which shrank with each passing year. The resolves of the town of Milford in Connecticut in 1640 were especially blunt: ‘Voted that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; voted, that the earth is given to the Saints; voted, we are the Saints.” (p.192) The puritans took whatever they needed from the Indians because the Indians did not use the land in the right way according to the Europeans. The Europeans took and decided how much land the Indians would receive without consulting the Indians because the Europeans believed that the land was rightfully theirs. They believed they used the land in the right way and that the Lord wanted the land to be theirs, so they claimed it to be as so. Taylor is arguing that the Europeans just took whatever they wanted and needed from people who did not understand what was going on and could not fight back. The Europeans were very dominating when they wanted something or to have something done. If they did not acquire what they wanted, they became forceful and took what they had wanted.
ReplyDelete“[…] The master could drive and punish his slaves in any way he liked, for there was no penalty for whipping, torturing, maiming, castrating, or even destroying his own property. Barbadians developed the practice of ‘putting a man to dry’: placing defiant slaves in an iron cage hung from a tree, there to die slowly of hunger and thirst as a warning to others. In 1694, for the crime of stealing a pig, judges had a black man sliced into quarters for public display. Regarding such conspicuous deaths as in the public interest, the government compensated owners for the value of their executed slaves.” (p.213) The slaves were severely brutalized by their masters because their masters could strike fear into the other slaves and get away with it at the same time. People could treat their property however they wanted, and since slaves were considered property, people could beat them without being ostracized by their community. The slaves could not do anything about the way they were treated because they would be beaten or killed in some way or form. Taylor is saying that slaves were basically only seen as a piece of property and not human beings at all. The slaves were treated even worse than animals and were expected to do everything for the Europeans. The Europeans only used them to do the hard labor and replaced them as they became useless or died.
"While the expansion of sugar production on Barbados stimulated the economic development of New England, trade with New England permitted Barbados to complete its profitable specialization in sugar and slavery " (211).
ReplyDeleteTaylor is arguing here that cooperation between colonies was vital to a prosperous society, even if the colonies did not share similar values. They recognized that living in a “new” world came with economic insecurities, so the colonies set up a trading system to benefit all and maximize each other’s specializatoins (New England-cod, Caribbean-sugar and slaves, etc.).
"Detecting a plot by their servants to rebel in 1647, the Barbadian planters whipped dozens and executed eighteen. Richard Ligon of Barbados reported, 'Truly, I have seen such cruelty done there to servants, as I did not think one Christian could have done that to another'" (208).
This quote exemplifies the differences in behavior between the Caribbean colonies and the New England colonies. Both were Christian, but the New England colonists were Puritans. They were much more peaceful than their Caribbean counterparts. The servants described in the above quote were white, not black. This shows the brutality of the Caribbean colonists, which they became famous for, especially when the Atlantic slave trade began.
"New England demanded hard labor to make a farm and offered little prospect of getting rich," (p. 159). This quote by Taylor runs along the idea we covered Wednesday in class regarding New England exports. New England did not have fertile land compared to the Caribbean or even the neighboring Chesapeake colonies. Due to long, harsh winters and less than low-quality soil, New England settlers had to improvise. Unlike the other colonists, they had a sense of idealism about them. This idealism created an innovation that helped the colonists discover new methods to promote the economy of the settlement, including shipbuilding and cod trading. In fact, the New England cod industry actually aided slaves in the Caribbean by helping them eat nutritious meals as opposed to whatever may be found on the islands. Although most New England inhabitants did not promote slavery, the region was still able to receive resources from the Caribbean as a token of appreciation from the slaves.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Caribbean itself, conditions were not exactly promising. Barbados in particular was not exactly friendly toward slaves. The slaves were crammed together in small huts made of cane stalks and palm leaves. Their diet was merely average consisting of plantains, beans and fish, with occasional helpings of meat. The real controversial point, however, is the code used to deal with the slaves instituted by the British superiors. All that this code guaranteed to a slave was that it "required a planter annually to clothe every male with a pair of pants and a cap, every female with a petticoat and a cap," (p. 213). There is no mention of proper work conditions, diet, or even if the slaves will have shoes to wear. This code of Barbados did not simply stay in the Caribbean, either. It would move to Jamaica in 1664 and the Carolinas in 1696. This code was the foundation for centuries of poor slave treatment at the hands of negligent or abusive masters.
"The Puritans understood in spiritual terms many causes that we might define as "economic". They interpreted the wandering beggars, increased crime, cloth trade depression, and famines as divine affliction meat to punish a guilty land that wallowed in sin." (167)
ReplyDeleteThis showed that the Puritans knew how to not only scare but also keep their people in line. If many people were to get out of line the Puritans had a way to show that if they were erratic sin would fall upon their land. This would led to refuge and only continue the "Puritan" work ethic.
"The depopulation reduced the slave trade but opened the Carolina interior to colonial settlement." (235)
Even though the slave trade was declining around this time, it would not stay like this. As the rice trade would perk up, the influx of slaves also came back into Carolina. The process of harvesting rice was a laborious process that took man power to drive. It was much like the sugar process in the Caribbean. When the demand for rice rose, so would the demand for slave labor.
"Sugar making required costly equipment, precise timing, technical knowledge, and especially strenuous labor by a large workforce under strict supervision." (Pg. 208)
ReplyDeleteThis quote shows how much the colonies of the Caribbean valued sugar. Since it was very successful in making money, the colonists made sure the sugar was precisely produced by supervising the slaves while they did their jobs.
"The master could drive and punish his slaves in any way he liked, for there was no penalty for whipping, torturing, maiming, castrating, or even destroying his own property." (Pg. 213)
This quote displays how the African slaves were treated as life on the plantation was very harsh and sometimes fatal. This was because the plantation owners treated their slaves extremely unfairly. Working on the plantation almost seems similar to working in a concentration camp or "death camp" in my perspective.
"The Indians regarded most colonists as mean and stingy, enslaved by their property and their longings for more." (191)
ReplyDeleteI really feel Taylor is trying to emphasize an important point: Native Americans weren't necessarily this barbarian and uncivilized group of people. In reality, at least with the Native Americans that lived around New England, Native Americans had advancements in things like agriculture and the equal distribution of food. This quote has a bit of irony as the acquisition of wealth, or in this case land, is contrary to the main Puritan belief system. If outsiders with no understanding of the Puritan religion can see this fault then perhaps the Puritans needed to work harder to live by what they supposedly stood for.
"Worse yet, New England conducted fisheries, the carrying trade, and shipbuilding, rendering the region a competitor rather than a complement to the economy of the mother country." (177)
As a reader I was glad to see Taylor address this point. Through out primary education we're taught that the Puritans arrive in America and the English Crown right off the bat begins to suppress its people. I feel Taylor is trying to dispel this point exactly. The Puritans were rebels in the mother country and they definitely become rebels in New England. I'm not on the side of the English here but I just wanted to see it mentioned that suppression of the Puritans wasn't immediate and not entirely unfounded. I also believe this point in history is crucial in explaining the upcoming events and how the New England colonies play into the construction of the United States of America.
I think the point that Taylor was trying to report the facts about the slave trade, the in's and out's the basic who what where when and how. With that being said i would like to touch on a another topic that Taylor felt so addiment about discussing, they were the ideals that yes, slavery was bad but in the end the Americas (north and south) would not have been so colonized if it weren't for the back breaking labor of our nations first slaves. I think everyone can agree that slavery is wrong,. the enslavement of any type of people or species for that matter is horrible, but from an economical standpoint not having to pay someone for a full days labor sends your profit margin through the roof. I Think one important quote is on page 173 of chapter 8 "The New English understood marriage as both romantic and economic" this is important because this quote delves into the very morals America was founded on one of which being hard work. Marriage was as much about love as it was to grow and prosper in land, in property, and in children. When a family grew is when the business grew for you no longer had to hire outsiders to help with the work, you had your sons and daughters to help. The early American settlers had such a amazing moral when it came to hard labor, "nothing was every accomplished w/o a hard days work."
ReplyDeleteThe second quote would have to be in chapter 10 during the description of the west indies and how they were colonized by European settlers on page 211 "The sugar planters needed a large and captive body of laborers to perform especially hard, monotonous, and very dangerous work in tropical conditions." This to me sounds like slavery for nobody i know would be paid any kind of money if that was the job description Slaves were a major part of the sugar trade the exploitation of theses "hard bodied laborers" led to the explosion of the market in the 1640's. The slaves are the real leaders of the sugar cane trade they are the ones that worked to cut it down and turn it into sugar. I think Taylor wanted to show people that by adding the pictures of the slaves doing all the work and the foreman just standing around
“ and the more they buy, the more they are able to buy for in a year and a half they will earn with god’s blessing as much as they cost.”
ReplyDelete“our English here dont think a nergo child the first day it is born to be worth 5$, they cost them nothing the bringing up, they always go naked, they sell them one to the other as we do sheep.”
Taylor is arguing here that the planters in the Caribbean are converting their plantations from small modest operations into large factory environments, with one goal in mind profit. And that even slave women babies are a commodity to the plantation owners. I found this very interesting because people seem to forget how and why slavery came about to be. As stated in the quotes it is clear that the plantation are moving in another direction. The direction they were taking was the importation of large amounts of african slaves. One factor that goes unknown most of the time when talking about slavery is the actual number of slaves that were imported and sold, but also even more interesting was how one race become superior to the other. It came as a shock to me before there were any slaves on any plantations that the english government had used a mix of english, scots, irish catholics as servants who were sent to the plantations as punishment. But this proved to be to harsh of labor for any white man. This is where I believe slavery was able to suppress and keep slaves down from ever rebelling by creating racial class of whitness in a sense, which created class divisions between the english and the slaves and making this ok by saying that any englishmen who suffers as the slaves do is degrading himself, just because it associated with Africans. Sad but true and it was the way of life then and that mind set that kept slavery going.
1. "The sugar planters needed a large and captive body of laborers to perform especially hard, monotonous, and very dangerous work in tropical conditions" (page 211).
ReplyDeleteThis relates to the Caribbean and their ideas of hard slave labor in order to produce crop. In class we discussed the fact that each little island was like it's own factory, with slave workers. This quote right here by Taylor proves that colonists in the Caribbean bought slaves in mass amounts and their sole purpose was to have them work in these factories to produce their most valuable crop: sugar.
2. "In effect, seventeenth-century New England and the English West Indies developed in tandem as mutually sustaining parts of a common economic system. Each was incomplete without the other. New English freedom depended on West Indian slavery" (page 176).
This quote by Taylor references the ties between New England and slave trade. New England claimed to be a religiously free colony that was not focused on owning slaves, but they were connected due to the cod triangle. By selling cod to the Caribbean, they financially supported the trade and kept it going. So in the end, no matter how hard they tried, New England was supporting something against their values.
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ReplyDelete"By insisting upon an exclusive church of grace, the New England Puritans broke with their more traditional structure that allowed all but the conspicuously sinful to receive membership and communion."
ReplyDeleteThis quote again points out the contradiction of the Puritans wanting religious freedom but only for themselves. They would be very disdainful of anyone who was not as pure as them. Catholics, Quakers, anyone who did not follow the Puritan way of life could face possible execution.
"The planters justified slavery as the proper fate for non-Christians, especially if their skin was dark. The planters bitterly opposed efforts to evangelize the Africans, for the owners did not want clergymen muddying a convenient line by making Christians of slaves."
This quote shows the different agendas of colonies in New England and those in the Caribbean. By making slaves Christian, the rationale for subjecting people from West Africa would have been slightly weaker. Interestingly enough, this enabled the slaves to retain more of their customs, as opposed to the Indian slaves.
"The puritans worked with a special zeal to honor their God and to seek rewards that offered reassurance that God approved of their efforts (Taylor 159)."
ReplyDeleteTaylor is describing how important the Puritan work ethic was in the formation of the new country. The main aspect of the Puritan work ethic was to do work really hard to be able to provide a usefull comodity for the community at large.
"The Carolinas feared that their African slaves might combine with the defiant Indians to merge slave rebellion with frontier war (Taylor 223)."
Taylor is stressing the impeding danger of African slave revolts as well as the danger of the war with the natives. Carolina wonders if the African slaves would think of turning to another disparaged population for help in a revolt.
“The merger of church and state in service to a hierarchical social order gave political significance to every religious issue” (Taylor, 160).
ReplyDelete-Taylor is explaining how England is trying to control the whereabouts of the English colonies is New England and enforce the Catholic faith into all political decisions made in the colony. Taylor describes how the bishops would enforce the taxes of the colonies in addition to preaching about the policies that favored England and King James I, as well as his son, King Charles I. This effort of mixing the church and the state were the first issue that arose in the colonies with England. The King’s efforts created an even stronger control on the colonists and less of the mentality of being free, especially in terms of religious freedom. After the mergence Separatists began to emerge from the colony to advocate their feelings against the emergence of church and state. These early rebellions in the colonies are what began the effort for the rebellion that spirited the American Revolution. This quote is related to and ties in with the theme of a shifting trend within the colonies. The merging of church and state changed the way the colony was wrong as well as the different opinions and mentalities of the colonists that lived there.
“Because white men could more easily escape to pass as free on another island or aboard a pirate ship, planters increasingly saw an advantage in employing only permanent slaves of a distinct color immediately and constantly identified with slavery” (Taylor, 211).
-Taylor is describing how it was easier to keep a track of their workers if it would be a harder process for the workers to escape. Taylor describes the mentality of the plantation owners in the West Indies and how they thought it would be easier to enslave people that would be discriminated against by everyone so that they wouldn’t have to pay them, worry about anyone trying to help them escape, or about them being mistaken as free people. This quote ties in with the theme of racial discrimination and the years of racial prejudice and inequality to come.