prejudice ignites slavery
In the late 1600s, the term servant took on a new meaning in English Mainland North America. Servitude became involuntary, inheritable, and required of blacks. A servant's term became life long. By the 1660's the term Negro and slave became synonymous, and as a result of newly established laws, enslaved Africans were subjected to harsher and more brutal control than any other laborers. The origin behind the initiation of slavery is a well-debated issue. Was it unique to America? Were blacks always designated to be slaves? Historians Oscar and Mary Handlin, Carl N. Degler, and Edmund S. Morgan debate the origin of slavery and racism towards Negroes. While Handlin and Morgan offer well put together thoughts, Degler argues a valid point with the most supporting evidence. Prejudice against men of color, whether free or un-free, preceded the legal establishment of slavery in the 1660s, and it was this "framework of discrimination," (Degler pg. 52) that is referred to as the leading cause behind the enslavement of African Americans specifically. Negroes were treated as an inferior to the white man, servant or free, from the moment that they arrived in the New World, years before slavery became a legal in
This argument supports Degler's theory that prejudice led to African slavery. The establishment of slavery as a legal institution seemed like the logical climax to the build up of racial prejudice that was first initiated upon the arrival of the Negro to New England North America. They also believed that the split was a division of working class rather than of prejudice, but their case was weak because servitude was not a necessary institution in those colonies. It is obvious that slavery itself was "molded by the early colonist's discrimination against the outlander," (Degler p. This was proven after Nathaniel Bacon and his followers rebelled against the governor of Virginia and attacked Indian's whose land they wanted. Negroes were worth more money because their servitude could be extended for life and they had very few rights. This was a restriction only placed on Negroes because they were perceived to be incapable of bearing arms. At this point, discrimination against blacks had reached its highest point, and more acts became laws, and slavery became legally defined. This is a clear example of prejudice years before slavery was instituted. It emerged from the adjustment to American conditions of traditional institutions;" (Handlin pg.
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Acceptance Essays
