Race Relations in the New World
The British colonies in North America were not societies that valued or expected equality. They conquered Native American land without any payment for it and they used African Americans as slaves. By the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century, the standard norm for the British included vicious warfare with the Native Americans and enslavement of the African Americans. These practices became the standard norm as a result of carelessness and perhaps fear of change on the part of the British. Early British settlements in North America established first contact between the British and the Native Americans. Almost twenty years after the mysterious disappearance of the colonists who settled at Roanoke, the British settled In the Chesapeake Bay area in the early 17th century. They called it Jamestown in honor of their king, James I. Shortly after settling in Jamestown, a group of about two hundred Native Americans attacked the British because the British were trying to exploit Native American labor and wealth. The British saw nothing wrong with holding a peaceful social state but at the same time using Native Americans as a cheap form of labor. Although the Native Amer
Bacon and his followers were frustrated that all the best tobacco land had already been taken by the wealthy and decided to drive the Indians west and settle on that land. The Europeans traded with the West Indies and the Americas which formed a sort of triangle. Slaves in New England and the Middle Colonies had more freedom in choosing their occupations than did the slaves of the Southern Colonies. Slaves in these colonies not only worked in the fields but were also assigned other household tasks. The slaves in these colonies north of Maryland had a considerable amount more of freedom in choosing their occupation than the slaves of the southern colonies did. The African Americans who lived in South Carolina and Georgia labored under particularly brutal conditions. The English soon gained the upper hand and the large number of English settlers began to pay off. The end of the war came with the death of Metacom. Minor disagreements over land disputes between a Native American leader, Metacom (known as King Philip to the settlers) and the people of Plymouth began the war. These race relations also led in part to larger wars such as the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. After the rebellion of 1741, thirteen slaves were burned alive as punishment for revolting. The British not only treated the Native Americans unfairly by taking over their land and waging war on them but they also treated African Americans with inequality by treating them as a piece of property rather than as human beings. The enslavement of African Americans, and constant war with the Native Americans became such a routine practice that it just evolved into the standard norm of that time period. The sudden death of Bacon while trying to escape an attack from the British army put an end to one of America's first violent protest movements. Slavery came about because the colonists needed a more controllable source of labor.
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