Slavery in America — Part 11 — Conclusion

Americans have been taught to look at slavery as if it only happened to those from Africa.
As if it began in 1609 and ended in 1864.

This view is more in keeping with Orwell’s 1984 and obliterates ‘an inconvenient truth’,
(to coin a phrase).

Slavery began in what would become America when the Spanish enslaved various native
Americans.

Thanksgiving itself was made possible by the intercession of one of those slaves.

Bishop Las Casas found it cruel to enslave the Indians and suggested Africans.  The Spanish
involvement in African slavery continued until 1888 in their remaining colonies.

Slavery in America is usually dated from the arrival of Africans at Jamestown in 1609.

These persons were not slaves. These were indentured servants who were freed after
seven years of servitude.

Africans were not the only indentured servants. Large numbers of Irish people were enslaved
and shipped to the ‘New World’ by the British.

There were more European indentured servants than African. This is because shipping away
one’s enemies was politically useful for the English when they invaded Ireland.

Further, the term; ‘indentured’ servants detoxes the fact that slavery for these people,
for they were slaves, was far harsher than for the purchased for life slave. 

The slave one buys and will keep forever needs to be well fed, well housed, so that he or
she can reproduce viable offspring to give the owner another slave.  The indentured
servant, who will be released in seven years might be worked to death so that the owner
makes back the passage money.

The fact the Irish were shipped out by the thousands so that  by the mid 1600s, the Irish were
the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat. At that time, 70% of the total population of
Montserrat were Irish slaves.

 Ireland quickly became the biggest source of human livestock for English merchants. The majority of the early slaves to the New World were actually white.

African slavery began in the latter part of the 17th century when the dangers of creating a
dissatisfied peasantry were realised.

When one has signed a contract stipulating that after seven hard years of slavery one will be
entitled to X acres and Y provisions, and there is no land available; the disgruntled
ex-indentured servant will squat on Indian land, and thus create dissension.

The wars between those in the original 13 colonies and the Indians were caused by the capture
of land by these freedmen.

Permanent slavery avoided these dangers, allowing a cordial relationship to continue between
Native Americans and settlers, until such time there were enough settlers to successfully engage in war.

Where the Dutch in New York moved to a kind of part time slavery; thus avoiding the expense of feeding, housing and clothing slaves during periods where they labour was not needed, the English would rent out unneeded slavers as labourers, thus making it very difficult for free people to get jobs.

This led again to whites encroaching on Indian lands and hostilities.

In the North it became wiser to abolish slavery and use wage slaves.  This was far cheaper than even the Dutch method.

In the Southern part of the United States where vast plantations growing tobacco or cotton were the economic
mainstays, (as well as slave production), slavery continued until the Civil War.

African slavery lasted between 1650 and 1864, yet has left an indelible mark on the African American population.

Although others were slaves, from the Irish to the Chinese, (although the term might not have been used) this aspect of their past has been abandoned.

Irish families in Boston, for example, do not mention that their fore bearers were slaves to the British, many of them indentured for life.

African Americans hold their enslavement as the key feature of their history.