Race & The Atlantic World
Chapter 1
I. North America and the Clash of Cultures
Why did European Civilizations contrast with Native Civilizations?
Settlement in Warren County, Mississippi. Vicksburg Riverfront Murals
A painting by John Vanderlyn depicting Christopher Columbus and members of his crew on a beach in the West Indies, newly landed from his flagship Santa Maria on October 12, 1492. Wikimedia Commons
In the European imagination, North America appeared uninhabited because Native American societies did not conform to European standards of civilization, which were deeply influenced by a Christian understanding of nature. Protestant interpretations of the early Genesis chapters stipulated humanity's "subduing" of the Earth. As a result, Europeans felt a divine mandate to harness natural resources to construct cities, establish road networks, and ultimately forge entire civilizations following their perceived divine imperative.
It is essential to note that Indigenous peoples had developed complex cities before European exploration. A survey of select civilizations in North America such as the Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs will reveal impressive urban centers with advanced infrastructure, architecture, and agricultural systems. However, when compared to European counterparts, the differences between the two civilizations prompted Europeans to view the land as uninhabited and to help “civilize” native populations. [1]
Although Native American civilizations differed from their European counterparts, it is important to understand that Native Americans' apparent lack of towns and cities resulted from incapacity or disinterest, especially when juxtaposed with the later rapid construction of such structures by Europeans upon their arrival. A more nuanced understanding emerges when one takes into account the religious context of Native Americans, particularly their profound reverence for nature. Native religion significantly influenced land cultivation practices, prioritizing preservation over transformation. Recognizing the impact of religion provides valuable insights into the divergent paths of development even as other factors such as nomadic lifestyles, smaller social structures, and availability of resources also impacted their views of society.
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Native American religions maintained and passed down origin stories that prompted tribes to seek harmony with nature. Across varying tribal communities, members viewed themselves as originating from the Earth, sky, or water, which caused adherents to view these elements with reverence. For instance, in the Hopi origin story, their earliest ancestor resided beneath the Earth until the time came for them to emerge. Upon meeting the creator, Maasaw, they pledged to protect and honor Mother Earth, exemplifying their deep connection to the natural world in all its forms.
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Thus, Native American spirituality revered nature as sacred, encompassing a deep reverence for the land, waterfalls, mountains, and plains. Rooted in an animistic belief system, their cultural ethos emphasized respect and veneration for the environment, leading them to leave nature in its pristine "natural" condition. In contrast, to the European inclination towards transforming the land, Native Americans adhered to a religious mandate that fostered admiration and preservation of the natural world.
European settlers, however, took to the scriptures to justify their mode of civilizing distant lands. Senator Thomas Hart Benton summarized the legacy of civilizing North America as obedience to a divine mandate claiming, “Three and a half centuries ago, this [white] race, in obedience to the great command, arrived in the New World, and found new lands to subdue and replenish.” [2]
II. Colonial Spread
Why did Europeans set up colonies in North America?
John Winthrop and the Puritans. American Heritage Foundation
Engraving shows the arrival of a ship with a group of Africans for sale in Virginia in 1619. Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Religious and economic motivations played a crucial role in shaping the colonization of North America in the 17th century.
Initially, European interactions with Native Americans were evangelistic in origin, with Catholic Spain and France deploying missionaries to convert the indigenous population to Christianity. Simultaneously, English Protestants and French Huguenots were eager to propagate their religious beliefs in the New World. Meanwhile, economic justifications motivated European contact with Natives as explorers found increasing support from the rise of corporations to increase voyages to the West. Regardless of the reasons, however, most Europeans did not intend to remain in the New World indefinitely.
By the 1600s, the idea of long-term settlement gained traction. Settlers were propelled by either the pursuit of religious freedom or economic prosperity for themselves and their offspring. For example, John Winthrop led Puritans seeking refuge from religious persecution by the Church of England after the Reformation had divided England along Protestant and Catholic lines, and the attempts to establish a compromise under Queen Elizabeth proved contentious for Puritans. Unable to "purify" the Church, Puritans were drawn to the idea of building a new community in the New World, a metaphorical "city upon on a hill." [3]
On the economic front, John Rolfe and the Virginia Company focused on commercializing tobacco to enhance their wealth. Arriving in 1610, Rolfe aimed to establish a profitable tobacco industry in the Jamestown colony. His introduction of a successful strain of tobacco significantly contributed to the economic success of Jamestown. Rolfe's marriage to Pocahontas briefly improved relations between English settlers and Native Americans.
The regional divide that would characterize the future United States began to emerge, with Puritans settling predominantly in the North for religious freedom, and venture capitalists engaged in cash crop cultivation settling in the South.
Over time, the colony in Jamestown increasingly sought labor to help cultivate the vast fields for tobacco. As European demand rose, Europeans began to consider a form of labor in 1619 that would have a major impact on future race relations. In that year, a Dutch ship brought around 20 enslaved Africans to Jamestown, Virginia. These individuals were forced into servitude, marking the beginning of a long and tragic history of slavery. It is important to note that while this event in 1619 is significant, slavery existed in other parts of the Americas before this date, notably in the Spanish colonies. The enslavement of Africans in North America continued and expanded over the centuries, becoming a deeply ingrained institution around which Americans built their civilization.
Conversely, Northern colonies, founded by Puritans seeking religious freedom, used less enslaved labor due to the absence of cash crops. The North, with colonies like Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, primarily sought political freedom. Pennsylvania, uniquely positioned, embraced a radical stance against slavery, influenced by Quakers adhering to principles of nonviolence and equality. For these reasons, slavery was less ingrained into the day-to-day lives of Americans.
In summary, the contentious history of race relations emerged as early as the colonial era. Colonies seeking religious freedom typically avoided reliance on cash crops requiring extensive labor, while those focused on such crops felt slave labor was necessary. In the end, the colonial spread between the north and the south laid the foundation for the intricate dynamics of race in what would emerge as the United States.
III. The Rise of African Slavery
How did blackness denote slavery?
An 1878 schoolbook's depiction of tobacco cultivation at Jamestown, Virginia (Wikimedia)
The Burning of Jamestown by Howard Pyle. It depicts the burning of Jamestown, Virginia during Bacon's Rebellion (A.D. 1676-77); used to illustrate the article "Jamestown" in Harper's Encyclopaedia of United States History: from 458 A.D. to 1905 (1905).
Slavery had its roots in the ancient era and was practiced by many ancient civilizations including Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The enslaved were often captives of war, criminals, or individuals who had fallen into debt. For this reason, slavery was not based on a person's skin color nor was it a permanent condition.
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Slavery evolved into a vastly different institution in the transatlantic world after the age of exploration. Africans had the practice of enslaving prisoners of war, as other empires of the time. In the age of exploration, African tribes often sold enslaved prisoners to Portuguese and Dutch shipmen who continued their voyage to the New World. These Europeans then shipped enslaved Africans through the Middle Passage where they were sold to colonists in need of labor to work in poor conditions on the plantations in the Caribbean and the New World. The raw materials of their labor would be shipped back to Europe to be manufactured in their burgeoning industries. Acknowledging that such an account may implicate Africans for their own plight in slavery, Ottobah Cugoano wrote in 1787, “if there were no buyers there would be no sellers" [4].
The association of slavery with blackness was a later development premised on historical developments in the New World. As plantation owners capitalized on slave labor, they also utilized white indentured servanthood to pull from a different pool of workers. For the white servants, contracts bound them to fieldwork for 5 to 7 years before they were freed. Typically, such workers would seek to become landowners themselves. The practice evolved into an understanding that white indentured servants would eventually become landowners.
In the 1600s, issues arose with the practice of employing white indentured workers. As workers increasingly met the conditions of their indenture and obtained status as landowners, land grew sparse around the colony of Jamestown. The colony reached the borders of Native tribes who were reluctant to forfeit more land to the colonists. For recently-freed servants, land acquisition was the very reason they arrived in the New World . For Native Americans, however, land seizures by white colonists had already relocated them to a position from which they could no longer move. When the problem was brought to the officials, Governor William Berkeley sided with the natives, intending to prevent the outbreak of war. However, the response only escalated tensions.
In 1676, a former white indentured servant named Nathaniel Bacon rallied a militia to attack the Native Americans to seek and settle their land. In response, Governor Berkeley issued a decree against the rebellion. In their reaction to the decree, Nathaniel Bacon and the militia burnt down Jamestown, leaving lasting impacts despite the rebellion’s eventual end.
Following Bacon's Rebellion, planters refrained from seeking more white indentured servants due to contract terms that offered the purchase of lands. Instead, they turned to black Africans, as slavery offered fewer contractual stipulations. Further, African slavery uniquely helped to address the issue of black runaways in a white colony. Hence, after Bacon’s rebellion, planters increasingly preferred African slaves to white indentured servants as the graph illustrates. [5]
Notes
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Scott, Donald M. “The Religious Origins of Manifest Destiny.” Divining America, TeacherServe©. National Humanities Center. Feb. 02. 2024.
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Thomas Hart Benton, “Speech to the Senate,” 1846
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Morgan, Edmund. American Slavery, American Freedom . New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2003; Musselwhite, Paul, Peter C. Mancall, and James P. P. Horn, eds. Virginia 1619 : Slavery and Freedom in the Making of English America. Williamsburg, Virginia: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 2019.