FREE ESSAY ON RACISM: THE PRECEDENT TO SLAVERY IN NORTH AMERICA

RACISM: THE PRECEDENT TO SLAVERY IN NORTH AMERICA

Racism: The Precedent to Slavery in North America
In tracing the origins of slavery or racism in either sense, one must keep in mind that
neither is an event or circumstance that occurred in North America in the 17th through
19th centuries. We must examine slavery as an institution and racism as a mentality
defined by the oppressor, independent to the oppressed. Europeans who came to North
America in the 17th century were predisposed to the institution of slavery. Slavery had
long since been a proactive institution in South America. Africans were also slaves in
Europe before 1619. Slave trades that preceded the Trans-Atlantic slave trade also show
evidence that there were black slaves in Europe from many centuries. Therefore, Europeans
never arrived in the colonies with the thought that slavery was not a natural human
institution, or that blacks were equal to them and deserving of rights. The racist views
that derived from European's predisposed bias against blacks was a justification the race
based slavery that existed in North American beginning in the 17th century.
Whites had a negative proclivity towards blacks in pre-colonial times. In his book, The
Write Man's Burden: Historical Origins of Slavery in the United States, Winthrop Jordan
describes Europeans reactions towards contact with blacks. However he fails to note that
there emphasis on viewing blacks as savage, and heathenish, etc, were the very
differences between Europeans and Africans, that would be to Europeans, a justifications
for the institution of race based slavery. "Unquestionably, signs of European prejudice
and discrimination toward Indians and Africans had been present in the English colonies
from the start. Burt the poisonous pattern of mistrust and abuse became widespread and
central within the culture only after 1700, as race slavery rapidly expanded." In order
to create a massive institution such as slavery that oppresses any people, the oppressor
must view the oppressed as less than human, less deserving of human rights. Olaudah
Equiano writes, in his slave narrative The Life of Olaudah Equiano, "does not slavery
itself depress the mind, and extinguish all fire, and every noble sentiment?" 
The 17th century shows a deterioration of status for blacks in America. When blacks first
arrived in the colonies, their status was of a mixed nature. There were some blacks that
worked as indentured servants, some were slaves, and some were free and owned property
and laborers of their own. However, history tends to over elaborate this point for some
reason or the other. These free blacks were few and their social status was one that was
lower than whites. As the population of European indentured servitude began to decrease,
there was a need for a stable work force. Africans became the sole labor force for the
white English planters. Africans began being associated with the status of slaves.
Eventually their children too would inherit this status. This began for man clear and
unclear reasons. One reason was that the white legislature in the colonies wanted to
stress to those white indentured servants, who began to be unified with blacks, that they
were higher in class status than blacks. "There is evidence of invidious distinctions
between black and white laborers from a relatively early date". In order to prevent
uprisings by the poor white indentured servants; the white legislature stressed the lower
class standing of blacks to pacify them. Also, indentured servants were sending
correspondence back to their country telling of the hardships of living in American. This
brought a decline in indentured servants from Europe. Africans, however, who were too far
from home with out any means of contacting their families or anyone, could not tell their
countrymen that they were being treated badly. Also, there was no one coming to the aid
of Africans; even the Christian church backed the institution. By the early 1700s the
status of blacks became property not people. The later 17th century and early 18th
century framed the introduction of slave codes bent on controlling the growing slave
population. This was all apart of a transformation making "black" synonymous with
"slave".
Thus said I must conclude that racism preceded slavery in the British colonies. Blacks
may have been treated slightly better without slave codes, and other controlling
mechanisms, before the 17th century; but that was because there were not as many blacks
in North American at that time to pose a "threat" to whites. This was also before the
massive deportations from African after slavery became a solely black institution. That
also does not show that whites felt any different toward blacks. I have shown that they
were already predisposed to a racist sentiment against blacks before the 17th century.
We must also not let the successes of very few blacks subtract from the fact that most
blacks were slaves. "Africans pre-17th century could be indentured servants as well as
slaves. Few acquired considerable property as well as slaves." They were by far the
envied minority. Their status also began to deteriorate by the late 17th century as well
as other free blacks. Europeans indentured servants came to America voluntarily searching
for in essence, the "American Dream" and for a new life, for a tabla rasa of sorts.
Africans were migrated by force to North America in sheer terror and morbid conditions.
After the transformation from blacks to equating to slaves, they had no hope (maybe
sparing but mostly none) of acquiring neither their freedom nor their children's freedom.
As I previously stated, we must look at slavery not as an event or what happened (or
didn't happen) to an individual, but as an institution that existed as real as the air we
breathe for centuries.
Late in the 18th century anti-miscegenation laws are an example of whites attempt to
define systematic supremacy over blacks. Many whites feared that blacks were not worthy
of or deserving the very rights and freedom that they were fighting for in the American
Revolution. Whites have constantly oppressed and exploited blacks for their own
self-aggrandizement. It was this selfish mind and racist disposition that caused race
slavery in the North America. This mindset was established in Europe and carried on to
the colonies as a tool for enslaving generations of African descendant people.