The original settlements in VA had a major labor problem. Ok, let me spell this out more thoroughly. In other words, the freedom of most white Virginians rested upon the slavery of most black Virginians. Morgan's thesis is that the free, egalitarian Virginia that emerged in the 18th century had that freedom and stability largely because of slavery. This book is pretty dense and long, but it's a brilliant and even somewhat disturbing argument. Morgan finds the keys to this central paradox, "the marriage of slavery and freedom," in the people and the politics of the state that was both the birthplace of the Revolution and the largest slaveholding state in the country. American Slavery, American Freedom is a study of the tragic contradiction at the core of America. How republican freedom came to be supported, at least in large part, by its opposite, slavery, is the subject of this book. The freedom of the free, the growth of freedom experienced in the American Revolution depended more than we like to admit on the enslavement of more than 20 percent of us at that time. Morgan writes: "Human relations among us still suffer from the former enslavement of a large portion of our predecessors. Virginians drafted not only the Declaration but also the Constitution and the Bill of Rights they were elected to the presidency of the United States under that Constitution for thirty-two of the first thirty-six years of its existence. Thomas Jefferson led them in declaring independence. George Washington led the Americans in battle against British oppression.
By century’s end, more than half of Virginia’s labor force was enslaved."Thoughtful, suggestive and highly readable."― New York Times Book Review In the American Revolution, Virginians were the most eloquent spokesmen for freedom and quality. They brought slavery to Virginia by buying “slaves instead of servants” (304).
The men who arrived garnered more prestige in England. Therefore, men who wanted to get into plantation production went to Virginia. Virginia planters had advantages over other planation economies: They could replace slaves at a lower rate than sugar planters, giving a greater return on investment a rise in the price of tobacco meant they could pay for them and tobacco required “a smaller outlay of capital for production equipment” (303). But the Navigation Acts prevented buying and transporting them to the colony. So, in 1660, with a decline in immigration largely due to an end to England’s population problems, it likely became more advantageous for Virginia planters to buy slaves. But forcing servants into slavery might have led to massive rebellion, so rather than enslave Virginians, they bought “men who were already enslaved” (297). Morgan suggests that as soon as Virginians found tobacco, the colony was on the road to slavery. Virginians imported workers from England to ensure their profits.
0 kommentar(er)
