This week’s readings discussed the roots of slavery. Eric
Williams discussed the roots of slavery from an economic standpoint. Williams
stated that “slavery caused racism, but economic motives, not racial impulses
caused slavery” (2). William’s discusses the roots of slavery and points out
that slaves came from numerous ethnicities and numerous religions, but the goal
was always the same, to make a profit. Williams found that slave labor in the
New World consisted of people who were “brown, white, black, and yellow;
Catholic, Protestant and pagan” (2). Williams points out that because the
slaves were of so many different ethnicities and religion, they could not have
been the defining factors of the creation of slavery. Williams states that the
first slaves were Indians, but they were found to not be suited for plantation
style work based on the culture they used to live in, he then states that the
Indian slaves were replaced by poor white servants. Slavery was a common
punishment for poor white people and became an increasingly popularly used for
of punishment. However, using white slave labor had some big disadvantages such
as creating manufacturing conflict with England, and creating a desire for
independence. White slaves or servants could also run away from the plantations
much easier and they were more difficult to replace, they also expected land at
the end of their service contracts. The Negro had a much more difficult time
escaping and did not have a contract for land at the end of his/her servitude. This
to me makes it seem like slavery was a racist structure, but William’s goes on
to state that Negro slaves were simply used because they were cheaper and more
effective workers and that the white servitude just set up for the Negro
servitude. Do you think that based on this understanding of William’s reading
that slavery was primarily due to economic reasons or racial reasons? Which
came before which? How does this interact with last week’s reading?
Davis also discusses the roots of slavery, but he believes
that race and religion played into the creation of slavery as primary factors.
In one instance, Davis describes how “because black African slaves were so far
removed from their places of origin, they were truly ‘nationally alienated’”
(94). This national alienation provided the slaves with a disconnect which
meant that they did not have the ability to interact with plantation owners and
white society the same way white servants or slaves did. Davis also describes
how poorly they were treated and how cruel the names were that they were
called, indicating to me that he carries a belief that slavery has racist
roots. Davis also indicates that due to the interconnectedness of white people
in Europe due to religion, white people were no longer an option for slave
labor. Do you find Williams’ or Davis’ argument to be more persuasive? I think
I tended to find Williams’ to be more persuasive because I think economics
preceded cultural and religious motives.
