Planting Seeds:
Tobacco, Ideology, Race
Write a Definition of “Race”
Circle each group you think is a race
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
African
Arab
Asian
Caucasian
Chinese
English
Greek
Hindu
Hispanic
Iraqi
Italian
Jewish
Mayan
Native American
Historians’ Definitions of “Race”
• "Race is an idea that evolves over time…“
• "Moments in America's past reveal how this
idea took hold… “
• "Race was never just a matter of how you
look; it's about how people assign meaning to
how you look.“
• "America created a story, a story of race."
Underline parts of your definition that match the
definitions provided by historians.
We hold these truths to be selfevident, that all men are created
equal
• How can a nation proclaim “all men are
created equal” and also sanction slavery?
• Why was the idea of race needed to
reconcile these two principles?
1. List different types of people who inhabited the
eastern seaboard of North America in the first half
of the 17th century
Tuscarora
•Example: Native Americans
Iroquois
Algonquin
Cherokee
•
•
•
2. Subdivide
each type of
people into
four subcategories
According to historian Robin D. G. Kelley:
“Africans came to the New World not as
Black people, not as Negroes. They
didn't see themselves that way. They
saw themselves according to their own
sort of ethnic identities. The same was
true of Europeans who viewed
themselves as Portuguese, or English,
or Irish.”
-(Interview for RACE - The Power of an Illusion)
Larry Adelman, the executive producer of RACE, adds:
"It may be hard for us to comprehend today
that the American Indians didn't see
themselves as Indians. Nor did the English
see themselves as white. Neither saw
themselves as a race. The peoples of the
Americas were divided into separate and
distinct nations - hundreds of them.
Amerindian nations such as the Algonquians
differentiated themselves from the Iroquois or
Cherokee by religion, language and customs
just as Protestant, English-speaking Britain
distinguished itself from Catholic, Spanishspeaking Spain."
According to historian Gary Nash:
When Jamestown colonist John Rolfe took his
new bride, Pocahontas (who had converted to
Christianity), back to London in 1616, they
caused an uproar among the lords and ladies
and dukes and earls of the Court of King
James. Not because Rolfe, an Englishman,
had married an Indian, but because
Pocahontas, a princess, had married a
commoner.
Why was the
marriage of John
Rolfe and
Pocahontas
scandalous?
-(Forbidden Love: The Secret History of Mixed Race America. Edge
Books. New York:1999)
Historian Karen Ordahl Kupperman points out:
That, as for physical distinctions,
native Americans were most struck by
the English colonists' beards and their
smell. The colonists wore the same
clothes for weeks, were covered with
lice, and rarely bathed. The English
didn't describe the Indians' color as
red in the early days, but rather as
tanned or tawny.
-(Indians and English: Facing Off in North America. Cornell: 2000)
According to historian Ira Berlin:
"In
Early
American
society, people
distinguish themselves
by religion; they distinguish
themselves by nationality; they
distinguish themselves by family. And
however they distinguish themselves, they
arrange themselves in a hierarchical order
in which a few are on top, and many are on the bottomﾉ
Hierarchy is providential; it's a way that God ordered the world.”
-(Interview for RACE - The Power of an Illusion)
How did people in 17th
century America categorize
themselves?
What differences mattered the most?
Chess Pieces: What Difference Makes a Difference?
Draw the shape of your chess piece, without naming it.
Now name the chess piece. What characteristics of the piece enabled you to name it? What are the
most salient features of the piece?
In two or three sentences only, describe the moves this piece can make.
In two or three sentences only, describe the advantages this piece offers to the player using it.
In relative terms to other chess pieces, how powerful is this chess piece?
How else would you describe this chess piece?
Directions: Choose 70 colonists distributed among the following occupations to settle a
colony in North America. Explain the reasons for your choices in the last column.
Occupation
council members
preachers
gentlemen
carpenters
blacksmiths
sailors
barbers
bricklayers
masons
drummers
boys
fuellers
refiners
gunners
perfumers
apothecaries
surgeons
coopers
pipe makers
tradesmen
women
tailers
laborers
Optimal Number
Reason
Indentured Servitude in Virginia
Title of your document(s):
Directions: Use only the source material your group has been given to answer as many of the following
questions as possible. It is not expected that you will be able to answer all of them.
•Who were the indentured servants? For what reason(s) had they come to America? What
social class(es) had they occupied in Great Britain?
•What was the indentured servant bound by law to provide the master?
•What was the master or mistress bound by law to provide the indentured servant?
•What rights of indentured servants were curtailed by colonial laws? In what ways did
these laws create a second-class citizenry?
•What status would the indentured servant occupy upon completion of the contract? What
would the master or mistress supply the servant with upon completion of the indentures?
•From the point of view of the masters, what problems arose under the system of
indentured servitude? Was indentured servitude a reliable form of labor? Why or why not?
•What evidence do these documents provide that the laws of Jamestown were beginning
to differentiate between European, Indian and African labor?
•What evidence do these documents provide that the servant class, whether European,
African or Indian, found common ground with each other in their struggles against an
oppressive labor system? What types of laws were passed to prevent the union of restless
workers from all groups?
•From the point of view of the indentured, was the indenture contract a satisfactory
insurance of fair treatment in America, and did it offer a reasonable means to eventual
success?
•In your opinion, who was best served by the system of indenture, the master or the
servant?
•To make the colony profitable the planters needed an ever-growing source of labor. What
were potential points of conflict between the servants and their masters?
Defining the Status of an Indentured Servant in Jamestown
• Was this person a temporary slave? A full
citizen?
• What were the distinctions between servant
and slave?
Jamestown Needs Laborers
Available
Numbers &
Longevity
Africans
brought as
slaves
Indians
captured in
war
Indentured
Europeans
Skills needed for
planting & other
labors
Ability to run
away & escape
capture
Sources of legal,
political or
military recourse
From "Laws on Slavery"
–September 17, 1630: The punishment of Hugh Davis
–January 1639/40-ACT X: An act creating a legal distinction between white and black men
–October 17, 1640-Punishment for a White Man and a Black Woman Who Committed Fornication
–March 1655/6-ACT I: An act creating a distinction between Africans and Native Americans
–March 1660/1-ACT XXII: An act punishing English servants running away with Negroes
–March 1661/2-ACT CII: An act discouraging white indentured servants from running away with enslaved
blacks
–March 1661/2-ACT CV: An act prohibiting trading among servants and slaves
–March 1661/2-ACT CXXXVIII: An act stating that Native American and English servants were to serve their
masters the same length of time
–March 1661/2: A ruling providing freedom for a Native American slave
–December 1662-ACT XII: An act applying the status of the mother on children
–September 1663-ACT XVIII: An act prohibiting servants from traveling without a license
–September 1667-ACT III: An act declaring that baptism did not alter the status of slaves
–September 1668-ACT VII: An act declaring that Negro women were taxable
–October 1669-ACT I: An act legalizing the punishment and killing of slaves
–October 1670-ACT XII: An act creating further additional distinction between African Americans and Native
Americans
–September 1672-ACT VIII: An act to suppress the rebellious activities of slaves
–June 1676-ACT I: An act declaring Indians captured in war slaves for life [Bacon's Rebellion]
–June 1680-ACT X: An act attempting to prevent slave revolts
–November 1682-ACT I: An act repealing a former law making Indians and others free
–April 1691-ACT XVI: An act attempting to suppress runaway slave communities [The term "white" appears]
–April 1692-ACT III: An act stating the procedure for a slave brought to trial for a capital offense
–August 1701-ACT II: An act that offered a reward for the apprehension of a notorious runaway slave
–October 1705-CHAP. IV: An act that contains the first definition of a mulatto in Virginia's laws
–October 1705-CHAP. XXII: An act declaring the Negro, Mulatto, and Indian slaves real estate
–October 1705-CHAP. XXIV: An act for settling the Militia
–October 1705-CHAP. XLIX: An act that provides a definition of who would become a slave upon entering
Virginia
Revisionism
We usually look at the story of colonial
America as a series of steps toward
freedom.
Is there a different story: that American
democracy did not become possible for
Americans of European descent until
they had enslaved Americans of African
descent and justified that action by
deeming them a separate and inferior
race.
Definition of Race
The term race or racial group usually
refers to the categorization of humans
into populations or groups on the basis
of various sets of heritable
characteristics and self-identification
W.E.B. DuBois
“for the problem of the Twentieth Century
is the problem of the color-line”
What is the problem of the 21st Century?
1.
What categories were more important than skin color in defining
status in early colonial America?
2.
Why did the planter class turn to African slavery?
3.
What advantages did the enslavement of Africans provide the
planter class?
4.
What advantages did the enslavement of Africans provide the
indentured European class?
5.
What role did the law play in creating the permanent enslavement
of Africans?
6.
As the idea of race evolved, what presumptions were made about
American Indians?