Reading #3

1. In the English colonies, slavery developed quickly into a regular institution, into the normal labor relation of blacks to whites. With it developed that special racial feeling- whether hatred, or contempt, or pity, or patronization-that accompanied the inferior position of blacks in America for the next 350 years: that combination of inferior status and derogatory thought we call racism.
2. Zinn’s argument is that the Africans who were brought to America as slaves had no chance to escape it. One reason is because the settlers needed help with the labor in the Americas because they were not used to the climate and the workload was too much for them. They knew if they tried to enslave the Native Americans they would have no chance because they were terribly outnumbered. Another reason is that Africans had already been used as slaves in Europe so they were the obvious choice for the Americas. Slave trade became a huge portion of the economy as slave trade became very profitable. The long journeys to the slave boats and the terrible rides on the slave boats made the Africans have a helpless feeling that made it impossible to resist.
3. I agree with Zinn that the Africans had little opportunity to escape the brutal actions of the English. The English had great pride in their country and their empire therefore they did not want to lose a grip on their territory in the Americas due inability to cope with the new climate and support themselves on this new land. At this time the English were not the most dominant nation in the world. They could not use Asian, Middle Eastern, or other European cultures as slaves because those cultures were almost as far along as the English were. Zinn mentioned that it would be impossible to enslave the Native Americans due to the fact that the English were vastly outnumbered by them. The book mentioned the possibility of using low class whites as slaves, but that would not be very effective either as they would be less able to work on the land than the upper class English would. Using the Africans was the perfect option for helping the English establish themselves in America. As the text stated, the Africans were wonderful farmers. They also obeyed orders without much resistance and worked very hard for the English. That is why I believe, like Zinn, that the Africans had virtually no chance in avoiding becoming slaves. You could say that the Africans could have resisted capture in Africa, but to my knowledge at this point in history the English controlled most of the African territory. Zinn is against the ruling by the English that having slaves was the right thing to do. This made his argument a little more shaded toward the slaves’ point of view. But I have the same view so I would probably be a little biased as well
4. As I stated in the last paragraph I agreed with his assessment of slavery. This article proves that the English were not only cruel to the Native Americans. They were also extremely cruel to the Africans. The article stated that on the marches to the coast of Africa 2 out of every 5 of the Africans died and on the way to America on the way one out of every three died. So that means that if they started out with a group of 300 Africans by the time that group got to the Americas only 80 would still be alive. These malicious actions are never really looked at in history with the scope that they should be looked at with. Then once the Africans got to the Americas they were treated poorly for the rest of their lives as slaves. Are the people that built our nation really people that we should really look up to?