In regards to Morgan's book we discussed what came first- racism or slavery. It was suggested that slavery came first and from that racism grew. African American's were not always subjugated because of the color of their skin. Having this these discussion fresh in my mind from last weeks class I began reading Wood's book. In the first section of the book Wood is describing the culture of colonial America and the idea of dependency, more specifically the dependency of slaves and servants to their master. It was interesting to read on page 54 that, "as late as 1720 some southern planters still lumped black slaves and white servants together as dependents. William Byrd in his Secret Diary mentioned about fifty servants by name, but he rarely differentiated between black and white servants; when he did so it was only to distinguish between two servants bearing the same name."
Does this mean that skin color was not an "issue" among some colonists even into the 1720s? I would think if African Americans were considered less of a people than whites from the get go, that when naming servants, African Americans and white servants would either not have been listed together or there would have been more of an effort to list the race. If so does this external source (Wood's book) support the proposed thesis of Morgan, that slavery came first and then racism?
My understanding is that as fewer white servants were coming to VA in the 1760s, black slaves became a replacment for the diminishing numbers of white servants. In this respect, the color of skin was not an issue - having an available, "bound" labor force was the issue. In time, just as servants were marked for their type of enslavement - not forever though like slavery without hope for future freedom - the black skin of slaves became markers of identification for the labor force that was bounded, or, enslaved, to the owners. Later, racism developed in response to this marking of enslavment, just as racism had developed toward the Native Indians. This is how I understand that slavery beget racism.
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