Takaki Ch. 3

In Ronald Takaki’s Chapter 3 of “ A Different Mirror” he focuses on the beginnings of slavery in the early colonies of the United States. Virginia was one of the first colonies where slavery took hold. Takaki makes several points about the beginning of slavery that most people never take into account. Although there were Africans in the U.S. during its start much of the labor was actually done by white indentured servants. During this time White and Black servants worked side by side. Takaki even mentions the fact that they would sometimes attempt to escape together. Here is where the differences began between the “White” servant and the “Black” slave. No matter which you were, if you were caught after running away you were punished. Usually this meant a whipping or beating. For white indentured servants extra time would have to be served towards their master in addition to the length that had previously be agreed upon. Black Africans would also receive some kind of beating or whipping but then they would be sentenced to serve their master for the rest of their lives. The way that slavery came about is that when the people of African decent were punished they were not just sentenced for the rest of their lives, but forever. This meant that their children would be born into slavery and the owners could pass the slaves on to their heirs. And thus slavery was born. Another common practice was to punish anyone who had relations with another race. For example they would whip white women when they found out that they were with child of a black man. Takaki makes the point that there were several conditions in place that made slavery occur in the United States colonies back in the 1600 and 1700’s. Another issue that arose during this time was religion. Previously Africans were thought to be heathens with no religion. Once they began to convert to Christianity laws had to be passed to separate race from religion. Takaki explains how whites would blame the Africans in order to keep the white race pure. He concludes that class was one of the major issues facing the new settlers of America. When indentured servants had served their time they had a hard time acquiring land. Blacks seemed to be a great solution for the class problem because they reinforced the superiority of the whites. The question that comes to mind is what would it have been like if the table had been turned. What is it was the Africans who belittled and enslaved the whites? Would history have continued along the same pattern? No one will ever know for sure but one can imagine it possible for one race to over power another and with the right conditions history could have played out with a different race as the superior. This is a thought that I constantly have. After reading this chapter is seems that the conditions were fit for slavery but had this varied at all the outcomes could have been much different.