Much of the early history of the Virginia colonial experiment is the history of a charnel house as disease, Indians, and overwork conspired to kill colonists in appalling numbers. This shocking death-rate conspired to ensure that the lands and opportunities remained open through the first fifty years of the colony 's life. By the latter part of the 17th century change came to Virginia and the opportunities once so plentiful began to disappear, the population, increasing, began to divide the land and the classes more fully and as discontent grew solutions had to be arrived at, eventually resulting in the rise of race-based chattel slavery. The merciful decline in Virginian mortality cannot be positively linked to any one factor (Morgan, p.
…show more content…
Piracy had long been endemic, but so were smaller acts of resistance, most especially the killing of livestock an act that not only struck out but fed the hungry (Morgan, pp. 198, 237). It is perhaps surprising then, that when rebellion did finally flare up it initially focused not on the oppressors, but on the Indians. Bacon 's rebellion started as a response to fears over government inaction in response to Indian raids (Morgan, p. 253-59). Settlers, pushed ever further into the borderlands between the colony and Indian territory came in to greater and greater conflict with their new neighbors and saw government attempts at conciliation and peace as unacceptable, they wanted retribution, they wanted someone to blame (Morgan, p. 258-60). The rebellion began with crusading zeal, killing Indians without regard for tribe or affiliation, supporters eventually defining enemy Indians as “any that left their towns without English permission” (Morgan, p. 263). The focus of the rebellion managed to stay on the Indians for much of its length, but eventually in the face of government resistance, the discontented began to finally see the colony 's establishment as their true enemy and began to run amok, plundering the estates and lands of the wealthy, servants and slaves promised freedom flocked to the rebellion 's banner eventually burning Jamestown and forcing the governor to …show more content…
Slavery became the obvious course of action, create a class of servant that would never become free, and never be able to challenge their masters meaningfully. A system that offered the advantages of servants with those of cattle (Morgan, p. 310). While slavery had existed in the colony since the near beginning it had not been sufficiently economically viable as mortality in English servants made them a cheaper investment (Morgan, p. 297-98). Once the economic viability of slavery became a reality in the latter part of the seventeenth century, the question become one of implementation. While some thought was given to the idea of enslaving poor Englishmen, the level of violence and brutality necessary to enslave men coupled with the fear that discontented and displaced freedmen would make common cause with the slave led to the construction of a racial basis to the growing institution (Morgan, p. 313, 328). Slavery became the fate of Indians and Blacks, alien populations, otherized by their skin color and their faith (Morgan, p. 328-29). They were people that could be treated as chattel, as somehow inhuman, and free to be punished in ways that would be unthinkable for an English servant (Morgan, p. 313). Race, not a necessary precondition for slavery, became the method of justifying and sustaining it (Morgan,
Piracy had long been endemic, but so were smaller acts of resistance, most especially the killing of livestock an act that not only struck out but fed the hungry (Morgan, pp. 198, 237). It is perhaps surprising then, that when rebellion did finally flare up it initially focused not on the oppressors, but on the Indians. Bacon 's rebellion started as a response to fears over government inaction in response to Indian raids (Morgan, p. 253-59). Settlers, pushed ever further into the borderlands between the colony and Indian territory came in to greater and greater conflict with their new neighbors and saw government attempts at conciliation and peace as unacceptable, they wanted retribution, they wanted someone to blame (Morgan, p. 258-60). The rebellion began with crusading zeal, killing Indians without regard for tribe or affiliation, supporters eventually defining enemy Indians as “any that left their towns without English permission” (Morgan, p. 263). The focus of the rebellion managed to stay on the Indians for much of its length, but eventually in the face of government resistance, the discontented began to finally see the colony 's establishment as their true enemy and began to run amok, plundering the estates and lands of the wealthy, servants and slaves promised freedom flocked to the rebellion 's banner eventually burning Jamestown and forcing the governor to …show more content…
Slavery became the obvious course of action, create a class of servant that would never become free, and never be able to challenge their masters meaningfully. A system that offered the advantages of servants with those of cattle (Morgan, p. 310). While slavery had existed in the colony since the near beginning it had not been sufficiently economically viable as mortality in English servants made them a cheaper investment (Morgan, p. 297-98). Once the economic viability of slavery became a reality in the latter part of the seventeenth century, the question become one of implementation. While some thought was given to the idea of enslaving poor Englishmen, the level of violence and brutality necessary to enslave men coupled with the fear that discontented and displaced freedmen would make common cause with the slave led to the construction of a racial basis to the growing institution (Morgan, p. 313, 328). Slavery became the fate of Indians and Blacks, alien populations, otherized by their skin color and their faith (Morgan, p. 328-29). They were people that could be treated as chattel, as somehow inhuman, and free to be punished in ways that would be unthinkable for an English servant (Morgan, p. 313). Race, not a necessary precondition for slavery, became the method of justifying and sustaining it (Morgan,