'Did Racism Precede Slavery?\r'

' look for There ware been debates among scholars oer whether racialism preceded knuckle downry or vice versa. point an argument on this question apply course materials (lectures, readings, film) While some press that racial discrimination preceded slavery, I firmly deliberate that racial discrimination did non precede slavery. forrader examining the reasons behind my opinion, it is important to none how move feeds into racial discrimination, and how slavery then latches on to racism. endure is a socially constructed idea finished which a hierarchy largely stemming from the comeliness of skin color is create.As a result, disparate racial groups are formed with the snow-clad pass occupying the pass by position of this hierarchy. Because of this skin-color establish hierarchy, uninfected spate developed a sense of spiffingity and ascendence over the Black people who lie at the bottom of this hierarchy. This perception of universe superior and dominant over a nonher race based on this hierarchy is racism. A connection between slavery and racism can then be formed when the lily-white elites decide to tho subjugate the Black people when they feel their dominance and superiority is jeopardized in one track or the other.Therefore, the components of racism and slavery unitedly form racialized slavery. Holistically speaking, a three-part system involving race, racism and slavery is effectively formed. While memory components of this system in mind, it is excessively unavoidable to consider how money, convergenceivity and social dealing influence my view. When British settlers entered the New World, among their priorities was to utilize relatively inexpensive slave struggle to generate profits for them. While the freely available, local domestic Americans were auditioned, the snow-covered settlers realised they had to look elsewhere.Native Americans died via diseases stimulateed by unobjectionable settlers, and as a result we re neither fully adaptable to slave labor nor productive. Instead, black-and-blue settlers turned to bound(p) servitude. As discussed in lecture, indentured servitude saw White settlers import fellow British people and coherent them to work like slaves on cheap, 5-7 year contracts. However, this method of labor was non entirely successful since indentured servants too contracted diseases from settlers and died in numbers, while settlers in any case couldn’t dictate work disciplines at one time their contracts expired.At this point, the frustrated White settlers wanted to subscribe to in a people on whom they could place unlimited workloads to maximize productivity. This was when the British settlers turned to the African market. While the jump British colonialists arrived in 1607, the first Africans were not brought in until 1619. (Week 3 powerpoint, â€Å"slavery-1”, slide 7) It is olibanum wrong to say that racism prompted and preceded the incarceration of Africans, since it was instead the failure of the Native Americans on with high mortality rates and contract laws of indentured servants that preceded and induced the immurement of Africans.Moreover, the commit to become wealthier, not racism, convinced White settlers to enslave Africans. After failing with indentured servitude, White settlers imported Africans in stake of maximizing productivity and consequently receiving high profits. As we discussed in form, planters in Virginia were alert of the rewards they could reap by enslaving Africans. Unlike the indentured servants contracts that limited the duration of work summoned by White settlers, enslaving Africans meant that planters could put no limits on the amount of work and time they ordered of them.Therefore, the to a greater extent work you assign to slaves for a good deal longer periods, the much productivity you get, and the more money your plantation gets you. On top of this though, planters also wanted more sla ves to append the supply of money they ultimately received. Accordingly, â€Å" bow laws adopted the principle of partus sequitur ventrem- the child follows the condition of the mother unheeding of the race of the father. ” (Cannon, 1993, p. 415) convey to this law, enslaved mothers gave birth to enslaved children who went on to become pleonastic pairs of hands on plantations.In the case of children being enslaved because of their enslaved mothers, racism once again does not precede slavery. Since child enslavement holds â€Å"regardless of the race of the father”, (Cannon, 1993, p. 415) it is the mother’s status as a slave and not race that precedes and assigns the same title to her children. White settlers wanted enslavement to be cyclical, and it is for this reason why enslaved women were valuable; they produced and reproduced. Although African enslavement eventually became slavery as torture only applicable to Africans, racism does not precede slavery h ere.As more Africans were imported for enslavement purposes, the White elites’ fears exacerbated. fifty-fifty though African enslavement was the ace answer to increased wealth for White planters, indentured servitude was not extinct. Friendships between Africans and blue-collar Whites existed, and the White elites were concerned these alliances would undermine their send for powers and provoke a class insurrection. It was at this juncture in 1660 that racialized slavery in Virginia (Week 3 powerpoint, â€Å"slavery-1”, slide 7), a product of components in the system, was only specific to the Africans.Not only did racialized slavery prevent a class conflict between Whites, but also brought racism to the fore. As a system component in this case, racism is a perception of superiority and dominance from the White elites’ to the Africans. Hence, racialized slavery again supports my view since it was the enslavement of Africans and their interactions with lower-cl ass Whites that preceded and incited racism. One can easily get confused by racism and slavery, and claim that slavery would never exhaust occurred without an onslaught of racism.However, the series of events involving White settlers, Native Americans, indentured servants and imported Africans are nearly logical when we argue that racism did not precede slavery. If the White settlers were racists ever since they arrived in the New World, indentured servitude would never have existed. Without the interaction of Africans and lower-class Whites, racialized slavery would not have been legitimatized, and Black people would not have been historically associated with slavery the most.\r\n'