". . .When compared to other countries that carried out colonial conquests in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and South America, the United States was not exceptional in the sheer amount of violence it imposed to achieve sovereignty over territories it appropriated. . .What distinguishes the U.S. experiences is not the type of violence involved, but rather the historical narratives attached to that violence. . .From the first settlement, appropriating land from its stewards became a 'racialized' war, 'civilization' against 'savagery', and thereby was inherently genocidal" Roxanne Dunbar -Ortiz
According to historian Gerald Horne, approximately five million indigenous people were enslaved in the Americas, between the 15th and 19th centuries. As a result of fatal diseases, harsh labor and violent confrontations with European colonialists, these populations declined in many places by as much as 90%. "The majority of the enslaved were women and children, an obvious precursor, and trailblazer for the sex trafficking of today. But for the massive revolt of the indigenous in 1680 in what is now New Mexico, the toll might have been worse" (10)
"Compared to Blacks, Native Americans were a bargain. In a pamphlet from 1712, the price of a young Native woman was quoted as low as £18{pounds}. Native workers could also be purchased with animal skins rather than cash.
In a court case about this time in Charleston, a Native adult slave was appraised at 160 skins while a child was recorded sold for 60 skins. The hides usually came from deer, but beaver and other skins could be substituted. The equivalence of pelts and people would have been the idea of the white 'Indian traders', who had plenty of both on hand" (11)
Between 1629 and 1645, thousands of Puritans migrated from Britain to the British colonies in America. Even though many of these were religious and political dissenters, or had endured actual enslavement in North Africa, once in the New World, they proceeded to impose tyranny on the indigenous.
"The first Jamestown settlers lacked a supply line and proved unable or unwilling to grow crops or hunt for their own sustenance. They decided that they would force the farmers of the Powhatan Confederacy - some 30 polities - to provide them with food. Jamestown military leader John Smith threatened to kill all the women and children if the Powhatan leaders would not feed and clothe the settlers as well as provide them with land and labor. The leader of the Confederacy, Wahusonacock, entreated the invaders:
"Why should you take by force from us which you can have by love? Why should you destroy us, who have provided you with food? What can you get by war? What is the cause of your jealousy? You see us unarmed, and willing to supply your wants, if you will come in a friendly manner, and not with swords and guns." (12)
Unfortunately, Smith acted on his threat and initiated a war on the Powhatans in 1609. Moreover, the governor of the colony, Thomas Gage, enlisted forces led by George Percy (a mercenary who had previously fought in the Netherlands) to destroy the indigenous nation. In spite of the attacks the latter managed to not only protect their grain storage, they were also able to force the Jamestown settlers to retreat to their colonial fortress.
After organizing more powerful alliances of indigenous nations, the Powhatans attacked all the English settlements along the James River; killing a third of the inhabitants. Subsequently, the colonists retaliated by systematically destroying all of the indigenous agricultural resources.
Another confrontation occurred twelve years later - The Tidewater War (1644-46). For the most part it was driven by settler 'raiding parties' on indigenous villages and fields, designed to starve the natives out of the area. The strategy worked. The few indigenous families which remained lived under the total domination of the English colonists.
"Just before the 1620 landing of the Mayflower, smallpox had spread from English trading ships off the coast to the Pequot fishing and farming communities on land, greatly reducing the population of the area the Plymouth Colony would occupy. King James attributed the epidemic to God's "great goodness and bounty toward us."
Consequently, those who survived in the indigenous communities had little means to immediately resist the settlers' expropriation of their lands and resources. Sixteen years later, however, the indigenous villages had recovered and were considered a barrier to the settlers moving into Pequot territory in Connecticut. A single violent incident triggered a devastating Puritan war against the Pequots in what the colony's annals and subsequent history texts call the Pequot War." (13)
Once again, the Puritan settlers initiated a vicious war of annihilation, killing men, women and children or taking them hostage. In retaliation the indigenous attacked various English settlements throughout Connecticut. Mercenary John Mason subsequently led a force against the two Pequot strongholds on the Mystic River. One was occupied by Pequot warriors; the other, by women, children and old men, exclusively. Mason targeting the latter first. Then, after killing most of the warriors, his forces set the indigenous encampments on fire, burning alive the remaining inhabitants.
"So it was from the planting of the first British colonies in North America. . . Among the initial leaders of those ventures were military men - mercenaries - who brought with them their previous war experiences in Britain's anti-Muslim Crusades. Those who put together and led the first colonial armies, such as John Smith in Virginia, Myles Standish at Plymouth, John Mason in Connecticut and John Underhill in Massachusetts, had fought in the bitter, brutal and bloody religious wars ongoing in Europe, at the time of the first settlements. They had long practiced burning towns and fields and killing the unarmed and vulnerable." (14)
In colonial America class divisions were firmly entrenched. Until the 18th century the most pervasive social cleavage was between plantation owners and white servants, most of whom would became, for all practical purposes, debt slaves. Even in the northern colonies (where plantation slavery was not as widespread as in the South), Benjamin Franklin is quoted as saying, in 1759:
"Most of the work here is done by indentured servants."
A predominantly African labor force became necessary only when indigenous labor was exhausted - through disease and genocide - and European labor gradually became inaccessible and inadequate.
Nonetheless, as late as the end of the 18th century no more than about one out of every four bond laborers were 'black'. This meant that most were 'white'. Thus there was a considerable amount of collaboration among the two groups. Also, there were many occasions when free persons assisted enslaved laborers in running away to freedom.
"Maroon communities, composed of fugitive slaves and their descendants," writes Angela Davis in her book, Women, Race and Class, "could be found throughout the South as early as 1642 and as late as 1864. These communities were havens for fugitives, served as bases for marauding expeditions against nearby plantations and at times supplied leadership to planned uprisings"
Chattel enslaved black people resisted their bondage in many ways. These included work slowdowns, breaking of tools, sabotage of crops and animals, murder of masters and, at least, 200 documented insurrections. The most popular form of resistance, however, was 'flight',i.e., escape, to free states and territories.
"Blacks ran away to Indian villages, and the Creeks and Cherokees harbored runaway slaves by the hundreds. Many of these were amalgamated into the Indian tribes, married, produced children. . .It was the combination of poor whites and blacks that caused the most fear among the wealthy white planters." (15)
There were other 'pecuniary' concerns, too. . .
"From the planter standpoint there had always been one serious problem associated with indentured servitude: this system of labor did not provide them with a permanent workforce. Those who survived their term of indenture, and who had the prospect of land ownership, had absolutely no incentive to reenter the labor market as hired hands. They might even go on to compete with their former masters in the labor market. Even if they didn't, the time their masters spent training them would have to be spent all over again on their replacement." (16)
In 1640 the Virginia General Court was receiving daily complaints about servants escaping, with chattel slaves, from their servitude:
"Victor, a Dutchman, James Gregory, a Scotchman, and a Negro named John Punch escaped together to Maryland.
Seven bond-laborers - Andrew Noxe, Richard Hill, Richard Cookson, Christopher Miller, Peter Wilcocke, John Williams, and a Negro named Emanuel escaped in a stolen boat"(17)
"In the fall of 1645, a Negro, named Philip, was reported to have helped a runaway European bond-laborer, Sibble Ford, hide from her pursuers for twenty days in a cave. (18)
"Some ten bond-laborers ran away together from Eastern Shore plantations. Making use of a horse named Tom Hall and a good boat, they headed for points north. . Although John Bloxan and Robert Hodge were taken within a week, it was four years before Miles Grace was caught. Thomas Hedrington and Robin Parker, and possibly others, were still free. John Tarr was captured, but as soon as he could he again escaped with three others. Tarr was caught again, but the others succeeded in eluding their pursuers " (19)
In A Peoples' History of the United States, Zinn cites the consternation of enslavers about the irrepressible cross-color sexual attraction among the bonded laborers.. He cites how a grand jury in Charleston, South Carolina complained about the "too common practice of criminal conversation with Negro and other slave wenches in this province." Moreover, enslaved Europeans and Africans were producing many 'mixed' offspring. Consequently, laws were passed to prevent these unions, contradicting the notion that there was a natural antipathy between the multicultural laborers.
Arguably, the proverbial straw that, almost, "broke the camel's back" was Bacon's Rebellion. . .
The rebellion - one of the longest, most violent conflicts in colonial America - began in August of 1676 and was led by Nathaniel Bacon. At that time there were approximately 150 chattel slaves and 6,000 indentured servants in Virginia. About a third of the 'free' people (many of whom had previously been in bondage, of some sort) were living in dire debt-poverty and taxation.
Bacon, however, had descended from an aristocratic European family and became a prominent part of the colony's 'Privy Council'. Three years after arriving in Jamestown indigenous warriors attacked his landholdings. Subsequently, he organized an armed mass of poor people . . .
"It is likely that a fair number among Bacon's following wanted to push Indians off desirable lands or felt an impulse to lash out against them in retaliation for recent frontier attacks. There is also little doubt that a sizable number of Bacon's men were frustrated by declining tobacco prices amid an economic downturn that made it more difficult to acquire good land.
Valuable acreage was hoarded by those whom one contemporary called the 'land lopers', who bought up (or 'lopped' off) large tracts, without actually settling them. The 'lopers' had inside connections to the governor."(18) The less "connected', otoh, having no choice but to venture out into the 'frontier', i.e., indigenous-occupied territory, felt they were being used by wealthy colonial leaders, and landowners, as a buffer between them and hostile 'natives'.
It was suspected, by Governor Berkeley, even before the uprising occurred, that there would be a foreign invasion or a large-scale attack by the indigenous, which could possibly change into class conflagration. "The poor, indebted, discontented and armed," Berkeley wrote, "would use the opportunity to plunder the country and seize the property" of the elite planters."
Nevertheless, Bacon issued a "Declaration in the Name of the People", accusing the governor of protecting, favoring and emboldening the indigenous population against "His Majesties most loyal subjects". Bacon had managed to muster a force of about 500 disgruntled Africans and Europeans to wage his fight. Berkeley responded by characterizing the insurgents as "warlike" and "committed to treason".
Bacon's rebels burned Jamestown, forcing Berkeley to flee the colony. The British Crown wound up sending soldiers across the Atlantic Ocean to quell the uprising but it took more than a year to do so. The rebellion resounded throughout the colonies.
"What made Bacon's Rebellion especially fearsome for the rulers of Virginia was that black slaves and white servants joined forces. The final surrender was, four hundred English and Negroes in Arms, at one garrison, and three hundred freemen and African and English bond-servants in another garrison. The naval commander who subdued the 400 wrote:
Most of them I persuaded to go to their homes, which accordingly they did, except about 80 Negroes and 20 English" (20)
The lessons were not lost on the colonial ruling class. . .
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