African World Perspectives Test 2 Flashcards

Racecraft

the physical emblems that symbolize race are not ground upon which race emerges as a category of thought and practice

Thomas Smythe is described in the book White Cargo as:

a. financial genius

b. England and America's first 'tycoon'

c. at the center of debates about the 'lawless poor' that raged in England during the 1590s

d. 'driving force' in the Virginia colonization project

e. a young man 'destined to play a big role in bringing White slavery to Virginia'

John Rolfe

discovers that the soil there is ideal for Tall Tobacco

Spring 1619: Sandys and Smythe part ways

- Smythe and Sandys lock horns

about the issue of piracy as well

as the actions of the colony's

governor, Sam Argall

- Smythe is fired from his post as

the treasurer of the Virginia

Company

- Sandys get the job instead

- He introduces two revolutionary

innovations: Bridal Boats & The

Headright System

Free willers

people who bound themselves to Americans in exchange for getting their passage paid for

convicts

given the 'choice' to board a ship for the colonies or serve a long jail term or possibly be put to death

big issues of the House of Burgesses

How to control servants

How to deal with the problem of 'desertion' (servants ditching their masters) and 'poaching' (masters taking servants from other masters)

What kind of punishments were permissible for what kinds of offenses

what does Racecraft refer to?

not to groups or to ideas of about groups' traits, refers instead to mental terrain and to persuasive belief

what does Racecraft originate in?

not in nature but in human action and imagination

T/F: is racecraft a euphemistic substitute for racism?

False

How does Fields use the term racecraft?

emphasize that although we tend to think about 'race' or 'racial differences' as somehow grounded in nature, they are profoundly ideological

what does Fields mean by ideological?

not only are our ideas about race wholly invented by human beings but also the very act of determining which aspects of our human physicality are 'racial' is also driven largely by specific political decisions at a specific time

What is a form of 'racecraft'?

Race categories

What does 'race' stand for?

stands for the conception or the doctrine that nature produced humankind in distinct groups, each defined by inborn traits that its members share that differentiate them from the members of distinct groups of the same kind

Problem 1

the 'inborn traits' that have been imagined to be 'racial' ones has changed dramatically over time and have been defined by politics, not nature

Problem 2

there is no trait that persons who are socially defined as being in a particular 'race' have that cannot be found in great abundance among persons defined to be of a different 'race'

Ethnicity however CANNOT be discerned via genetic testing!

1. We don't know what 'ethnicity' is from a scientific point of view

2. As a 'folk wisdom' we use the terms 'race and ethnicity' and in our minds, 'race' is one thing and 'ethnicity' is another

3. However, neither has any kind of sound biological bases- social inventions

what does 'racecraft' highlight?

the ability of pre- or non-scientific modes of thought to hijack the minds of the scientifically literate

what if the scientific logic is non-racial?

the folk classification ought to wither under its influence; to adhere to both old and new

"Hispanic"

new census category hatched a new pseudo-genetic population

distinguishing blood and rare antigens

taken another step in 2007 toward becoming a race when enterprising researchers sought, and received, taxpayers' money for research on something called a "Hispanic" genome

Race

not only learn how the categories where invented but also who is responsible for the invention and why

also learn 'races' as politically constituted categories we are 'assigned to' rather than as categories that arise from nature

What are we led to believe racism is?

was the impetus for slavery or that 'race' came first and enslavement came after

How was race invented?

as a technology of social control; how certain human traits came to be understood as 'racial' traits; and why the belief that race is a transmissible biological trait is so engrained

What is racism?

refers to the theory and the practice of applying a social, civic, or legal double standard based on ancestry, and to the ideology surrounding such a double standard

What does the substitution of "race" for "racism" do?

transforms the act of a subject into an attribute of the object

Thomas Jefferson

judged slavery essential to the project of extending the sovereignty of the United States over the American continent, tried to solve the contradiction between enslavement and the natural right to freedom by interpreting slavery as a fact of the slaves' inferior nature

What are we led to believe?

Racism was the impetus for slavery or that 'race' came first and enslavement came after

What do American historians think of slavery as?

primarily a system of race relations-production of white supremacy rather than the production of cotton, sugar, rice and tobacco

the same end so much more simply by leaving the Africans in Africa

What would have happened to the slaveholders?

if the slaveholders had produced white supremacy without producing cotton, their class would have perished in short order

What was slavery as?

was a system for the extortion of labor, not for the management of "race relations", whether by segregation or by integration

What is the reason that a whole society commits to belief in propositions?

Ideology; impossible for anyone to analyze rationally who remains trapped on its terrain

Why is race not an idea but an ideology?

came to existence at a discernible historical moment for rationally understandable historical reasons and is subject to change for similar reasons

How do we conceptualize the connection between slavery and 'race' in a way that is neither metaphysical nor trans-historical?

1. Understand that slavery is first and foremost an economic strategy

2. Understand why is it better to think of 'race' as an ideology rather than an 'identity' we choose or as a set of biological traits that differentiate one group from another

3. Understand how slavery was a very real historical process that drove the construction of the ideological categories 'Black' and 'White'

What is an ideology?

best understood as the descriptive vocabulary of day-to-day existence, people make rough sense of the social reality that they live and create from day to day

the interpretation in thought of the social relations through which they constantly create and re-create their collective being

not delusions but real

not need to be plausible to outsiders

'Race', Racism, and Ideology: The Conceptual Distinction

race and racism belong to different families of social construction

race belongs to the same as the evil eye

racism belongs to murder and genocide

not a fiction, an illusion, a superstition, or a hoax (crime against humanity)

What is ideology not?

not a material entity, thing of any sort that you can hand down, pass on, spread or impose

not a collection of disassociated beliefs

Eric Williams Thesis

slavery has been too narrowly identified with the negro

when slavery is adopted, it is not adopted as the choice over free labor, there is no choice at all

Age of Discovery

a period of time from the 15th to 17th century in which Europeans explored and mapped the world

major rivalry develops between Spain and Portuguese

Treaty of Tordesillas

A 1494 agreement between Portugal and Spain, declaring that newly discovered lands to the west of an imaginary line in the Atlantic Ocean would belong to Spain and newly discovered lands to the east of the line would belong to Portugal.

John Cabot

Italian explorer who led the English expedition in 1497 that discovered the mainland of North America and explored the coast from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland (ca. 1450-1498)

John Hawkins

One of the most famous Elizabethan Sea Dogs; deeply involved in slave trade and transported people from West Africa to the New World; eventually overshadowed by his partner Francis Drake, though he was highly successful too

Humphrey Gilbert

an English courtier whose interest in a Northwest Passage through North America to the Orient led him to an unsuccessful attempt to found an English colony in Newfoundland in the early 1580s. He was lost at sea on the return voyage.

Sir Walter Raleigh

An English adventurer and writer, who was prominent at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, and became an explorer of the Americas. In 1585, Raleigh sponsored the first English colony in America on Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina. It failed and is known as " The Lost Colony."

Richard Hakluyt

English promoter of exploration. In 1584 he wrote A Discourse of Western Planting in which he pleaded for colonies to accomplish diverse objects: to extend the reformed religion, to expand trade, to supply England's needs from her own dominions, and various other reasons for exploration.

John White

Leader of the English colony of Roanoke in 1587

'lawless poor'

growing population of very poor people (16th-18th centuries)

thrown off the land or 'natural disasters'

rich never have to worry about having their fun disrupted by the poor

Political Economy of Colonialism

time referred to the questions of political constraints and opportunities

place referred to two locations: North America (receiving) and England (sending); unique opportunities and constraints

Labor referred to what opportunities and constraints faced the person hiring or seeking labor and person being hired and sought

Soil referred to what grew well where and under what conditions

colonial possessions of the British

self-sufficient small farm and colony which has facilities for the production of staple articles on a large scale for an export market

In the mainland tobacco colonies

"land and capital were both useless unless labor could be commanded"

Tall Tobacco

a strain of tobacco that has a taste and potency that English people cannot get enough of

In the tobacco colonies

labor must be constant

labor must work under arduous and trying conditions

labor must work in cooperation

labor must be subject to harsh discipline

independence on the part of the laborer will not be tolerated

Who did the English settlers go to develop agriculture in the New American colonies?

Native Americans

Indentured Servitude

both a positive attraction from the New World and a negative repulsion from the Old World

Frances Bacon

by emigration England would gain a double commodity in avoidance of people here and in making use of them there

Jamestown Settlement

the first permanent English settlement in North America, 1607, an economic venture by the Virginia Company

1609

Sir Thomas Smythe orders a report about the economic prospects for the Virginia Colony

The Colonizing of Virginia argues that investors should forget about looking for gold and concentrate on developing a trading colony

1610

Smythe takes over the job of directing the colony

1613

John Rolfe produces Tall Tobacco

most urgent problem for the colony

securing enough labor

Act of Relief for the poor (1597)

1. Parishes can only support the old and the sick

2. 'Severe punishments' can be given to the 'able bodied' poor

3. Punishable offenses are: stealing, poaching, begging, prostitution, gambling, 'wandering', being a gypsy, palm reader, actor or musician

4. Punishments include: hanging, slow death by torture, dismemberment, tongue 'boring', or 'transportation' out of England

1615

convicts can be sent out of England and the New World

Magna Carta protects certain individual rights of all Englishmen against the 'arbitrary authority' of despotic rulers

new law 'offers transportation' as an act of royal mercy

Royal Mercy

convicts could 'choose' to escape death by accepting a lesser punishment of 'transportation' to the colonies

1606

sending the poor to the colonies provided two-sided benefit: "in the avoidance of people here and the use made of them over there"

sending away included: Irish Catholics, poor peasants, orphaned children, political rebels, starving people

The meeting at St.Paul's Cathedral

1617: 100 church elders from 100 parishes were called to a meeting to discuss street children

agreed to examine each parish with the aim of ridding the city of as many children as possible (Virginia as the solution)

Winter 1618: The 'Negotiations' Begin

•The Aldermen of the City of London begin talking to two

representatives of the Virginia Company: Sir Thomas Smythe

and Sir Edwin Sandys

•The topic at hand is whether the two entities can work together

to 'solve' their individual problems

•After several weeks of haggling an agreement is struck: The city would pay Virginia Co. ￡5/child to remove the child from London and relocate them to Virginia

•Children had to be between 8-16 years and have been born in London

•The law was disguised as an humanitarian intervention. The Virginia Company was depicted as a savior of starving children who would learn a trade in the colony and one day be granted land

August 8, 1618: The 'round-ups' begin

Bridewell functions as a 'holding pen' and a key part of Smythe and Sandys plan (along with the Mayor of London) to 'sweep London clear of street children and ship them to colonies in the New World'

•The first four children taken are 3 boys (Robert King, John Bromley, and Andrew Nuttinge) and 1 girl, Jane Wenchman

•They are charged with vagrancy and 'held for Virginia'

•Over the next 6 months, 108 boys and 28 girls between the ages of 8-16 are sentenced to the same fate

The Headright System

Headrights were parcels of land consisting of about 50 acres which were given to colonists who brought indentured servants into America. They were used by the Virginia Company to attract more colonists.

indenture

the written agreement between the corporation and the lender detailing the terms of the debt issue

Redemptioners

Indentured families or persons who received passage to the New World in exchange for a promise to work off their debt in America.

Spiriting

Kidnapping people in England and forcibly taking them to work in the colonies

Bridal Boats

• These boats were packed with desperate women (many were prostitutes)

• The idea was framed as having the aim of encouraging planters to stay in Virginia and get married

• In reality, it was nothing more than human trafficking. If you were wealthy could 'buy' as many maids as you wanted for a set price (between 20-120 pounds of tobacco per person)• Male indentured servants were not to be given access to the 'maids' (this arrangement was for the rich, only)

• The business of stocking bridal boats and selling maids and apprentices became so profitable that Sandys chartered a new joint stock company concerned exclusively with 'marketing maids'

•So many convicts, paupers, and vagrants are being sent to North America that Ben Franklin complained—he asked "if England be so justified in sending her convicts to the North American colonies, whether the colonies would be justified in sending England their rattlesnakes in exchange"

June 1619: 1st Colonial Meeting (in Virginia) on the 'Servant Question'

- introduced the first mechanism for colonial self-government: The House of Burgesses

The House of Burgesses

1619 - The Virginia House of Burgesses formed, the first legislative body in colonial America. Later other colonies would adopt houses of burgesses.

bond-servants

persons who serve a master without pay, usually in return for passage or other consideration

Positive features of NYT 1619 Project

1. Seeks to make slavery central to the dynamics of American history

2. Highlights the foundational role of slavery in the American economic system

3. Documents the resiliency of the enslaved

4. Connects slavery in the past to central American institutions in the present—insurance industry, education, and the healthcare system

Problematic features of NYT 1619 Project

1. Presents a teleological historical narrative. A teleological argument is one wherein the author has the advantage of knowing an historical outcome and thus reads back into history and selectively presents evidence so as to make it appear that the historical outcome was inevitable

2. It imposes our current classificatory system onto the past

3. It makes slavery seem like it unfolded in a predictable and unchanging manner and was unchanged from 1619-1865

1619: The White Lion

• was an English privateering ship captained by John Colwyn Jupe

  • inherited the ship from Sir Francis Drake

• took the 20 enslaved persons as part of the precious metals and other valuables that were part of the haul

• 20 enslaved persons arrived in a colony with no legal architecture for handling ‘slaves for life’ and thus had to ‘make do’ with the legal architecture that had been constructed to deal with indentured servants

• purchase of enslaved persons did not immediately kick of a long-term trend

• almost ten years after the arrival, there were still only 23 persons of African descent in the colony

majority of the Africans from the White Lion were bought by two wealthy colonists:

1. The Governor of the Colony, Sir George Yeardley

2. Abraham Piersey, the Virginia Company’s trading agent

1650

out of a population of 11,000 persons, there were only 300 persons from Africa in the colony

Was there a real ‘market’ for the Africans taken from the White Lion?

• no

• only very few wealthy colonists could even consider taking on a servant to serve a lifetime term

• most wealthy people in the colony would see a ‘servant for life’ as imposing too many financial risks and burdens

• type of work would be more easily accomplished with a cooperative laborer

Why was the Virginia Colony a dangerous place?

disease, war with Native Americans, hunger, injury etc. made it likely that a servant that you took on ‘for life’ would only be useful for a very short time

Anthony Johnson: One of the First Africans in Virginia

• probably from either Angola or the Kongo Kingdom

• arrived on the White Lion (first listed as “Antonio, a Negro”)

• Anthony is probably an Anglicized version of the Portuguese name ‘Antonio’

‘census’ taken in the colony in 1625

• lists many names that indicate some that the 23 African listed had contact with the Portuguese

  • names included: Angelo, Antonio, Anthony, Isabell, Jon/Dom Pedro

  • names indicate prior contact with the Portuguese and possible Catholic baptism

  • some of the Africans who arrived in the colony may have spoken Portuguese or even some English

Edward Bennet

Johnson’s first master sold him to this person

Bennet’s Welcome

Bennet put Johnson and 50 other servants to work clearing woods in anticipation of building a plantation on banks of the Saint James River

• fellow servants were killed when Chief Powhatan and his soldiers launched attacked the settlement

• Anthony was one of 12 people who survived

Mary Johnson

• arrived aboard the Margaret and John in 1622

• Mary probably began her transatlantic journey due to the actions of Portuguese slavers

• probably also came from the Kongo region

• would have been carried to VA as a slave unless she was able to bargain for a shorter term of service

• listed in census as ‘Mary, A Negro Woman’

Anthony and Mary

• after indentures were completed, they wed (year unknown)

• moved to Virginia’s eastern shore and, purchased property, and started a family

• their children were born free and intermarried freely with their fellow Virginians

Angola

Johnson was able to take advantage of the headright scheme and accumulated 1,000 acres

John Casor

• one of Johnson’s servants

• claimed that he had served out his indenture and he no longer owed Johnson anything

• took the case to court and won, Casor owed at least 2 more ears of service

Backdrop to changes in the status of African and English ‘bond servants’ (1640-1700)

• until the 1700s, Europe (not Africa) was the preferred place to get ‘bond servants’. However, from the 1640s, there were growing fears of a drastic reduction in the number of servants coming from England due to:

  1. Reports from currently indentured back home to relatives

  2. Political pressure in England about the ‘servant question’

  3. Reports from interested witnesses

  4. Increased resistance from English indentured servants as their conditions of work became worst and their masters tried various ‘tricks’ to increase their length of service and cheat them out of their ‘freedo

The ‘supply chain’ issue: English Civil Wars

English went to war against each other in 1642

• major disruption to the supply of servants

  • healthy men and boys were needed for the army

  • many thousands of healthy people died

Who took over as Lord Protector of England in 1649 when the King was beheaded?

Oliver Cromwell, a soldier and statesman and leader of the resistance to royal authority

1640s

the first instances of persons of African ancestry being treated differently from persons of different national origin in the colonies

• wealthy masters were not yet thinking about securing much labor from Africa

  • devise ways to increase their control over the servants that they already had

• as they experimented with ways to extend terms of indenture and have more control over the children of indentured servants the national origin of servants became important because it potentially limited what masters could ‘get away with’

What argument was made when King Charles was beheaded?

he was a ‘traitor to the people of England’

Civil War of England

Civil War had actually started as a war between the King and the members of Parliament

• resisted the KIng’s authority by making the argument that Parliament represented ‘the people of England’ and the authority of Parliament came from the fact that they represented ‘the people/the citizens’ of England

• revolutionary doctrine that had a big impact in the colonies and at home

1640: three ‘bond seravnts’ in the colony who were bound to Hugh Gwynn ran away

Victor, a Dutchman, James a Scotchman, John Punch A Negro

• Victor and James were punished with 30 lashes and further years added to their terms of service

• Punch, however, not only got the 30 lashes, he also had his indenture extended for the rest of his life

  • by no means automatic that every ‘Negro’ had the same fate

Chris Miller, a Dutchman, John Williamson, a Dutchman, Peter Wilcox, an Englishman, Andrew Noxe, Englishman, and Emmanuel ‘a Negro’ also plotted and ran away together

plotted and ran away in the same year

• all men got the same sentence: 30 lashes branded on their face with ‘R’ for runaway, and extended service

• Miller got 1 extra year, Wilcox got 3 extra years, Williamson got 7 extra years, and Emmanuel ‘the Negro’ also only got 1 year while Noxe only got the 30 lashes and no extra time added

Supply Chain Issue: Communication between the colonies and England

• existence of a ‘telephone line’ connecting people back home to people in the colonies was a major factor constraining how far masters would go in depriving English servants of their basic rights

• this was not posed in terms of ‘race’ but rather in term of about which persons was it easiest to make the case that they did not necessarily and automatically enjoy the rights of that had to be accorded to ‘the people’ of England

The ‘telephone line’

the fact that if they were treated poorly it would have a major impact on the English of Portuguese who needed to keep the relationship going

• major factor arguing against the enslavement English ‘bond servants’ for life and in favor of the enslavement of African ‘bond servants’ for life

Africans in Virginia: The telephone line begins to fray…

• for most of the 1600s, the number of persons arriving in VA from Africa was very small

  • only came as laborers/servants

  • no ‘merchant princes’

• these ‘bond servants’ from Africa often had been enslaved as prisoners of war in Africa

  • were uniquely vulnerable in ways that made their situation quite different from both their fellow English servants in VA and folks like Coree and Prince Dederi