Two Views of Slavery
Uploaded by sammy69 on Oct 26, 2011
This paper compares and contrasts two books about slavery on the Eastern Shore of Virginia in the late 17th Century. (4 pages; two sources; MLA citation style)
I Introduction
Two books, one by Betty Wood (The Origins of American Slavery) and the other by Breen and Innes (Myne Owne Ground), describe the conditions of blacks on the Eastern Shore of Virginia in the late 17th Century. This paper discusses the books briefly.
II How are the Arguments Different/Similar?
The arguments used by the authors are similar in one sense: they repeatedly point out that it is unfair to view slavery from our modern perspective. Instead, they remind us that for the people of the period, slave owing was a matter of economic survival, and set their works in that context.
The greatest difference lies in the authors’ choices with regard to the amount of material they cover. Wood discuses the question of slavery in a large, global perspective; Breen and Innes concentrate on the specific area of Virginia that is of interest to them.
III The Most Convincing or Illuminating Argument; Why?
Although both books do a good job of explaining why the English colonists felt slavery was necessary (they needed workers for their farms—tobacco in particular), that was not the aspect that I found most intriguing.
In Wood’s book, it was her decision to ask a very fundamental question that seemed most illuminating to me: “Why did the English colonists feel able to enslave people of West African descent? … What was it about West Africans that made them … suitable … even ideal, candidates for enslavement?” (P. 6). It seems that most books about slavery start with it as an accepted fact; no one ever asks why that should be so.
Wood argues that although the English had serfs, the feudal system was dying out by the 16th century, and slavery was unknown. She suggests that the beginnings of slavery were found in the Bible, when Noah’s son Ham was punished for seeing his father naked; the punishment was that Ham’s son Canaan, and his descendents, would be “a servant of servants.” (Wood, p. 11). Thus sin and slavery were linked. In addition, captives of war, particularly the Crusades, were thought of as property to be killed or otherwise disposed of, including being sold. In short, the idea began to take hold...