Our Journey in Bondage Begins to a New Destiny in America: A Focus on The African American

In 1606, two years after peace with Spain, the finger of destiny pointed to Virginia. A joint-stock company, known as the Virginia Company of London, received a charter from King James I of England for a settlement in the New World. The main attraction was a hope for gold, although there was a strong desire to convert the heathen Indian to Christianity and to find a passage through America to the Indies, apparently no one even faintly suspected that the seeds of a mighty new nation were being planted. The charter of the Virginia Company is a significant document in American History. It guaranteed to the overseas settlers the same rights of Englishmen that they would have enjoyed if they had stayed at home. This precious boon was gradually extended to the other English colonies, and soon became a foundation stone of American liberties.

In 1607, the settlers selected the tiny colony along the banks of the river; the colony and the river were named in the honor of King James I. This site was selected because it was easy to defend against Indians and particularly the Spaniards, who were eager to root out the heretical Protestant intruders. They actually organized several expeditions for that purpose, but lacked the courage or enterprise to launch an attack. The early years of Jamestown were nightmares for all concerned except the buzzards. Hundreds of wretched souls perished from disease, and actual starvation, ("the starving time" was 1609-1610), and later from Indian massacres. Ironically, the woods rustled with game and the river flopped with fish. Soft-handed English gentlemen and deported criminals("jayle birds") wasted valuable time seeking gold when they should have been hoeing corn. They were spurred to their frantic search by the edict from the sponsoring company, which threatened to abandon the colonists if they did not strike it rich. Virginia was on the verge of collapsing, but Captain John Smith took over the leadership in 1608 and whipped the gold-hungry colonists in line with the rule, "he who will not work shall not eat". In the mean time, Pocahontas, the daughter of Chief Powhatan, made a major contribution to the salvation of the colony by helping to preserve peace and provide foodstuffs. At times the settlers were forced to eat dogges, catts, ratts, and myce to stay alive.

John Rolf, married Pocahontas in 1613, and became the father of the tobacco industry, he was also the savior of the Virginia colony. By 1616, he had perfected methods of raising and curing the pungent weed ( "a gift of the Indian to the old world") which eliminated much of the bitter tang. Now the settlement takes its turn in a new and prosperous direction. The tobacco rush days began, as crops were planted in the streets of Jamestown and between some graves. The tobacco concentration was so great until foodstuff had to be imported.

Thus Virginia's prosperity was built on tobacco smoke. This "bewitched weed" played a vital role in putting the colony on firm foundations, and setting an example for other colonizing experiments. This tobacco enchained the prosperity of Virginia to the fluctuating price of a single crop. Tobacco promoted the broad-acred system, and with it a strong demand for slave labor. It was a money maker that necessitated laborers and workers. Now the table is set for the breaking of a new dawn in the colonies.

In 1619, the year before the Plymouth Pilgrims landed in New England, a Dutch warship appeared off Jamestown and sold twenty black Africans. (The scanty record does not reveal whether they were purchased as life-long slaves or as servants committed to limited years of servitude.) At first black bondsmen were imported in driplets, and by the end of the century, there were still many more white laborers than Negro slaves in Virginia. Representative government was also born in Virginia in the same cradle and year with slavery. The black slave was captured in his homeland, tied or chained and taken to a slave holding station, for further sale to the European nations, as servants. Slave thievery was not a pretty thing to watch. There were many slave holding stations in Africa; and buyers had commerce routes for their customers. The slave would be captures carried to the holding area and branded as one would iron brand cattle, he was then sold to customers along with other merchandise, and transported by ship to other markets along the route.

The episode was extremely horrible; nevertheless, slave trade was very profitable for the ship-owners and the countries that purchased them. Portugal and Spain, being in close proximity of Africa, were the first nations to explore seas to the West. The African merchants sold the slaves; then they were taken westward to the islands that we now know as the Indies, and to the Americas. During the trip, many slaves died form disease, hunger, and overcrowded ships. Most countries had slaves. On the contrary, the white race were not consider to be slaves in America, they were indentured servants as were the first Africans. After a few years, things would change for the blacks bondsman.

The Settlers could have done things differently, for instance, the black did not have to be punished by the white establishment, for being the color that the Lord God had made them; they could have worked the slave for a while and then allowed him to own property, raise a family, and be prosperous as white men were. They did not have to classify the blacks as being of lower class to the white race, and say that they were the first race created to be inferior. From the beginning the white race doomed the blacks and made sure they stayed in the underclass condition for as long as they could, and fought a war to maintain their control. The practice of racial superiority originated in the old world. Some races made themselves overseers of the world's population, and have spent most of their time maintaining this practice all over the world. The sad part about this is, they attempt to use the Bible to reinforce their contention. Therefore, as time went on, more slaves were brought and sold to the settlers, and they realized that it was profitable to own slaves, even if it was bondage and building a foundation of wealth and prosperity by means of free slave labor, in the Islands of the West Indies and America.

Initially, blacks were purchased to work as indented or apprentice servants; the institution of slavery is not mentioned in any stature until after 1660, but most likely it had developed before then. Slavery carried with it a racist assumption of inferiority of the Negro; it presented a profitable future for their owners, as they did not pay the slaves for labor and services. Many feel that slavery did not become a characteristic of Virginia society until around the end of the seventeenth century; however, when the slave owner did not pay for the labor and did not give any property to the human being he owned, and kept him in fear and illiteracy for his lifetime, that was institutional slavery, even by a blind man's definition. Of course there are some well placed words of justification, that are used today to pretend that slavery was just a mild error of inhumane treatment, "but the owner's DNA is all over the cookie jar of enslavement."

The British restricted the transporting of white bondsmen to the new settlement in 1708 because it felt that the Royal African Company had become more efficient in slave trade; and a catastrophic fall in the price of tobacco ruined the small farmer, permitting profits only to men who had the capital to purchase cheap and self propagating labor. The Colony of Virginia was more like England than any of the others, because Its government was set up on the English model. Anglican Perishes run by wardens and vestry, had the duties of caring for the poor. By restricting the transporting of white bond servants, it meant that more negroes would become slaves. The labor was free, but the laborer was a slave. Now as we proceed through the centuries as slaves, we have to look at where the colonies are at the stages of their progression. Some societal order has been established, the London Company authorized the settlers to summon an assembly called the House of Burgesses, they were the legal part of the settlers on behalf of the mother country. Somehow the settlers and their motherland could visualize prosperity ahead in years to come.

Having realized that the slavery proposition was profitable, the screws of control were tightened on the lives and requirements of slaves. Let us now be reminded that not all of the settlers were in favor of slavery, some religion sects, including the Quakers were against slavery of human beings. Additionally, some of the pilgrims of New England, that had migrated in 1620, held the same views about slavery. The term servant as it applied at that time, meant freemen or women that came as indented workers, had to serve for a period of time, to pay for their expenses to the new world, and then be given some land and some tools to start a new life.

By the end of the century, Plantation owners grew crops, some industry in the North had begun to make progress, and cotton was being grown mostly in the South and exported to other countries. The need for more laborers in the colonies became necessary and slaves became the source for their necessity; Here we can see that the value of the slave to American prosperity, began to show its face as a needed resource. Additionally, the white bondsman was decreasing as negro slaves increased. This is very important to note, because of the fact that free slave labor was at the core and ever present in all of the prosperous years of our nation, is history within itself.

By 1660 the doctrine known as mercantilism, the pursuit of economic power in the interest of national self-sufficiency, was taken for granted by all European states. This doctrine had been implicit in the founding of Virginia; it now becomes explicit in Acts of Trade and Navigation. Most people during that time felt that the profit of an empire should center in the mother country. Portugal and Spain had seen to that in the beginning; but England had allowed their colonies to trade with other countries in everything except tobacco. "In the seventeenth century the only enumerated products were sugar, cotton, tobacco, and some tropical commodities grown only in the West Indies. Rice and molasses, furs and naval stores ( tar, pitch, turpentine, and ship spars) were added between 1705 and 1722, but nothing more until 1764."

Now the settlers or colonies are operating and their future seems somewhat prosperous. The institution of slavery is profitable as the labor requirements are being met. Each colony in the settlement, including the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania, developed some form of rules or slavery code for their labor force to abide by. These were harsh laws and requirements that slaves and servants were required to follow; it was very clear however, that the slave was more of a thing than a person. The heart of every code, rule, or law was the requirement for the slave to submit to his master and respect all white men. They did not have any protection under the law; they could not beat drums, possess guns or blow horns; their cabins were searched frequently. There were many other things he could not do. The nature of ones soul desires to be free, and one will risk his life to be free.

The slaves were already captured; they did not have any armament to use or wage war, they depended upon their owners for their lively-hood; so why or what was the main reason for their owners, to have applied such strong and stringent living conditions upon them? After all, they were afraid all the time, as the mighty weapon of fear was applied to their daily diet of inhumane atrocities; they were stripped of their individualism and humanity, and classified by the White race, as not being human, but the lowest class of any being and from a different species. We believe that this was to justify their reason for the way slaves would be treated for the rest of their lives and, that it could be done without any guilt or responsibility for their actions taken or treatment to them in the future. Along with supremacy, come authority and power to do and act as one wishes, and those in authority are able to justify their actions at any given time. However, be it as it may, the screws of slavery and indefinite bondage were codified, as the colonies began to assume immediate and future control over an enemy that never was or not ever would be.

Although there are many versions of slavery, bondage, servitude, or forced labor, the inhumane definition and consequences are the same. As we continue this horrible inhumane journey from Jamestown to Appomattox, we shall see an abundance of deliberate and willful horror, that will touch the very soul or the conscience of the Nation. In retrospect it is time for the Nation to retrofire the unthinkable atrocities of inhumane brutality, that was inflicted upon humans being under its control. Especially when victims had no other choice, but to rely upon that nation for their safety and protection. We shall see a nation that allowed or permitted crimes to be inflicted upon victims, by those that owned human beings as property; and how these helpless human robots, worked for more than two hundred years for no pay, while at the same time, being driven by fear and illiteracy, as a reward to keep them in their place.

Now the proper question is, how or can we mend the remnants of the broken hearts, from the horrific past that continues to haunt the Nation for closure? We already know that our nation has all but forgotten the depth and length of the hatred and horror, and how its victims and their descendants, have had to cope with the nightmares of missed opportunities and manipulations of justice, while allowing perpetrators to go free, in the name of states rights or this did not violate a federal law. However, if the crimes did in fact occur in the United States, some one or some authority must be held accountable for them. The way it seems now is that everyone says, "well, it wasn't me or us." Therefore, we do in these recent years, understand that incidents, be they crimes or otherwise classified, occurring within the confines of the United States, are the responsibility of the United States. Consequently, we cannot do the "Ali shuffle" on the rights of others. We did get some political religion when it came to holding hearings on steroids, and if the nation can hold hearings on steroids because homerun records have been broken, we are quite sure that it can hold hearing and reach a satisfactory agreement on Reparation, even if this is the last item of justice on the minds of some legislators. Compensation to victims must be found and justice must prevail; then the records from yesteryears' inhumanity and atrocious crimes against slaves and their descendants can be set straight, thereby allowing the Nation to move past this hurdle to a unified prosperity. Again, we have to admit that many of our nation's white and black leaders, have trodden the dangerous pathways of internal terror and ridicule, attempting to justly implement repairs to the broken souls of descending victims of hell's highway from Jamestown to Appomattox and beyond, for over four hundred years, yet we have to raise the issue to a national level, especially to the younger generations. Many young people, both black and white, have not had the opportunity to experience nor study the real history and its affects on the Nation as a whole. Some feel that the disgraceful history is too inflammatory to recall, so is the Holocaust, but nevertheless, necessary.