US History Honors

Ms Bellarosa
Slavery in the US

What came first Slavery or Racism?

Was racism already present at beginning of the English colonial experience thus causing the
adoption of slavery or did racism develop as a result of the development of slavery?

Task 1: Slavery in the colonies timeline

GO TO:
https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/slavery/timeline/1619.html

• Look though the timeline to get an understanding of the progression of slavery in

Colonial America. Read through from 1619 to 1776

Describe the how slavery developed in the colonies throughout the 1600 and 1700s.
Which events drew your attention the most? Why?

Slavery developed in the colonies throughout the 1600s and 1700s in drastic ways. First
there are 11 black slaves brought over and shortly after that America has its first slave ship.
Slavery from there only gets worse with tons more slaves being brought in to work for the
white people. One of the events that sticks out the most to me was in 1664 when Maryland and
some other states like New Jersey and New York and some others pass a law making all black
slaves’ lifelong slaves. Another one that sticks out to me is in 1705 when New York says that all
runaway slaves shall be put to death. These both stick out to me because these are humans just
like the rest of us but if they become slaves, they are slaves for life and if they run away, they
will be killed that just does not make any sense, it is hard to comprehend the horrors that went
on.

Task 2 Background Info

• GO TO: Background info: http://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-background-02-
01.htm

What are the main ideas presented in this article?

Some of the main ideas presented in this article are that racism occurs when one ethnic
group collectively dominates, seeks to eliminate, or exclude another ethnic group. Another idea
that is presented in this article is that racism has been going on for a really long time in Europe.
First in the 13th and 14th centuries when Jews were discriminated against, and then during the
renaissance when Blacks and Asians started coming into the picture for Europeans and they
were also looked at as different and then discriminated against. Then it talks about how there
were five races that were all of the same human species, but a number of writers from the time
still believed that the different races were different species so they could defend slavery. After
that it goes into how after the second World War and what Hitler did, it proved the scientific
studies that were done during the period known as the enlightenment.

Task 3 Tim Wise on White Privilege - Video Clip

 Tim Wise is an American anti-racism activist and writer. Since 1995, he has given
speeches at over 600 college campuses across the U.S.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Xe1kX7Wsc (watch til 4:30)

What argument is Tim Wise trying to make?

The argument that Tim Wise was trying to make was that white people had never come
together before the practice of slavery began. Before slavery the so-called white people were
all fighting with each other like when he talks about his ancestors in Scotland only killing each
other. He is saying the racism and white power did not come about until slavery began.

Task 4: Jordan Hopkins – Racism: Boarding Ships of Bondage

• GO TO: http://historyfreakz.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/which-came-first-racism-or-
slavery/

What is Jordan Hopkins’s argument?

Jordan Hopkins’s argument is that racism came before slavery. Hopkins says that even
before slavery in the American Colonies, there was still a different way that the white and
blacks were being treated. He also says that even when the slave trade begun, the whites had a
clear description of what laid ahead for them in terms of work and the land, while the blacks
were just shipped over with no one telling them anything about what was about to happen to
them. White people had less time to serve as servants than that of their black counterparts did.

How does his argument compare to that of Tim Wise?

This argument compares with Tim Wise’s argument by being of completely different.
Hopkins thinks that slavery came before racism ever got really bad, and Tim Wise thinks the
polar opposite by slavery having come first before racism began.

FINAL EVALUATION: What came first Slavery or Racism?

Was racism already present at the beginning of the English colonial experience thus causing
the adoption of slavery or did racism develop as a result of the development of slavery? Use
support from all four tasks to support your answer.
 Racism was already present at the beginning of the English colonial experience this
causing the adoption of slavery as proved in the documents above. The first document shows
the reader that the first years of the new colonies in the Americas were slow to starting off with
black slaves but after the first few slaves many, many more were on their way over. This
document is first trying to show that slavery appeared, and then racism, but still there was
racism that lead to the first slaves coming over. In second document it talks about how in
Europe before the colonies in the Americas ever came to be there was racism already. In the
13th and 14th centuries the Jews were discriminated against. Then, during the Enlightenment
period, Blacks and Asians started into the picture due to exploration, and they were seen as
different species than the Europeans. This document shows that there was discrimination
against people of other ethnicities even before the American Colonies existed and slavery
begun. Next, In the third document it talks about how there was only fighting between the
people of Europe that lived right by each other, specifically in Scotland. The document also tells
us that white people came together in the need of more laborers to make the blacks be slaves,
which to people reading can make them believe otherwise the slavery was a result of racism
and teaming up against a common enemy. Last, in the last document, Jordan Hopkins argues
that racism came before slavery. He says that before slaves were brought to the American
Colonies, blacks and whites were already being treated different because of the color of their
skin. After all, racism already was taking place before the slaves were ever brought over to the
American Colonists.