Race and Political Power in the Pre-Civil War Period Essay -- Essays o

Race and Political Power in the Pre-Civil fight PeriodHow did race translate itself into political power during this period, and how did Blacks attempt to armed combat that power.Racism has been the most provocative topic in American archives it has seemed to transcend other struggles, and fester its way into almost every aspect of American culture. It has grown like weeds in an unattended garden in to the ideology of America. Politicians employment it as a tool for reelection, corporations purpose it as a way to exploit, and the media uses it as a way to control. further the underlying question is where did it come from, how did it translate itself into political power, and how and what did African Americans do to combat that power. Many of the answers to these questions lie in the pre civil war field of operation also known as the antebellum period.During the early 17th cytosine a powerful farmer by the name of Nathaniel Bacon tried to use African Americans to conquer sur rounding tribes and take their lands for bound servants who had served their time and wanted land. Bacon added blacks to his corps of whites solitary(prenominal) after he found out he had to fight William Berkley the colonial governor. Berkley thought that arming the Jamestown rubble was too on the hook(predicate) to be allowed. After Bacons death the Virginia government reacted to the spectacle of interracial servant solidarity by slowly eliminating white servitude and expanding the then new institution of black movable slavery. By doing this he could guarantee a permanent labor pull out and win the support of his constituents. Because of efforts like that of Governor Berkley, Virginia had become the primary state of affairs for the development of black slavery in the Americas. By the 1650s some of the indentured servants had earned their freedom. Because replacements, whether black or white, were in limited supply and more(prenominal) costly, the Virginia plantation owners considered the advantages of the perpetual servitude policy exercised by Caribbean landowners. Following the lead of mammy and Connecticut, Virginia legalized slavery in 1661. In 1672 the king of England chartered the Royal African Company to bring the shiploads of slaves into trading centers like Jamestown, Hampton, and Yorktown. Slavery spread quickly in the American colonies. At first the legal status of Africans in America was poorly defined, and some, like European indentured servants,... ...ed afterward whitethorn have reached 100. But the rebellion lasted less than two days and was slowly suppressed by local residents. Like other slave uprisings in the United States, it caused enormous fear among the whites, but it did not seriously queer the institution of slavery.Less organized resistance was both more general and more successful. This include silent sabotage, or foot-dragging, by slaves, who pretended to be sick, feigned difficulty understanding instructions, and acci dentally misused tools and animals. It also included small-scale resistance by individuals who fought back physically, at times successfully, against what they regarded as unjust treatment.The most common form of resistance, however, was flight. About 1000 slaves per form escaped to the North during the pre-Civil War decades, most from the upper South. This represented only a small percentage of those who attempted to escape, however, since for every slave who make it to freedom, several more tried. Other fugitives remained within the South, heading for cities or swamps, or hiding out near their plantations for days or weeks before both returning voluntarily or being tracked down and captured.