A Study of Modern Day Slavery

The Preservation of Slavery In a Free World

How is it possible that the New World, started by people who dedicated themselves to liberty and human dignity preserved such an inhuman institute such as slavery? Some could argue that the founding fathers were simply prejudice against the African people, and they believed that they were an inferior race. But according to Edmund Morgan, there were more in depth reasons for keeping slavery in the colonies that would eventually become the United States. He stated that major figures such as Thomas Jefferson, who believed in human equality, saw that was slavery was necessary to keep social and economic order in the young world. Morgan also stated that slavery offset the rebelliousness of the other white laborers and at the same time bring a sense of unity to the white inhabitants of the southern colonies.

In Virginia early year, it was victim to very large death rates, in 1625 the population stood at 1300 or 1400; in 1640 it was about 8000. In those fifteen years between those dates at least 15,000 persons must have come to the colony. If so, 15,000 immigrants increased the population by 7000. As soon as this disease that had killed so many died off, the population sky rocketed. The growing economy could not support all of the immigrants that were coming into the country. This shortage of employment caused many of these white new comers to be reduced to poverty. As the poverty grew in Virginia, revolt became imminent. In about 1680, rebellion took over Virginia. In order to combat this rebellion, Virginian legislators began devising strict laws which stripped the Englishmen of their rights. Needless to say that these laws increased the discontent of the inhabitants, and more problems arrived. What was the solution to these increasing problems? Free slave labor. But the solution put an end to the process of turning African into Englishmen.

The rights of Englishmen were preserved by destroying the rights of Africans. The slave trade quickly erupted bringing boatloads of Africans who would provide free labor which greatly reduced the number of indentured servants coming over. This system of slave labor was easily controlled due to the fact that law makers applied different laws for blacks than whites. They saw the Africans as a brutish people in large numbers who needed to be controlled. As history shows, they were strongly controlled, They had been nurtured in heathen societies where they had lost their freedom; their children would be nurtured in a Christian society and never know freedom. These incoming slaves had also brought a sense of peace and nationalism among the whites who inhabited the colonies. Thomas Jefferson the slave-holding spokesman of freedomwas a man who stood for equality, but yet he had owned slaves for most of his life and believed slavery was necessary. How was this justified? The freedom that Jefferson refers to is one that is obtained by the individual, not one that is bestowed upon oneself.

The freedom that Jefferson spoke for was not a gift to be conferred by governments, which he mistrusted at best. It was a freedom that sprang from the independence of the individual Jefferson believed that if a man had to rely on another man in order to survive, than that man could never truly be free. A man needed to own land in order to provide for themselves, and if the slaves were freed it would be nearly impossible for the majority of them to do this. It is impossible due to that fact that they would be released into society with practically nothing. This leads to another concern of Jefferson. He felt a strong distrust towards the class known as the landless laborer, which many of these freed slaves would most likely become. Once again these men had no land of their own to depend on and therefore worked in plants and for manufacturers. These men relied on consumers and the market. But both his distrust for artificers and his idealization of small landholders as the most precious part of the state rested on his concern for individual independence as the basis of freedom. Farmers made the best citizens because they were the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous… Artificers, on the other hand, were dependent on the casualties and caprice of customers.Because artificers could lay claim to freedom without the independence to go with it, they were the instruments be which liberties of a country are generally overturned.

Andrew Fletcher was another important figure from the seventeenth century that opposed the abolition of slavery. He feared that these freed men would turn into thousands of vagrants roaming the lands with empty bellies. As it is even today, people who cannot afford to eat will resort to crime such as theft and murder. Fletcher had seen these very events happen in his home country of Scotland. As a result, Fletcher argued, his native Scotland was burdened with 200,000 idle rogues, who roamed the country, drinking, cursing fighting, robbing and murdering. For a remedy he proposed that they all be made slaves to men of property.

Another man by the name of Madison shared the same thoughts as Fletcher. They believed that the growing nation was too small to support such a large number of unemployed men. Even after all the job positions have been filled, there would still remain many men with no way to support themselves.It is said to say that slave labor brought a sense of “balance to the colonies. I am sure that the success of our young nation could have been attained by more humane means, but this is the path our founding fathers chose. I still consider slavery in the New World that preaches freedom and liberty to be a great paradox. Edmund Morgan put it best, to explain the origin of the contradictions, if the explanation I have suggested is valid, does not eliminate them or make them less ugly. But it may enable us to understand a little better the strength of the ties that bound freedom to slavery, even is noble as a mind as Jefferson. And it may perhaps make us wonder about the ties that bind more devious tyrannies to our own freedoms and give us still today our own American paradox.