The “Giddy Multitude”

After reading just the first paragraph I realized something. If tomorrow we woke up and saw an individual with purple skin how would we react? What would we do? What would we think? I was amused by the quote about the African’s skin color. It says, “It seemeth this blackness proceedeth rather of some natural infection of that man, which was so strong that neither the nature of the Clime, neither the good complexion of the mother concurring, could anything alter...” It was after reading this that I begin to question what we in present day society would think of someone who we randomly stumbled upon with a different skin color. If we saw someone with purple skin how would we explain it? I believe that we would try and explain it scientifically using modern day technology. Whets the difference between that and the way the whites tried to explain it hundreds of years ago? With the technological limitations was their beliefs and opinion so wrong?

On page 54 it talks about how in the early days of the Virginia colony most “slaves” were actually white indentured servants. It says that during the seventeenth century almost 75 percent of the colonist came as servants. After hearing this fact I find it ironic that we view slavery as a matter of differences in skin color and about people being inferior to others. This fact makes me believe that slavery is not about skin color its about feelings of power. Feelings of power over other people regardless of what their skin color is. Some people may find that its easier to exert this power of people that they view as inferior but I don’t think that skin color is the main factor. Could it be that we use racism as a scapegoat to cover up human greed and selfishness? Is it possible that humans are not generally good and only have their best interest at heart? I think that there are many other “hidden” reasons for slavery that are not often addresses.

It goes on to say that these people who were indentured servants were the outcasts of society. Therefore the people that used them as indentured servants viewed themselves as superior and it was not because of their skin color but rather because of their place in society. So maybe its safe to say that blacks are viewed as inferior to some because of their place in society and not because of their skin color.

What I don’t understand is what happened. Why did blacks then become indentured servants for life while whites were only required to complete a certain amount of time? When did it no longer become an issue of power and an issue of race? Its this mystery that I think deserves more of our time trying to solve than trying to discover while there is slavery in the first place.