Takaki CH. 3: The "Giddy Multitude"

As humans, we associate different words and images with different aspects in our lives. To the English, the color black became intertwined with images such as, “deeply stained with dirt,” “foul,” “malignant,” “sinister,” as well as “wicked.” These images were imbedded in the minds of the English during the 1500s and the 1600s. The image portrayed of the color white was that it “signified purity, innocence, and goodness.” Color was of great importance to many people during this time period and this affected thoughts dealing with white and black laborers. “Coming from different shores, white and black laborers in Virginia had very limited understanding as well as negative notions of each other, and mutual feelings of fear and hostility undoubtedly existed” (55). This shows that both whites and blacks had things in common and nothing in common at the same time. Whites and blacks experienced day-to-day exhaustion from the work they were forced to do. Sometimes, blacks and whites would run away together. This was looked at as negative because whites were still looked at as superior to blacks, even if they were doing the same labor. Also, blacks and whites were caught forming other kinds of partnerships. Sexual relations between blacks and whites held grounds for harsh punishment. This happened on numerous occasions and pregnancy often followed these relations. Blacks would be punished more harshly that whites if caught with each other.

African laborers became “more valuable” than English indentured servants. “What was happening was evident: Africans, unlike whites, were being degraded into a condition of servitude for life and even the status of property” (57). African laborers were able to be shipped over in large groups, which was cheaper and they were able to serve their masters for longer periods of time. The “giddy multitude” allowed white slaves to be pardoned. Religion and race showed the division between savagery and civilization. People felt that “if the gates fell, the colonists feared, so would civilization.” Takaki asks a good question, “Why was there such a dramatic turn away from white indentured servants and toward enslaved blacks?” Having these Africans “bound for life” is an advantage. Laws were passed which institutionalized slavery of blacks because it was the cheapest.

Learning about this history of slavery really opened my eyes to what it was like. White and black laborers were, at one time, treated equally. They had the same punishments and the same labors. Why is it that we always tend to hear about the slavery of blacks in history, instead of the story behind both blacks and whites? It was interesting to learn the similarities and differences between the labors enforced on blacks and whites, as well as their punishments and laws passed favored whites. I learned a lot of new facts while reading this chapter.