First American slaves vvere vvhite?

Question

I learned in my early days of middle school that vvhites vvere once slaves. I didn't get to learn about it though; I vvas only told of this.
Here is a link I'm novv reading.
http://www.revisionisthistory.org/forgottenslaves.html
I vvant to knovv vvhat you knovv about this and hovv do you feel about it? VVere you ever taught this? Did you search it on your ovvn?

Please no racial remarks. Thanks in advance for the ansvvers. I hope to find some interesting ones vvith this.

I iust (just) vvant to add that I knovv slavery has been around for as long as history goes; I haven't heard that vvhites vvere the first slaves to be brought to America though.
Another thing, vvhy do most (ignorant racist I might add) people only knovv about Black Slavery?

Im glad people are into this. Also, I asked this question, as vvell as most of my questions, so people can learn about Hidden Truth and Do their ovvn research of it after having a basic idea/foundation of the subiect, in this case through ansvvers recieved herein. Hopefully one day vve vvill all learn history repeats itself and vve can learn to change for the better.

Please Star this question if you like it. Let your contacts be able to vievv and ansvver if they vvill to.

Answer 1

I have encountered material supporting this claim by both black and white authors. Check out the book "Learning To Be White" by Thandeka, an African American scholar of race relations. Although white, black, and native peoples were all enslaved in what is now the US way back then, eventually laws were enacted that governed the treatment of slaves based on skin color. Part of the reasoning behind this was to create divisiveness by encouraging the white slaves--and later white working class--to identify with the white owners or upper classes. Before these laws, white slaves and enslaved people of color had more solidarity and often intermarried. The white landowners successfully broke the solidarity among slaves and thus weakened the possibility of being outnumbered.

"Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl," by Kate McCafferty is a work of fiction based on actual records of Irish slaves in Barbados.

While many of these slaves did arrive in the colonies as indentured servants, their time of "service" could be extended-- often for their entire lifetimes-- as punishment for often petty crimes.

I encourage you to investigate this further.

Answer 2

There is nothing wrong with documenting historical facts to the contrary everything is right about it. My concern is the emphasis on the articles conclusion. Its emphasis is on uniting along the basis of race, and if there is one thing we should face up to being Americans is that race is only skin deep. Unity should be around the highest principles, and I'm certain that this happening on any substantial ongoing degree is unrealistic. Face it were destined for dictatorship. If you can make a friend of another color cherish it because there are voices for every direction and venue that seeks to divide and conquer. I can easily give the article subject matter weight but not as to sway me away from the best thing this country can do is for the president and every Caucasian member of the house and senate to offer an official sanctioned apology to every living African American in the u.s for the American institution of slavery. This in my opinion will acknowledge the psychological damage and make being an American a thing of pride rather than a duplicitous enterprise.

Answer 3

Well, unfortunately, the popularity of tobacco created a market in Spain as Columbus brought back some to show. The island of "Hispaniola" was depleted of the indigenous population by the European deceases and there were not enough natives to enslave for farming and harvesting the tobacco. Thus slaves were IMPORTED from guess were . . . AFRICA. This was in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. 1490's and early 1500's. The US employed slavery from it's birth in 1776 of Africans or 18th century. The sight you gave mentions white slaves in the 19th century, or 1800's. There was many other places where whites of European descent were enslaved as well. But not quite as massive as the African slaves.

Answer 4

What you mean is referred to as Indentured Servants, people who didn't have enough money to pay for they're passage across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe. So, they instead signed contracts of service usually lasting anywhere from months to several years, to pay back the cost of passage recieving a small pay while doing so or maybe food,clothing and board while serving out the contract. These people were poor whites looking for a better life in the New World with hopes of getting rich or at the least living a free and easier life without the confines of European society, culture etc.

Answer 5

Not the first slaves, I think.

There's slavery and then there's slavery. US history books have politely referred to whites working off their debt as indentured servitude, and blacks working off their debt as slaves. Our history books politely call the forced labor of children "child labor," not slavery. As if child laborers got coffee breaks and health care.

The legal status or unfree workers had to do with color, after a while, although originally (as your link and my other readings suggests) the status of individuals did not always comport to our current categories.

The first African slaves in the English New World colonies arrived in 1619... I forget the name of the vessel... in Jamestown, Virginia colony. Along with the first female setters. Nice.

As an Irish American, I guess I should be more concerned with the status of the first arrived Irish. I'm not particularly troubled by this way the history is taught in grade school because the bulk of the Irish in North America were refugees from the potato famine, and recent history books (I left teaching in 2003) discuss the horrible living conditions of the Irish better than they discuss the use of Irish (oh, and Welsh, Scots, poor English - gee, just about everyone but the industrialists and landed gentry) laborers.

So, no, I don't think the first American "slaves" were white, and I think there's room for improvement in the way history is taught, but I am loath to emphasize the cruelties heaped upon white unfree labor and risk minimizing the cruelty with which black unfree laborers were treated, the different status of blacks emerging before the birth of this country, and the completely different scale of what we call "slavery" (black unfree labor) compared to what we call "indentured servitude" (white unfree labor) or "child labor" (underage white unfree labor).

Furthermore, I think that the Revisionist History - BTW, all history is revision, just thought I'd bring it up... ;-) - article glosses over the changing status of Africans during the 16th-19th centuries, in the widening European world. For that, check out Siba N'Zatioula Grovogui's excellent book Sovereigns, Quasi-Sovereigns, and Africans, or for a lighter touch, almost anything written by Basil Davidson.

Answer 6

There have been many white slaves in history, and they still exist just as black and asian slaves still exist in the world today.

All slavery is a horrible thing, but I wish people wouldn't think that ONLY blacks have been slaves. Slavery goes back thousands of years and has involved every race.

Answer 7

Yes... there were white slaves before the blacks started to get imported.

There have been slaves of every color and creed all over the world.

The US did not invent slavery.

The US actually had a more benign form of slavery than some other societies... the Romans fed slaves to lions and had them fight each other to the death for entertainment.

Slavery is listed in the bible as normal and there is even a way listed for a person to VOLUNTEER to become someone's slave for life. (the origin of ear-rings in peirced ears...)

Answer 8

There are many things that aren't taught in schools because of 'political correctness'. ALL SLAVERY IS WRONG! But face it, it has happened to EVERY RACE. Sexual slavery has and currently happens to every race, labor slavery happens to every race, even now, even here. Read the news, people. as long as there are evil, bigoted, cruel people of ANY race and nationality, there will be slavery. It was never ever 'just' blacks. Not to downplay it at all, but many Americans think of the unfortunate blacks that were enslaved and not just discriminated against, but had thier hope shattered, families torn and heartbroken, and when slavery 'ended', were still given the worst quality of life. But it was never 'just' them. It was happenening all over America to all colors, in somewhat smaller scales, and all over the world, on large scale. People need to wake up, educate themselves and realize that it's not just Africa or the group of selfish whites that made people endure this. Many old books that have been pulled off school shelves tell true stories, writen by people that were there and experienced these atrocities.
blacks were actually the rulers of islands like Barbados, Trinidad and other french-Polynesian islands that white French and English had taken over, and then trusted thier slaves to take care of. As for your last question, most racist people only know of "black" slaves because racists are always, and have always been, ignorant. Even educated, high-ranking ones. Listen to them. They only know what they have been told by thier racist families, racist friends, and they are never smart enough of courageous enough to think for themselves, read a book or two, and leave those beliefs behind. Most claim to be good Southern Baptists, but have obviously never read thier Bible through if they think that blacks are subservient or lesser people. The Bible clearly staes many times that Romans were slaves, that many far-eastern cities enslaved each-other. I haven't seen many blacks in Rome, have you? no, most peole over there are as pale as we are! There was, of course, much mention of slavery in the African areas, the Euphrates and Tigris areas, but just as much if not more in other places where the residents were white and Middle Eastern. Racists are not usually back-woods hicks, but they need to quit talking so much and start reading. They will still be jerks, and deserve a good whack, with say, a truck, but they are not the Godly people they all claim to be. They are followers of stupidity and hate.

Answer 9

Their owners usually forced them to attend church. Antebellum churches in the south often have balconies which were the Slave Section. Some believe, some have gone for other religions: The Black Muslim movement is a reaction against "The slave religion" of Christianity (their words, not mine).

Answer 10

Mnay of the first Americans came as indentured servants..trading up to 7 years for thier lives for passage to america. Its a stretch to call them slaves and they werent treated like they were. There was also a debeters version of the same thing.