Show Jamestown: Planting the Seeds of Tobacco and the Ideology of Race Grade levels: 10th grade through sophomore year of college Joan Brodsky Schur is Social Studies Curriculum Consultant to the Village Community School in New York City where she has taught Social Studies and English for over 20 years. She is co-author of In A New Land: An Anthology of Immigrant Literature and creator of the American Letters series published by Interact. OVERVIEW The focus of this lesson is American racial ideology as it began to evolve in late 17th century Jamestown and Virginia. It aims to help students question their own assumptions about what race is and is not. Episode One of RACE demonstrates that race as a biological category is an illusion. How then, did this illusion take hold in American history as an ideology, or systematic body of concepts through which people view themselves, one another, and their world? That is the question posed in Episode Two of RACE on which this lesson is based. The lesson counters the image typically portrayed in textbooks - that with the mere arrival of Africans in Jamestown in 1619, race-based slavery, apparently inevitable, began. The introduction of tobacco growing for export saved the fortunes of a floundering Virginia Company, but tobacco could not be cultivated without a large labor force. Early Jamestown was a complex and hierarchical society, with servants (whether European, American Indian or African) often making common cause with one another against the planter class. As such the servant class was not a reliable source of labor; indeed it had the potential to threaten the hegemony of the ruling class. As indentured European servants proved unruly and rebellious, immigration sporadic, and American Indians took recourse in flight and war - the planters turned to African slaves who had become available at this time in larger numbers and cheaper prices. African slavery, however, is not the same as racial slavery, not at first, anyway. As George Fredrickson points out in Black People in White Minds: "In order to comprehend what occurred, it is necessary to confront the vexed question of the relationship between slavery and racism and to take account of the chicken-and-egg debate among historians over which came first in the southern colonies, slavery or racial prejudice." Were Africans enslaved because of a pre-existing belief that they were inferior as signified by their skin color? Or were they enslaved for economic motives and then viewed as inferior because of their low status, and later, to justify their enslavement? In the lesson, students use the judicial court cases and statutes of Jamestown to answer this question and other controversial quandaries about the development of race-based slavery in early America. These records tell a remarkable story as judges and legislators, faced with a variety of thorny issues, begin to enact the slave codes. The human dramas that gave rise to these cases are not the ones with which students are familiar. Rather they portray a brief time when Europeans, Indians and Africans worked together, traded, mated, and rebelled together. Only after a century of legal negotiations did the laws emerge by which the planter class ensured itself a reliable form of labor through institutionalizing race-based slavery. Discussion questions for Episode 2 of RACE help students understand the implications of this development throughout American history. The lesson begins by asking students to give their own definitions of "race" and then to compare these to those offered by historians in Episode 2 of RACE. Several interactive and engaging activities establish some of the causes for the labor crisis in Virginia, and the oppressive conditions under which European indentured servants worked. The heart of the lesson is the study of selected statutes and judicial records available on-line at Virtual Jamestown . Students study these in groups, with each group assigned to look at the record in order to answer one of six focus questions. The class reconvenes to discuss answers to all six focus questions. Suggested essay and research topics on a variety of controversial issues are offered at the end of the lesson under "Extensions."
Begin this lesson by asking each student to write a short definition of "race," as best he or she can. Tell students that they are not required to share their definitions with the class, but they are required to keep them as a point of reference throughout the lesson. To spur further discussion, list a dozen or so overlapping populations on the board, one at a time: e.g. Asians, Hispanics, Caucasians, Jews, Negroes, Italians, Greeks, Chinese, Pygmies, Native Americans, English, Arabs, Poles, Nubians, Iraqis, Afghans, Melanesians, Mayan, Ainu, Han Chinese, Dravidians, Hindus, Moslems, Africans, etc. As you list each population, ask the class to vote whether they are or are not a race, and tally the results. Now show the opening sequences of Episode Two of RACE. Stop at approximately 5:56 with the image of slaves laboring in the fields accompanied to music. Initiate class discussion by writing the following phrases from the video on the board:
Invite the class to compare their definitions of "race" to those given by the historians in the video. Pose the following two questions:
Throughout the discussion, emphasize that the historians stress that race is merely an idea, albeit an idea that became very powerful. Now write on the board: "All men are created equal." Pose the following set of questions:
Tell the class that we all have many ways of describing and categorizing ourselves, and of being seen and categorized by others. Now ask the class to list all the different types of people who inhabited or colonized the eastern seaboard of North America in the first half of the 17th century such as:
Then ask the class to subdivide each of these categories into at least four other sub-categories (e.g. by tribe, religion, occupation, social class, etc.) Now photocopy or project on an overhead the following statements about race in colonial America:
After students have read these quotes, ask them to list all the various ways people categorized themselves and others in 17th century America. Ask students to explore what differences might have been the differences that mattered most. Skin color was just one marker. Was it significant, incidental, or not even worth noting? Ask students to explain their answers. They should note that "white," "Indian," and "Black" were not yet key concepts of self-identity. To help students understand this concept better, distribute a number of different chess pieces to the class. Put students into groups of three to five and try to make sure that each group has within it one member who knows at least the rudiments of chess playing. To each group distribute one chess piece such that if you distribute a black king to one group you also distribute a white king to another. Ask students to complete the following form about their chess pieces: Chess Pieces: What Difference Makes a Difference?
Ask pairs who described the same types of chess pieces to stand up and read out
loud their answers to the questions. Now ask the class:
Because Africans, English, and American Indians were organized into very different cultures from one another, their societies did not have exactly corresponding roles, as do the teams of chess pieces. Nonetheless, use the analogy to elucidate how, for example, Captain John Smith and Powhattan viewed one another not through the prism of skin color (which was incidental), but by the much more important markers of their status in their respective communities, rivals for land, or trading partners. Extend this analogy to all the peoples living in the colony of Jamestown in the early 17th century. What were the differences that made a difference? ACTIVITY 3: The Origins of Race? Resume showing the video at approximately 5:56 and end at approximately 15:51. Ask students to focus on the following questions as they watch the video:
ACTIVITY 4: Jamestown, the Need for Labor This activity will help students understand the planters' dire need for a source of labor in early Jamestown. It would be best to have students deduce the facts from the documents-based activities below. But as students re-discover the story, you will want to review it with them, helping them to understand that it was the search for a viable and cheap source of labor that led to indentured servitude. The Virginia Company was a profit-making venture. It originally sent out colonists who were primarily gentleman or craftsmen who expected not to farm, but to get rich finding gold and other precious metals, as had the Spanish colonizers in Central and South America. Within six months half the colonists were dead from a variety of causes. It was John Rolfe who found the key to the colony's financial success: tobacco seeds that produced mild smoke. By 1618 the colony was exporting nearly 50,000 pounds of tobacco. But growing tobacco was extremely labor-intensive. In the search for a viable labor source, the planters at first relied on European indentured servants. To begin the activity, put students in small groups. Print out the sheet below and distribute one copy to each group. Tell each group that they are the founders of a new colony in Virginia. They must select a total of 70 colonists from the occupations listed below to be members of their colony. The goal is to choose those people with the skills most likely to help the colony survive. Then ask students to compare their choices to those made by the Virginia Company. Go to Virtual Jamestown: http://www.iath.virginia.edu/vcdh/jamestown/And use the Census at the site: http://www.iath.virginia.edu/vcdh/jamestown/census1a.html Colonists for Jamestown
Debriefing and follow-up questions:
ACTIVITY 5: The Growing Labor Crisis: Using Primary Sources about Indentured Servitude The need for indentured servants grew as the Jamestown colony became dependent on the labor-intensive planting of tobacco. Indentured servitude was one solution to the need for labor. This activity makes use of the following documents and secondary sources about indentured servants in Virginia:
Divide the class into eight groups and give each group either one of the five Virginia statutes, one of the two Indenture Contracts, or the Stratford Hall background essay to read. (These can be viewed online or downloaded and photocopied.) Distribute one of the forms below to every member of each group. Ask each group, insofar as possible, to answer the questions below. Explain that no one group will be able to answer all of them. Indentured Servitude in Virginia
Concluding discussion:
ACTIVITY 6: Whom to Enslave? Students have now seen some of the reasons why the Jamestown colony was in dire need of cheap labor, and why European indentured servants provided an unsatisfactory source of labor. To understand why the colony turned to African slaves, ask students to fill in the following chart, using what they have learned from watching the video, or from further research. Directions:
What conclusions can the class reach after discussing their charts? When discussing slavery remind students that unlike today, slavery didn't need to be justified back then. Slavery was widespread, and taken for granted throughout most of recorded human history. Historian Barbara Fields has observed that "There was no need to justify slavery in a society in which everybody stands in the relationship of inherited subordination to someone else - servant to master, serf to nobleman, vassal to overlord, overlord to kings, and king to King of kings." Materials: Once
at the site click on "Public Records" and go to "Laws." Scroll down and go to "K, Laws on Slavery".and "O, The Practise of Slavery." You may be able to access these directly at: http://www.iath.virginia.edu/vcdh/jamestown/slavelink.htmland http://www.iath.virginia.edu/vcdh/jamestown/praclink.html. "Laws on Slavery" is 28 pages long in its entirety and "The Practise of Slavery" is 15 pages long. Students will only need to read the following excerpts from these documents. (The document titles listed below are taken directly from the Virtual Jamestown site.) They follow the order of the documents listed at each site but omit many of the documents to make the activities listed below more manageable. Students can access these documents directly from the web. (Teachers can exercise the option of copying these documents in Word, deleting the documents not being used in the lesson, and photocopying the rest for students to use.)
Follow-up activities and assignments: In the activity on indentured servants, groups of students were given different documents to look at, but all tried to answer the same set of questions. In this activity, all students study the same documents, but each group does so in order to answer a different focus question. Divide the class into five groups such that each group is given only one of the focus questions below. Give all groups the selection of documents from "The Laws of Slavery," and "The Practise of Slavery." (Alternatively, create 10 or more groups, with each focus question being answered by two or more groups.) Afterwards ask groups to write papers that answer their assigned focus question and/or ask them to present their conclusions to the class. Focus questions:
Debriefing Discussion: We usually look at the story of colonial America as a series of steps toward freedom. As you help students synthesize what they have learned about early Virginia, help them to see a different story: that American democracy did not become possible for Americans of European descent until they had enslaved Americans of African descent and justified that action by deeming them a separate and inferior race.
ACTIVITY 8: The Consequences of Creating an Ideology of Race: Viewing the Concluding Sections of Episode 2 of RACE. Resume showing Episode 2 at approximately 16:21 through to the end of the video. Before viewing this segment ask students how they think the creation of "race" as an ideology would impact American history beyond the end of slavery and the Civil War. After viewing the rest of the film, discuss the following:
EXTENSIONS: Topics for Essays and Further Research
Other topics for research:
REFERENCES: Students can be assessed for their participation in whole-class discussions. Did they participate often? Did their comments reflect their ability to use new concepts? Students can
be asked to assess their own roles in the small-group work analyzing documents. Did they read the material carefully? Did they make inferences and connect ideas in order to answer their focus questions? Did they participate in discussions and listen to one another? Students can be assessed on their research papers. They should reflect an understanding of the key concepts developed in this lesson - especially that race is an ideology, rather than a thing, i.e. biology. Students can be given an in-class essay or exam to write. Ask students to defend the definitions of race offered by historians at the opening of Episode 2 of RACE by citing specific evidence from the history of Jamestown.
RELEVANT STANDARDS From Mid-Continent Research For Learning and Education at http://www.mcrel.org/ Historical Understanding Level IV Grade 9-12 Standard 1: Understands continuity and change related to a particular development or theme. Standard 2: Analyzes the influences specific ideas and beliefs had on a period of history and specifies how events might have been different in the absence of those ideas and beliefs. United States History Era 2 Level IV Grade 9-12 Standard 4: Understands elements of slavery in the colonies in the 17th century. <BACK TO TOP Which of the following was not a significant feature of indentured servitude in 17 century Virginia?Which of the following was not significant feature of indentured servitude in seventeenth-century Virginia? Indentured servants never comprised more than small percentage of Virginians, the great majority of whom arrived as free settlers or slaves.
What was established in Virginia that resulted in the importation of indentured servants?Virginia and Maryland employed the "headright" system to encourage the importation of servant workers. Under its terms, whoever paid the passage of a laborer received the right to acquire 50 acres of land. Chesapeake planters brought some 100,000 indentured servants to the region by 1700.
Where did indentured servants come from quizlet?A worker bound by a voluntary agreement to work for a specified period of years often in return for free passage to an overseas destination. Before 1800 most were Europeans; after 1800 most indentured laborers were Asians.
What was a characteristic of early New England society?The New England colonies developed an economy based on shipbuilding, fishing, lumbering, small-scale subsistence farming, and eventually, manufacturing. The colonies prospered, reflecting the Puritans' strong belief in the values of hard work and thrift.
|