liberty and equality

A detailed Summary of liberty and equality

Americans have always felt that liberty and equality are of utmost importance. Throughout American history, people have protested, fought, and died for their chance at equality. When European colonists and Native Americans met in the New World, they were no different. Each group had their own ideas about what liberties they were entitled to, and they were willing to do almost anything for freedom and equality.

When the colonists arrived in the New World, they felt that they had many sources from which they could extract freedom. The first source of this liberty was the New World itself. Many of the colonists who immigrated to America during the late 16th and early 17th centuries were coming from an unpleasant lifestyle. England at that time was a land of feudalism and poverty. In order to survive, many peasants took to thievery.

When these peasants came to the New World, they saw myriad opportunities to create a better life for themselves. In particular, they saw the possibility of freedom. However, the New World offered some contrasting ideas to the colonists. It gave them the chance to start over in a place 3,000 miles away from England. It was a land that did not yet know poverty, one where they could set up thei

Virginia. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1975.

While the colonists were not concerned about growing corn for themselves, they soon became obsessed with growing another crop-tobacco. Tobacco had a profound effect on the New World in that it was another source of freedom for the colonists, especially those living in the Virginia area. This cash crop eventually came to shape the way freedom and equality were viewed in the New World.

This class distinction soon developed into racism. Some plantation owners feared that their slaves would unite with previous servants to overthrow the wealthy men in Virginia. Therefore, masters segregated the servants from the slaves, which generally meant separating the whites from the blacks. In addition, from about 1680 onward, laws were passed that encouraged racism in the colony. For example, in 1691, a law was passed which forbid "negroes, mulattoes, and Indians" from "intermarrying with English, or other white women, as by their unlawfull accompanying with one another" (Morgan 335).

The immigrants who traveled to the New World to become servants had been attracted to America because of the "freedom" it offered. Ironically, many of these servants were never able to establish successful lives for themselves in Virginia. Tobacco had deeply affected the big men of Virginia; they considered the crop and the prosperity it created to be more important than human lives. Unfortunately, the abundant use of servitude in the colony of Virginia was one of the first steps toward the installment of slavery in the New World.

As well as changing the way Virginians viewed slaves, slavery also altered the way Virginians saw themselves. The increase in the use of slavery caused a decrease in the need for servants. As an increasing number of white servants became freedmen, a distinction was created between slaves and free men of whatever class (Morgan 338). The whites came to look upon themselves as all being equal in that they were not slaves. This belief was strengthened by the fact that slaves were not known for their hard work. The slaves, therefore, were considered to be poor and useless, unlike their white counterparts, who supposedly worked hard for their money. Even a lazy freedman was considered superior to a slave.

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The colonial farmers believed they had come to a place where they would work as little as they did in England, but would reap more for their effort. The skilled laborers, such as carpenters and blacksmiths, refused to work except at their specific trades. The English had not come to the New World to grow corn, but rather to create new and prosperous lives for themselves (Morgan 90).

Sharp, James Roger. American Politics in the Early Republic: The New Nation in Crisis.

Many poor Englishmen wished to come to America, but could not afford it. The plantation owners took advantage of this, agreeing to pay for a man's trip to Virginia, and then requiring him to spend a set number of years as their servant. At the end of the set term, masters were not excited about giving up their servant. Often, in fact, the servants had to go to court and plead for freedom when their term had expired (Morgan 148). The plantation owners knew that the fewer servants they had, the less tobacco they could produce. Therefore, they began to mistreat the servants that were under their control, reasoning that they should get as m

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Category: History