Race 1

Race played a major role throughout this reading. In chapter 3, Takaki says that in the English mind, the color black was “freighted with an array of negative images.” (pp.51) He goes on to mention many different words to show how the color black had many negative images such as sinister, wicked, and foul. But yet whites were said to be innocent and just plain good. Yet many times black and white’s were treated the same, one thing both black and white slaves shared was a condition of class exploitation and abuse. At the beginning there were both white and black slaves or they were also know as “unfree laborers” But it was only a matter of time before their race played a part in how they were treated. The black and white servants soon were separated and the whites were given special and better treatment. There were even laws that were put into place to give whites more privileges, for instance a law was put into place in Virginia stating that masters could furnish arms to all men except Negroes. Soon after that it got worse for the black race and a punishment that was often given to them was that they were required laborers for life. The black slaves soon became known as “property” and part of the slave owners estate which started in 1669. Another way that there was evidence that the black race became known as the inferior race was that you never saw a black man owning a white slave. As I read I was amazed. First off that there were white and black slaves I was unaware of this. But to be honest I think it makes the idea of slavery in America better. Meaning that there were both white and black slaves, therefore slavery did not start off as whites believing that they were more superior to the blacks. Yet it does not surprise me that sooner or later the white slaves got special treatment. I think slavery is completely wrong. I’m not saying it makes it better but to have both black and white slaves makes it seem better because then slavery was not just based of race. I want to know why it made a difference if the slaves were white or black, and why the white slaves got better treatment if they were both slaves. I would also like to know why in this days did race have such a major impact on society and just in normal everyday life? For instance what made these people so afraid of difference?