Black Emancipators of the Nineteenth Century
Beryl Bailey and Marcella Flake
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HISTORY
During the late 17th and early 18th centuries, countries in Europe began to look to the African race as a cheap labor source in developing the new world because attempts to enslave the Indians and poor whites had failed. The Indians had been susceptible to European diseases (such as small pox), and their cultural background did not prepare them for the arduous tasks of the plantation system. They hunted big and small game instead of raising cattle. Poor whites as laborers were equally unsatisfactory. These laborers gradually achieved good standing in the colonies since their work terms as indentured servants ended; often they ran away or threatened revolt, as in Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676.
The Englishmen used Africans based on their color and their pastoral skills. African slavery soon then became a fixed institution, for it was the answer to one of America’s most pressing problems: cheap labor. Profits were made, however, not only in the plantation system but in the slave trade itself.
