The "Giddy Multitude"

1) The author is trying to convince the reader that the African laborers were treated worse than the white laborers.

2) The author argues that the white laborers were treated better than the African laborers because the African laborers were cheaper than white laborers. The white laborers planned on coming to America, working for a little while, and then becoming landowners. They did not intend to work for the rest of their lives as some one's labor. Whereas the African laborers were expected to work for their entire lives, and never be able to become landowners. The author stated on page 57, "white servants were to serve their 'full term of time' and Negroes 'forever'. African slaves as well as their future children could be inherited." This quote talks about how the Africans were expected to work for the rest of their lives and how that even if their masters die, they will not be let free, but taken over by a new master that was related to their old master. The white laborers were also treated better based on their punishments that they received. The African slaves were given worse punishments than their white counterparts. They would each receive roughly the same beating, but the African would be expected to work forever whereas the white would only be expected to work for an additional year. The author also tells the readers about how Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, but did not like the fact that he did, and predicted that there would come a day where slavery would be abolished, "whether brought on by the generous energy of our own minds, or by the bloody process of St. Domingo (pg 75)."

3)Would Jefferson have really given up his slaves if he had the opportunity in his life?
If Jefferson could have given up his slaves would more people in Virginia follow his trend?
Were there more people in Viriginia that felt the same way about keeping slaves as Jefferson did?

4) I believe that since the white laborers actually came to America with the ideas of eventually becoming landowners than they had the right to those lands. They wanted to come to America and knew that if they were to eventually own land that they would have to work to make money. The African slaves on the other hand did not come to America by choice; they were taken from their homelands and brought to America to be used. I believe that the white male landowners exploited this fact, and that is why they took so many slaves. They were able to get more land because of the work the slaves did, then in turn they would need to buy more slaves to work the extra land. It was a vicious cycle that could not be broken because people are greedy by nature. The landowners knew what they had to do in order to make more money; they knew that they needed to exploit the lives of the African slaves. No one questioned if what they were doing was wrong because it was practically what they did to the Indians in the previous years. The English settlers would take Indians as slaves to Europe, just like how the Africans were being taken to America. Another reason no one questioned if what they were doing was wrong was because the English believed that they were the supior race, and that they should be allowed to dominate and conquer the Earth.