CHAPTER 5

THE DEVELOPMENT OF DOMINANT-MINORITY GROUP RELATIONS IN PREINDUSTRIAL AMERICA:

The Origins of Slavery

Overview

This is the first of two chapters that outline the historical development of dominant‑minority relations in the United States. The time period in Chapter 5 extends from colonial times to the mid‑1800s, whereas Chapter 6 covers roughly the century before World War II. Both chapters are organized around the concept of the level of development (agrarian vs. industrial) of the overall society and the structure of group relations (paternalistic vs. competitive). Chapter 5 examines the construction of slavery for African Americans in the context of an agrarian subsistence technology. The two other minority groups whose contact periods began before industrialization, Native and Mexican Americans, are also examined.

These chapters stress the importance of the original contact situation in shaping minority‑ dominant relations. The analysis is guided by two hypotheses, one stated by Daniel Noel and the other by Robert Blauner. Noel stresses the role of intergroup competition and power while Blauner focuses on the distinction between colonized or conquered minority groups and those created by immigration. The three groups covered in Chapter 5 became minority groups as a result of competition for land, labor, or both. Minority status was imposed by the superior power of the dominant group and all three groups were conquered or colonized. These features of the contact situation continue to affect group relations today.

Learning Goals

1. Students will understand that dominant-minority relations are shaped by the characteristics of society as a whole, particularly subsistence technology.

2. Students will understand that the contact situation is the single most important factor in the development of dominant-minority relations.

3. Students will understand the Noel hypothesis. This hypothesis states that when a contact situation is characterized by ethnocentrism, competition, and a differential in power, ethnic and racial stratification results.

4. Students will understand the ways in which prejudice and racism serve to rationalize, "explain," and stabilize systems of racial and ethnic inequality.

5. Students will understand that Native American tribes were conquered and pressed into a paternalistic relationship with white society. They became a colonized minority group and were subjected to forced acculturation.

6. Students will understand that Mexican Americans were the third minority group created during the preindustrial era. Mexican Americans competed with whites for land and labor and were a colonized minority group like African Americans and Native Americans.

7. Students will understand the ways that women and men were affected differently by colonization and conquest. Specifically, they will understand that women, in addition to being oppressed by their minority group status were also oppressed by their gender.

8. Students will understand key concepts related to dominant-minority relations in preindustrial America including but not limited to: indentured servants, contact situation, indentured servants, plantation system, Noel hypothesis, ethnocentrism, competition, Blauner hypothesis, colonized minority groups, immigrant minority groups, paternalism, caste system, psuedotolerance, abolitionism, institutional discrimination, Tejanos, and Californios.

9. Students will examine issues of dominant-minority from a comparative perspective. Specifically, they will examine the experiences (including the contact situation) of the Spanish and French in the Western Hemisphere and how they compare with those of the British in what became the United States.

10. Students will explore the debates about how slavery may have affected the origins of African American Culture from different perspectives: (a) slavery created African American culture, (b) African American culture was created by an interplay of elements from Africa and America, and (c) The experiences of female slaves has been under-researched and under-reported.

Outline

I. Chapter Overview

II. The Origins of Slavery in America

A. American slavery evolved gradually in response to a labor supply problem.

1. Agriculture was labor intensive and depended almost entirely on human effort. The plantation system, based on cultivating and exporting crops, developed as colonial society grew.

2. As the plantation system developed, the supply of indentured servants from the British Isles dwindled. Attempts to use Native Americans failed--either due to their dwindling numbers or their ability to resist enslavement.

3. The slave trade from Africa to Spanish and Portuguese colonies of South

America was able to expand to fill the needs of the British colonies.

B. The Contact Situation

1. The conditions under which groups first come into contact determine the fate of the minority group and shape intergroup relations for many years to come.

2. The Noel Hypothesis identifies three features of the contact situation that lead to inequality between groups.

a. Ethnocentrism, or the tendency to judge other groups, societies, or lifestyles by the standards of one's own culture.

b. Competition, or a struggle for scare resources.

c. Differential power, or a differential ability to achieve goals in the face of opposition.

3. The Blauner Hypothesis identifies two different initial relationships--colonization and immigration and hypothesizes that minority groups created by colonization will experience more intense prejudice, racism, and discrimination than those created by immigration. Moreover, colonized groups will experience disadvantaged status longer than will groups created by immigration.

C. The Creation of American Slavery

1. The Noel hypothesis helps explain why colonists enslaved black Africans instead of white indentured servants of Native Americans.

a. All three groups were the objects of ethnocentric feelings on the part of the elite groups that dominated colonial society.

b. Competition between existed between colonists and all three groups.

c. Native American tribes were well organized and able to resist colonists attacks. White indentured servants were preferred over black indentured servants and this gave them bargaining power. Africans, however, had become indentured by force and coercion who had no bargaining power. This differential in power between Africans and colonists explains why they were enslaved instead of the other groups.

D. Paternalistic Relations

1. Key features of paternalism include: vast power differentials and inequalities between dominant and minority groups, elaborate and repressive systems of control over the minority group, castelike barriers between groups, elaborate and highly stylized codes of behavior and communication between groups, and low rates of overt conflict.

E. The Dimensions of Minority Group Status

1. The concepts of power, inequality, and institutional discrimination help us understand the creation of slavery.

2. Individual prejudice and ideological racism are not as important as causes for the creation of minority group status, but are more the results of systems of racial inequality.

3. Assimilation and acculturation. Debates about the impact of slavery continue today, but it is clear that African Americans were extensively and coercively acculturated. African Americans were a colonized group with little choice but to adjust to the conditions established by the traditional elite. Black slaves developed new cultural forms and social relationships within the confines that affected them.

4. The system of gender relations within Southern agrarian society stratified both whites and blacks by gender. White women were subordinate to white men. African American women were at the bottom of the hierarchy based on their minority status as slaves and as women. The system of gender relations affected women slaves differently from men slaves. Women slaves were raped and otherwise abused by white men in the dominant group.

III. The Creation of Minority Status For Native Americans and Mexican Americans

A. Native Americans

1. There were--and are--hundreds of different tribes or nations, each with its own language, culture, territory, and history.

2. Many Native American tribes no longer exist or are vastly diminished in size. It is estimated that Native American populations have declined by 75% or more since the start of the 300-year long "contact situation."

3. Native Americans in Blauner's terms, were a colonized minority group who faced high levels of prejudice, racism, and discrimination. They were controlled by paternalistic systems (i.e., the reservations) and in many ways were coercively acculturated. According to Blauner, the negative consequences of their colonized status will persist long after the contact situation has ended.

4. Gender relations among Native American societies varied.

a. Some Native American societies were highly stratified while others stressed equality and the sharing of resources.

b. It was not unusual for women in many tribes to play key roles in religion, politics, warfare, and the economy. Some became respected warriors and chiefs.

c. The contact situation affected gender relations differently. In some cases, the relative status and power of women rose while in some cases women were adversely affected.

B. Mexican Americans

1. Texas.

a. Some of the first effects of U.S. expansion to the West were felt in Texas in the early 1800s. Anglo Americans began to immigrate to Texas in large numbers, tempted by its farmland.

b. When the U.S. annexed Texas in the 1840s, war broke out and Mexico was defeated. It ceded much of the Southwest to the U.S.

c. Without moving, the Mexican population of this region became a conquered people and a minority group.

2. California.

a. The Gold Rush of 1849 spurred a massive population movement from the East. Laws encouraged Anglos to settle on land traditionally held by Californios, or the native Mexicans in the state.

b. Laws passed in the 1850s made it increasingly difficult for Californios to retain their property and power as Anglo-Americans became the dominant group as well as the majority of the population.

3. Arizona and New Mexico.

a. The Anglo immigration into Arizona and New Mexico was less voluminous than that into Texas and California.

b. In Arizona, most of the Mexican population were immigrants seeing work on farm, ranches, and in mines and railroads.

c. In New Mexico, Mexican Americans retained some political power and economic clout, mostly because of the relatively large size of the group and their ability to mobilize for political action.

4. Mexican Americans and the Noel and Blauner Hypotheses.

a. The causal model we have applied to slavery and the domination of Native Americans also helps us explain why and how Mexican Americans became a minority group.

b. Ethnocentrism, competition for land, and a power differential between groups existed, although these factors differed in different locations. For example, in Texas and California the subordination of the Mexican American population followed quickly after a rapid influx of Anglos and the military defeat of Mexico.

IV. Comparing Minority Groups

A. Native Americans and black slaves were the victims of the explosive growth of European power in the Western Hemisphere that began with Columbus's voyage in 1492.

B. Europeans needed labor to fuel plantations and slaves were the most logical, cost-effective means to solving the labor supply problems.

C. European immigrants desired land belonging to Native Americans. Once their land was expropriated, Native Americans were not seen as much of a concern. Native Americans were seen as an unsuitable source of labor.

D. Mexican communities in the Southwest were a series of outpost settlements, remote and difficult to defend. Mexican citizens in this area were conquered through war and other types of aggression and became an exploited minority group.

E. Each of these groups became involuntary players in the growth and development of European and, later, American economic and political power. All three were overpowered and relegated to an inferior and subordinate status.

F. All three groups were acculturated within the context of paternalistic relations in an agrarian economy.

V. Current Debates: How Did Slavery Affected the Origins of African American Culture?

A. Slavery created African American culture.

B. African American culture was created by an interplay of elements from Africa and America.

C. The experiences of female slaves has been under-researched and under-reported.

VI. Main Points of the Chapter

VII. Further Reading and Internet Research

Classroom Activities and Suggestions for Discussion

1. Have students locate and read several slave narratives and discuss them, relating what they've read in the narratives to concepts and theories offered in the text. Online sources vary but one currently useful source that offers sound files and useful links can be found at the University of Virginia. See http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/wpahome.html. The Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/) also offers online slave narratives (among other topics relevant to the text such as immigration).

2. Have students investigate contemporary slavery around the globe, perhaps assigning each student or groups of students to study a different country. What societal dynamics do these situations have in common with slavery in the United States?

3. If you're located in an area of the United States that is the site of an existing plantation, suggest that students tour of the facilities (or take them on a field trip). Or, you might see if someone from the plantation will speak to your class. Find out about the labor-intensive work on the plantations as well as other aspects of plantation. Does your tour guide discuss slave life? If not, raise relevant issues. It might be interesting to see how this is handled.

4. Have students watch the film Amistad and relate what they see to what they've learned in the text about stereotypes, the dynamics of slavery, the Noel and Blauner hypotheses, etc. Have them investigate the real Amistad, possibly using information from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration web site (http://www.archives.gov/). How does reality stack up with the film version?

5. Watch and discuss Africans In America: America's Journey Through Slavery (PBS). How do these films illustrate the horror of slavery? How do they importance of kinship, religion, and culture in shaping African Americans' lives under slavery?

6. Watch The Color Purple, paying particular attention to issues of gender and race. How do

Celie's, Alfonso's, Shugg's, Albert's, Nettie's, and Pa's experiences relate to the text? In what ways does the film appear to be accurate? How does it seem distorted? How is what Nettie saw in the Olinka tribe similar to what she witnessed in the U.S.? How do Pa and Albert treat women in the film and how does this relate to what students learned concerning the real treatment of women at that time?

7. Read "Ain't I a Woman?" (below) delivered by Sojourner Truth in1851 at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio. Why did she need to ask, "Ain't I a woman?" Discuss her ideas about intersection gender and race and how they created unique positions for women and men. What were the effects of gendered, racialized thinking on work, families, policy, and so on? It is reported that some suffragists didn't want Truth to speak for fear that the abolitionist ideas could hinder the success of the suffragist movement. Why might that be? Do we see parallels today of social movement organizations maintaining distance from one another rather than coming together to fight oppression? Is this effective? Why or why not? [NOTE: In Chapter 7 you may want to revisit this idea. How do current stereotypes of black and white women, black and white men differ from one another? How do they create a sense of multiple femininities and masculinities? What are the effects of this type of thinking at work, in families, in policy, and so on?]