This will be the first of several periodic threads giving you an opportunity to engage in an exchange of ideas about some of the primary sources in this course. For this thread, I’d like you to post about one or two of the sources listed in the syllabus for weeks 3 and 4, including the account of indentured servant Richard Frethorne in Virginia in 1623 (Links to an external site.). Frethorne was about the same age as most of you and this ended up being his last letter home to his parents. Can you relate to his predicament of wanting to return home to his family after experiencing so many hardships? How does this influence your understanding of indentured servitude?
You need not write on Frethorne as one of your 1-2 sources, but whichever source(s) you choose, try to ask yourself the 5 W questions (Who/What/Where/When/Why) as well as the So What question, which gets to the historical significance of the source. Are you able to think about these textual and visual sources in a way that breathes life into them, to get a better sense of what the people who produced the sources actually felt and thought at the time? Are there aspects of the source that lead you to question its veracity (as a true reflection of events) or objectivity? Do you see connections between any of the sources, or parallels to terms and concepts we’ve covered in lecture? These are all questions you should consider in your posts. I am giving you broad latitude to choose what to write on, and about. But please try to ensure your post has specific details (and ideally page references, for the benefit of the rest of us) rather than just speaking in vague generalities about the sources.
There are two answers from my peers for you to refer and you should select one post to response:
1. When looking at “An Act for Suppressing Outlying Slaves“, it is clear to see the racial hatred that white people felt against those who did not share their skin color. A black person did not even have to be enslaved to receive the same amounts of hatred or fear against them. If an enslaved African, whether they be fully black or Mulatto, was caught resisting, running away, or refusing to deliver or surrender themselves to any person of lawful authority, it would be lawful for that enslaved person to be killed “by gunn or any otherwaise whatsoever” (Sources pg 55). It was also stated in the law that if the enslaved person was killed, the owner would be compensated 4,000 pounds of tobacco by the public. A human being was worth barrels of tobacco? The white assembly of Virginia also feared the intermingling of races and set forth a law to prevent it. Any white person who intermarried with a person of color was to be banished from the dominion forever (56). This alone instilled a deeper racial divide and both hatred and fear of associating one’s self with a person of color. Not only were societal factors affecting the hatred and racism, but the governing bodies were also adding fuel to the fire. As discussed in previous lectures, these black codes were designed to limit the freedoms of African Americans as well as contribute to a continuing racial divide that would eventually cause the country to divide itself so far that it resulted in war.
2. I chose William Byrd, Diary Entries and the validity of this source is accurate, given that it is his own personal secret diary. He isn’t obligated to share with anyone, therefore he can tell the truth because he feels he doesn’t have to address a certain audience. The injustices of both African Americans and women were subtly hinted at in the diary because the author was in no sense remorseful. In William Bryd’s entries, most days are routine based in that he has milk everyday, reads the bible, takes strolls on the plantation and prays. He said so casually on page 58 that “Tom was whipped because he did not tell me he was sick.” Byrd said this after he said his prayer and was in bed, which meant that this action was a sort of an after thought for him. He is a claimed religious man who prays everyday, yet he is whipping one of his servants for a such a benign and non punishable action that Tom had done. As mentioned in class, the mistreatment of not only African Americans, but woman was also prevalent. European women were treated superior to African American men, but they were still second class to a white male. His wife begged for forgiveness of him for a simple mistake made. She did not eat that whole day, did not sleep and avoided her husband all day within the house and plantation.
Required Texts
Kevin B. Sheets et al., ed., Sources For America’s History, Volume I: To 1877 (9h ed.,
Bedford, 2018)
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Dover, 1995)
Jonathan Fetter-Vorm and Ari Kelman, Battle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War (Hill and Wang, 2015)
Optional Recommended Text
Gary B. Nash et al., The American People: Creating a Nation and a Society, Volume 1 (
8th ed., Pearson, 2017)
Week Three – From Freedom to Slavery
- #5 Tue Oct 5 – The Chesapeake Colonies
- #6 Tue Oct 7 – The Atlantic Slave Trade & Colonial Slavery
Required reading (from Sources reader):
p.30 “Maryland Act of Religious Toleration” (1649)
p.33 Edmund White, “Letter to Joseph Morton” (1687)
p.67 Virginia General Assembly, “An Act for Suppressing Outlying Slaves” (1691)
p.84 Olaudah Equiano, “The Interesting Narrative” (1794)
Also: Richard Frethorne, “Letter to His Mother and Father” (1623)
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6475
Recommended reading: Nash, Chapter 3
Week Four – Becoming British
#7 Tue Oct 12 – New Arrivals, the Colonial Economy & Anglicization
#8 Thu Oct 24 – Religious Revivals & the Battle for a Continent
Required reading (from Sources reader):
p.65 Canassatego (Onondaga), “Relating to an Act of the Province of New York” (1742)
p.57 William Byrd II, “Diary Entries” (1709-1712)
p.73 Rev. John Barnard, “Autobiography” (1766)
p.85 Sarah Osborn, “Memoirs” (1814)
Recommended reading: Nash, Chapter 4
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