In Part I of his book Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries
of Slavery in North America, Ira Berlin discussed the ways Atlantic
Creoles, highly cultured peoples of mixed race, shaped the first generation of
African slaves in mainland North America. Part II moved forward chronologically
and focused on the Creoles’ successors: the plantation generation. Berlin
argued that the plantation institution spread and led to the degradation of black
life in North America. Berlin’s argument focused on the transition from what he
termed societies with slaves into slave societies. He claimed that this
transition differed according to individual situations, and was perhaps most
pronounced in the Chesapeake region and the Lowcountry of South Carolina,
followed by a unique transition in the North. The Lower Mississippi Valley,
according to Berlin, moved in the opposite direction from the other regions:
from a slave society back to a society with slaves. The various forms this
transition embodied, in connection with individual situations, were comparable
to the various effects of the Glorious Revolution on the different colonies.
Atlantic
Creoles permeated societies with slaves, which Berlin defined as societies that
utilize slavery but are not economically and socially dependent upon it as an
institution. Creoles were able to use their social and cultural experience to
better their situation, some to the point of freedom. Their successors were not
so lucky. The next generation worked harder and died earlier. Family life was
nearly non-existent and they were unable to connect to or understand
Christianity, the dominant religion of the white society they found themselves
in. The new generation had little opportunity for their own economic interests,
a privilege common to their Creole predecessors. All of these indicators of
social degradation were reflected in the names they were given by their Planter
or Master.[1]
Planters
transformed the society with slaves into a slave society. Slave societies,
according to Berlin, are societies that rely heavily upon slavery for the stability
of its economic and social structures. These Planters defined race by social
status to a greater extent than had ever been done before. They changed the
landscape, social classes and relationships, and centers of financial
stability. At first, the Planters did not care much about who they enslaved. It was only as Europeans moved Native American
tribes farther and farther inland that slavery began to focus solely on
Africans. Soon the term “Negro” became synonymous with “slave.” What set apart
plantations was its peculiar social order. Nearly one-hundred percent of the
gains went to the Planter and nothing went to the slaves. Masters ran their
plantations according to the “art of domination.” Slaves had to be in awe of their
“metaphorical father,” who incited that awe with systematic and relentless
force.[2]
The
Tobacco Revolution brought about the transition into a slave society in the
Chesapeake region of Virginia and Maryland. Following Nathaniel Bacon’s
rebellion, Planters consolidated their control throughout the region. They
instigated slave codes that made slave status hereditary and restricted slaves’
freedoms and prerogatives. The codes created a “mudsill,” which refers to a
hypothetical barrier placing any white person above any black person in any and
every situation. There was little room for ambition, and the once-vital slave
economy withered. Planters imported high numbers of male slaves and stripped
them of their identity, constantly increasing the “apparatus of coercion” to
demoralize the workers. Slaves who worked in Chesapeake plantations experienced
harder work regimens, more days, longer hours, and closer supervision than
their Creole Predecessors.[3]
The
Rice Revolution in the lowlands of South Carolina and Georgia was only a small
step behind the Tobacco Revolution of the Chesapeake. Similar to the situation
in Chesapeake plantations, a rapid increase in demand for rice and indigo led
to increased importation of slaves from the Inland of Africa. Increased
importation led to massive degradation, both of which far surpassed that of the
Chesapeake. The slave society overtook the society with slaves. The lowlands
had a black majority: roughly two-to-one in most areas and as high as
three-to-one in others. Slaves lived in large units and worked the brutal and
tedious cycle of rice and indigo production. Much like their counterparts in
the Chesapeake, slaves in the lowlands lost their identities on the plantation.[4]
Unlike the North, Chesapeake, and the Lower Mississippi Valley regions,
Africanization in the lowlands—the combination of African cultures into the
established culture of the plantation—was not a short generation, but lasted a
full century.[5]
The
North, according to Berlin, did not experience a plantation revolution akin to
those of the Chesapeake and the lowlands. The North transformed rather slowly
and unevenly. The transition was much less complete than in the South, and it
took place mostly in the urban centers of the Middle Colonies. The number of
indentured servants arriving from Europe decreased, thus increasing the
importance of the slave labor force.[6]
Both the urban elite and the middling sorts held slaves in the North. Slaves
transitioned from household tasks artisanry. This important transformation
changed the face of slavery in the North. Similar to their southern
counterparts, northern slaves became indispensable to the economy. Slave
families were unlikely, as mortality rates rose sharply and fertility dropped
significantly. Berlin noted that though it was not quite a slave society, it
was no longer merely a society with slaves either, leaving the North in a very
unique position.[7]
Berlin
claimed that the plantation revolution barely affected the Lower Mississippi
Valley. The Louisiana colony already attempted to establish a plantation regime
that was at this point coming unraveled. Importation of slaves stopped and the
colony devolved from a slave society to a society with slaves. As the plantation
economy failed, the slave economy flourished. Slaves inched up the social
ladder. Planters knew they needed indigenous population growth for the economy
to survive, and the harsh regime mellowed. Slaves built connections through
economic and social pursuits that would make life easier at the moment, and their
own in the future. Plantation slaves reverted back to the Creole traditions of
the charter generation.[8]
The
various ways in which the plantation revolution affected the colonies according
to individual circumstances were comparable to the colonies’ various reactions
to the news of the Glorious Revolution in Britain. After Prince William of
Orange took the throne from the Catholic King James II, British colonies in
America each reacted differently. In Maryland Catholics had been supported,
though they were a minority. The majority protested, and the colony became a
Royal Colony with the Anglican Church as the established religion. In
Massachusetts, a mob imprisoned King James’ royal governor along with
twenty-five other men and re-established its old form of representative
government, though their beloved “Holy Experiment” was over. In New York, after
hearing the news of the Dutch Prince William coming to the throne, a Dutchman organized
a militia and took over the government. He clamped down very hard on the people
before making a very poor decision to attack another colony. The Dutchman was
tried and executed by a royal representative. Each of these reactions to the
news of revolution was very different because of the social, political, and religious
differences among them.[9]
The
colonies’ transitions to slave societies and their reactions to the Glorious
Revolution took different forms from one another, largely due to social, economic,
and religious variation among and within them. The plantation generation made a
major impact on the Chesapeake region and Lowlands of South Carolina, while only
affecting the slave society of the North indirectly. Slave societies in the
Lower Mississippi Valley devolved in the exact opposite direction from the
Chesapeake and the Lowlands. Berlin argued that the common thread throughout
each region was the general degradation of slave life that accompanied the
transition from a society with slaves to a slave society. Though the Creole societies faded behind the
plantation, they would not be forgotten. The tools used by the charter
generations would again be employed as slave societies transformed into free
societies.
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