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Impact of Black People in a White People's Colony: Gary Nash

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Impact of Black People in a White People's Colony: Gary Nash
Gary Nash discusses the impact of black people in a white peoples colony. The first negro people to come to America in Virginia were probably indentured servants who would receive some type of reward after their time of service was over, until 1660. After 1660 though many of the “Negros” that came to America were slaves, purchased as property. By the 1800’s every colony in America had “slave codes” which stripped black people of every right they had and made them property. His biggest claim was his stating of, “More than anything else it was sugar that transformed the African slave trade.” The slave trade became an extremely profitable enterprise for European nations once the sugar plantations reached the New World. Many of the New World colonies sought to buy slaves to work on the sugar plantations. It wasn't until the last third of the seventeenth century were the English involved with the slave trade and since it was their royal colonies that were buying most of the slaves they saw a new opportunity to get more money from their colonies. Once the English started to get involved it caused most European nations to war over who dominated the slave trade since it was such a profitable enterprise. pg 38-39.
Gary Nash wrote this essay on how enslavement began and how the slaves were treated. He thought that slaves were treated as, “socially and legally less than people and were kept in a degraded and position, virtually without power.” He believes the slaves were never given a chance to prove the white stereotype wrong. He clearly believed that Afro-Americans became a servile, ignorable, and degraded people in the eyes of Europeans. pg 45. Gary Nash’s claims support Edmund Morgan's “historical interpretation” because Nash clearly believes that slaves were key Americas development. He believes without slaves the much needed cash crops like sugar, tobacco, and rice wouldn’t have succeeded and that would have left America in an economic downfall and the colonies

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