It was really cool to read Binders-Reimer about how New York was very similar back then as it is now-it was diverse, tolerant, and an entrepreneurial moneymaking capitalist center. Although I vaguely remember learning at some point that New York and the rest of the North had slavery, I didn’t realize to what degree. I always learned about how bad slavery was in the South and how widespread it was, but for some reason we always glossed over the North’s role in slavery. (Maybe it is because we live in the North and we’re trying to make ourselves feel/sound better?) Anyway, it was just a shock to read about how big a role slavery played in the North.
Also, I agree with Rebecca and In The Shadow of Slavery when it said slavery became the basis of the American social system of race and class. Although everyone talks about America as the “land of opportunity”, not everyone really gets to experience the American dream of rags to riches- most people struggle to survive here, and you see homeless people lying on the streets as you walk by. Meanwhile, there are rich people spending money on frivolities and not caring or trying to help those less fortunate homeless people find food or shelter, because the American culture is all about competition- winners and losers. Although slavery started out as needing laborers, it became part of the American social hierarchy. You can’t have superior people without having someone be inferior to them. The slaves were a necessary part of American social hierarchy because they filled the role of “inferior, poor blacks” so that the “superior, rich whites” could fill theirs.
The idea of race and class was socially constructed, even though back then they lied and told themselves it was biologically constructed in order to justify their actions. For example, contrary to the white owners who believed that the slaves were too stupid to put up a fight, they actually resisted in a genius way. In the Shadow of Slavery it says “they demonstrated through labor, resistance to bondage…” I remember learning that the slaves resisted in secret ways- they pretended to be stupid and did their “tasks” very slowly, or even wrong, and the would purposely leave tools outside over night so they would rust and be ruined. I think this was a genius plan because this way they mess up their owners’ labor, but at the same time they won’t be caught or punished because it doesn’t look like they did anything on purpose.
I just want to respond to Eden who mentioned that if slavery had been abolished then maybe Native Americans would have been put to work- If I remember correctly, that was actually the original plan to use Native Americans, but since they knew the land better than us they would always sneak away at night and there wasn’t really anything we could do, so then we turned to slavery.
Finally, I want to point out how weird it was to read sentences like “their commercial prospects appeared promising: gold, ivory and slaves…” like its no big deal, like slaves were just pieces of property or goods to be traded.
