Book Notes -3 - Summary A Different Mirror: a History of Multicultural America PDF

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Notes from chapter 3 from the book A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Details of important events and people from the chapter. ...

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Book Notes Chapter 3

1. Who are the main characters and why are they significant?  One of the main characters would be all the slaves in general. In this time era, they were the first African American slaves in the American colonies in the 1600’s. When they first came to the American colonies they were used as indentured servants. The next character is Governor William Berkeley he was a colonial governor of Virginia, and one of the Lords Proprietors of the Colony of Carolina. Next is Thomas Jefferson was one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence and the third U.S. president, he was a leading figure in America’s early development During the American Revolutionary. He was also a slave owner and he owned 237 slaves. Although he had slaves and treated them with cruelty, he also believed that slavery was an immoral intuition. Captain Thomas Grantham was an English tobacco trader and naval officer, commander of the naval fleet of the British East India Company. 2. What are the significant events (cite dates, periods, locations)?  In 1554, according to trader William Towrson, five “Negroes” were transported to England where they were “kept till they could speak the language”, and then they were taken back to Africa as translators for English traders.  In 1630, the Virginia court decided that Hugh Davis was “to be soundly whipped before an assembly of negroes and others of abusing himself to the dishonor of God and the shame of Christianity by defiling his body in lying with another Negro”.  In 1676 Bacons rebellion began and consisted of the Virginia colonies. The cause of the rebellion was because Governor William Berkeley's refusal to retaliate for a series of Native American attacks on frontier settlements. Many colonists wished to attack and claim American Indian frontier land westward, but they were denied permission by Governor Berkeley.  In 1619, Virginia had no law legalizing slavery. African Americans were sold as indentured servants, bound by contract to serve a master for 4-7 years to repay the expense of their passage.  In 1640, the Virginia legislature passed a law stating that masters should furnish arms to all men, “excepting negros”. As in the amendments, we have the right to bear arms, but the African Americans did not have that right.  In 1691, any white person married to a black or mulatto is banished and a systematic plan is established to capture "outlying slaves." If an outlying slave is killed while resisting capture, the owner receives financial compensation for the laborer.  In 1705, in an act concerning Servants and Slaves, Virginia’s lawmakers would increase the indenture of a mulatto child born to a white woman to 31 years. Determine that if a white man or white woman marries a black partner, the white individual will be sent to jail for six months and fined 10 pounds current money of Virginia. Determine that any escaped slave who is unwilling or unable to name his or her owner will be sent to the public jail.

3. What important themes does Takaki focus on in this chapter?  The important themes that Takaki focuses on this chapter is the early beginning of slavery in the American Colonies. Although there were African Americans in the U.S. during the start, much of the labor work were done by the white-Irish servants. He made it very clear how they were the exact same but treated very differently. The white-Irish servants and the African Americans would join and try to escape. But if you were caught, the white Irish would be punished with extra time to serve for their master, and the African Americans would serve time forever. They were never to become free for what they did. Their children would even have to be born into slavery. Another theme that Takaki focuses on is during this time there was a difference of religion. Before, African Americans were thought to be savages and that they believed in no religion. But, once they became Christians, laws had to be passed to separate race from religion. Takaki explains how whites would blame the black slaves to keep the white race in charge. One last theme that Takaki focuses is on the white indentured servants. He talks about how they struggled and all the trouble the white servants went through once they were granted freedom. They had a really hard time earning the land that they were promised. To the farmers and land owners, slaves were a good way to solve the class problem because they were indentured to the whites and where there to serve them. This is what gave them the superiority. 4. Identify the power takers in this chapter. By what means did these individuals or groups gain power?  The power takers in this chapter were once again the English settlers. They were the power takers because their main goal was to have prosperity in the lands they colonized. So, when they were settling on the lands, they were planting crops, but as time pass, they started using African Americans as slaves. They had many voyages to Africa to capture these slaves and bring them back to the American colonies to have them work in the fields. As slaves, they did not have any rights what so ever. What they gain was wealth, power, and control because nobody could have told them what to do. They had power and control because since they had the slaves doing the agricultural for them, they are the ones that would get wealth from it and the slaves would just receive punishments. 5. Identify the characters whose power was appropriated. What were the circumstances that lead to their oppression? How did these characters demonstrate resistance to their oppression? The characters that had their power appropriated were the African Americans. They were living in their own lands in Africa, but the white men came to their lands and took them as captives just because they were not white. They were not given any sort of rights. At first, they were used as indentured servants, but as time pass, they began to be abused and put into slavery where they began working in huge plantations. They weren’t seen as human beings and

were forced into hard labor. The way they tried to resist their oppression was to revolt. For example, in 1831 a rebellion known as Nat Turner’s rebellion arose. It was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, and Nat Turner led rebel slaves to kill these men and at the end they killed a massive amount of white men that own these slaves, and it was the largest and deadliest slave uprising in U.S. history....