European Colonization and Slavery in the New World

European Perceptions of Native Americans

"They have no iron, steel, or weapons, nor are they capable of using them" (Davis & Mintz 32). This phrase from Christopher Columbus briefly and devastatingly sums up the attitude of Europeans toward the inhabitants of the New World. European colonialists and explorers regarded the native inhabitants of the Americas as inferior beings. Native cultures were to be judged solely upon how perfectly they embodied a European model of civilization. Unsurprisingly, these indigenous civilizations — both those of Central and North America — were seen as lacking. Native Americans were viewed as militarily, intellectually, and therefore culturally defenseless in the face of European might.

When the natives were friendly toward European explorers, this was taken as "proof" of native childishness and their primitive nature. When native populations defended themselves, this was seen as "proof" of native savageness. For example, when Columbus observed that the first individuals he encountered "invited" his men to "share," this was not interpreted as kindness but as evidence of childishness and their fitness as a "potential labor source" (Davis & Mintz 33–34).

Even those European explorers who initially idealized the original residents of the Americas saw them as living remnants of an earlier stage of human development. Those who despised them saw them as sources of potential profit. Regardless, the original inhabitants were viewed only in relation to European needs — not as individuals worthy of equal treatment with a valid claim to the land on which they lived.

America as Paradox: Eden and Wilderness

America was perceived as a kind of paradox: it was a Garden of Eden, uncivilized rather than possessing a different kind of civilization, and ripe for the taking — or it was a terrible, foreboding, and heathenish place that deserved to be tamed, that must be tamed in the name of Christianity and progress. The Europeans saw America as a place of liberty, freedom from "Old World laws, customs, doctrines," where "scarcity gave way to abundance," and part of this myth of American freedom was that no human being of value or consequence owned that land (Davis & Mintz 32). America was imagined as a land without laws, not as a land with different laws belonging to different peoples.

One of the reasons for the pervasiveness of this ideology in the European consciousness was the ever-growing hunger for wealth that escalated exponentially in the centuries following the so-called "discovery" of the New World. The number of English poor increased rapidly as colonization began in earnest, driven in part by the enclosure movement in England, which had drastically reduced the availability of grazing land for livestock.

Economic Pressures and Early Colonial Settlements

By the time of the first settlements at Jamestown, many Englishmen were eager to settle in Virginia, despite the unknown terrain and the horrific conditions they faced. These early colonists found it difficult to establish a feasible system of governance — the first settlers were more interested in getting rich quickly than in sustained labor, despite the lucrative possibilities offered by the cash crop of tobacco (Davis & Mintz 50).

The Jamestown settlement and others like it struggled partly because of the composition of their populations: they were made up largely of single men unaccustomed to agricultural labor and taking direction from others. Despite certain celebrated episodes from this period — such as the relationship established between Powhatan and Pocahontas with Captain John Smith — these early settlements floundered (Davis & Mintz 52).