Bakersfield College
Slavery
Debating Races and Importance
By Kandace Kranenburg
HISTB17 – 71562
Professor Erin Miller
12/02/2018
Many people today are still conflicted by the topic regarding slavery. There are many versions as to what slavery consisted of & how it came to be such an important staple in our historic timeline. When you think of slavery who do you think of and who do you think has a more important historic meaning? That was exactly the question I sought after when I brainstormed for my research topic. I also wondered if other people really knew there was an entire other race who experienced something that’s not often spoken for and if they knew about it, would they agree that the two are very alike? I came to find that Indians were also enslaved and trafficked like the African American Culture.
In the early 1850’s the great state of California began accepting the enslavement of Native Americans. Not a lot of people were aware that slave trafficking was taking place in the mountains, much less involving Native American people. Unfortunately this took place well into the 1860’s. Five month’s prior to California declaring the enslavement of Indians the state had been focusing a lot more on governing versus protecting the Native American Race. This left a lot of room for widespread trafficking of young Natives by white men with greedy agendas.
During this time the Gold Strike was taking place, causing populations to grow by extreme numbers and in turn was creating a shortage of available workers. Part of the reason this happened was because it was too costly to employ Hispanics and they had not yet brought over immigrants from other countries. This is where the 1850 Indian Act began. This gave Native American’s the right to somewhat negotiate their unfree employment. According to Michael F. Magliari it was hard to find exact numbers since it was illegal during that time period to record illegal slave trade that slipped through the cracks or even document the current status of “legally bound servants” (Michael F. Magliari. “Free State Slavery: Bound Indian Labor and Slave Trafficking in California's Sacramento Valley, 1850–1864: Page 158).
Another part of Indian Slavery came domestically to those of white race. The demand for Indian slaves in American households was sought after greatly. So they were not just needed in the agricultural portion of the slave market. It became a year round necessity, while agriculture positions were filled during seasons only. It is important to realize that Indians were considered slaves but also it is a different form of slavery. Native Americans did carry freedom because they were not “classified as personal chattel.” If you’re curious what that means, it means they were not held to the standards that of African American slaves who endured countless beatings and had absolutely no freedom from their masters until they fought for a right of release down the line.
Native Americans had consistently been trafficked all throughout California, from the Sacramento River all the way through hills and to the coast. Many natives were stripped from their families and regular lives all to fill the financial void at a cheaper price. These families had been settled in communities of five hundred people and more. Those communities came to end when white settlers came and claimed the land of the Native Americans. This left these people with no choice but to work free in order to somewhat keep their families together. That also brought to light vivid images for researchers like Magliari.
In our book there is only a few different references about Indians and slavery. However, it does list that Native Americans went through many of the same things that African American slaves had endured. Even though they are two separate races and dynamics of slavery they are similar in multiple ways. Research shows that Native Americans had more of a protective slavery versus African Americans who had more of an abusive slavery. This brings me to African American Slavery and it’s way of life and hardships.
Slaves had no rights. In fact even slaves marriages actually held no legal status. The only bearing their marriage remotely held was stabilization at the plantations they were at (David Emory Shi. “America The Essential Learning Addition” Page 376). While that was one of the more positive experiences, slaves faced terrible neglect and abuse. Men and women often had some of the same duties but also had some separate job requirements. Men often served agriculturally on the plantations harvesting crops and grains. Women often worked domestically inside the plantations, serving the masters and their wives and performing multiple duties such as cleaning or sewing.
While they did have jobs, they were not by any means free. They experienced beatings and in some cases even sexual abuse at their plantations. Slavery was a way of life for many African Americans when it came to the colonies. They usually stayed in cabins with dirt floors and if lucky enough had a cabin made of brick, if their master was wealthy. However many did not get that luxury.
African American Slaves also faced trafficking and trading. In many cases this happened by separating families. “Children were often taken from their parents and sold to new masters” (David Emory Shi. “America The Essential Learning Addition” Page 372). Many states also had what were referred to as slave codes. Slave codes basically told slave owners how they could care for their slaves and the types of treatments they were allowed to give. In fact slaves became so popular at one point that masters would actually hire other white men to do risky jobs so they wouldn’t risk losing their slaves.
Many African American slaves came from all over the place. Although they were referred to as African American they also were called mulattoes which were people of mixed race. At one point they said “The census of 1860 reported 412,000 mulattoes in the United States” (David Emory Shi. “America The Essential Learning Addition” Page 370). This shows that many of these people were mixed nationality and race, just like the Native American people.
Eventually slaves gained more freedoms and were able to earn their way into the world after they had served their contracts with their masters. This led them to be able to create normal functioning lives. They also began starting families and some were able to do so while still working off debts with their masters. This is a great example of how African American Slavery and Native Slavery have quite a few things in common. Although the Natives didn’t go through as much physical abuse and emotional abuse as African American slaves, they held many of the same jobs and the same type of “debts.”
African Americans were bought and sold all over the United States, especially in the south for an extended period of time. Their debt to their masters was their livelihood simply because they masters asked why they felt entitled to having a normal life like their masters and plantation mistresses. In any sense it was seen as something that had to be earned even though they were only a different race, skin color or nationality. Those things are what made them slaves and it controlled their lives from birth to death for many people.
How do these two types of slavery compare? Are there really different types? The answer can be found through articles of your choosing but my findings said they were alike in some ways and no so alike in others. I came up with the topic ‘Diverse Slavery’. We have two separate races going through equally twisted versions of the same concept. One group had limited freedom and the other held either no freedom or were working off master debts. Native Americans were trafficked and enslaved but according to the main article I found regarding the matter, it was strictly to “protect” them from harm. African Americans according to our text book were enslaved and trafficked for profitable gain which included sex, money and labor.
So how do we compare Slavery? This is a topic that has been fought about for many years but has never really been challenged. Are Native Americans lives as important as those whom are African American? It was typically found that the two were not compared but set side by side for people see but never to really question. Slavery is a horrible, abusive, twisted culprit of hate and greed. It took races and it tore them apart piece by piece only to compare them to dirty shacks with dirt floors and menial wages.
I researched through article after article and I saw many articles pertaining to African American Slavery. I didn’t see so much information about Native Americans and Slavery. This topic was hard to cover because race and slavery is a sensitive matter, but when will change begin if we do not recognize the hardships of our ancestors? Slavery is a misguided topic that affects many. It affected the families that endured endless beatings, separations, starvation and horrible living conditions. It affected the communities by altering the agriculture and the culture itself by demeaning the race of another human being.
We remember the people for what they went through and who they did things for but not who they were as people. Slaves were brave, hard working, culturally diverse people who we could challenge against one another, but we won’t. Factually though, they are alike, both in extremely twisted and non-related ways but these ways do not make them any less human. Colonial Slaves, both African American and Indian were people. People who brought us change.
Works Cited
Michael F. Magliari. “Free State Slavery: Bound Indian Labor and Slave Trafficking in California's Sacramento Valley, 1850–1864.” Pacific Historical Review, vol. 81, no. 2, 2012, pp. 155–192. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/phr.2012.81.2.155.
David Emory Shi. “America The Essential Learning Addition. Volume 1, Copyright 2018, pp. 370-376”