Devon DB: The Legal Creation of Race in America

When examining history, it seems that a narrative has evolved over time that slavery somehow just happened in the United States due to the need for cheap labor, and that Africans were chosen because they could do that labor the best. While this is true, it is far from the full reality of the situation. Like slavery, race took time to be created and accepted by the population, and like slavery, race had to be created from a legal framework. For this, we need to look no further than colonial Virginia. It must be acknowledged that there was and is some debate over whether or not Africans that came to Virginia in 1619 were slaves, or that they slowly but surely transitioned to slavery. Yet, despite this, there is still evidence that in the mid 1600s, laws were being made to create race. Interestingly enough, slavery was not originally sought after in colonial Virginia as, in spite of its seeming superiority, it was actually not as advantageous as indentured labor during the first half of the century "due to the high morality of Virginia immigrants. Such morality created a situation where there would be no advantage in owning a person for their entire lives rather than a few years, especially since a slave cost roughly twice as much as an indentured servant. Though, this morality was in reality due to economics as up until the 1640s, the main crop for Barbados and Virginia was tobacco. However, Barbados made a switch to cotton, and then finally to sugar in the early 1640s. This discouraged white indentured servants from going to Barbados, as sugar production required such strenuous labor that men would not willingly undertake it. Thus, colonial Virginia was given an influx of indentured servants. Virginia's transition to slave labor was slow as even though it became more advantageous to own slaves rather than have indentured servants in 1660, in that year the Virginian assembly allowed Dutch slave ships exemption from local duties, however, in that year the Navigation Acts were passed, resulting in Virginia not implementing slavery as fast as this created a situation which would decrease the number of slaves as fast as this created a situation which would decrease the number of slaves that could be imported. It also did not help that Virginia was now in competition with sugar planters in the Barbados over this smaller supply of slaves.