Origins of American Slavery
...can's were chosen to be slaves. This book covers a wide range of historical topics on slavery and her evaluation of slavery tells us that this is when the roots of racism began. She raises the questions: Why the English colonists decided to enslave West Africans instead of Native Americans? She answers this by comparing West Africans with Native Americans. Wood analyzes both of these groups of people and explains how indentured servants differ from chattel slavery. The English compared West Africans with animals. They were very derogatory towards them. They saw black as a color of sin and the devil. These people were no good. They had mixed feelings about Native Americans because they did not resemble "apes." Wood sets fourth the idea that asks the question if racial issues produced slavery or if racism came about from slavery. She explains the economic motives toward slavery. The West African worked harder than the indentured servant did and more money could be made. These blacks were owned, not just borrowed for seven years or so. The issue of West African's being born in England arose and whether or not they had the rights of citizens or could they legally be enslaved? Racism did have an affect on slavery because they thought enslaving blacks was acceptable and did make them feel oppressed. The book is written from the beginning of how the English thought. Religion was a key player in the idea of slavery because they could not make another English person a slave because they were both Christians. On the other hand, blacks in West Africa were not. The book is organized chronologically, which makes it easy to understand the roots of slavery. Her style of writing in this book is basically reiterating the fact that slavery has oppressed the African race since early times and racism w...