Takaki Chapter 3

In the beginning of chapter 3, Takaki starts off by discussing skin color. At the time, according to the English, the color black portrayed negative images and the color white had to do with purity. Early on, most slaves were white indentured servants. The black population was growing very slowly at the time. As the population grew, blacks were used more and more as slaves. There was a time when whites and black shared equal labor condition in Virginia and they were all free laborers and shared a kind of partnership. On occasion, whites and blacks would even run away together in order to escape the lives they had been given. As time went on, black servants were separated from white servants because it became more and more obvious that African slaves were more useful that English indentured servants. African laborers were able to be shipped over in large groups, cheaper because serving for life had become more profitable and were able to serve their masters as slaves for longer periods of time (life status). White slaves became pardoned of slavery because of the “giddy multitude.” Religion and race became to matter greatly and a law was passed stating that blacks and Indians were not able to buy Christians. This separated whites and blacks which lead to the separation of savagery and civilization.
One thing I would like to know is, did Jefferson genuinely believe slavery was wrong or was there some other incentive for him to pose the American Revolution? Was he really trying to defend the black slaves?
As I was reading Chapter 3, I found it interesting that during a time throughout slavery, whites and blacks were in a sense equal. This concept is something new I learned through reading Takaki’s chapter. I liked how that whole time period was discussed. It was very interesting to me that there were not a lot of black slaves to begin with and eventually they became easier to transport from England. Eventually, blacks out numbered whites in slavery.