Zinn-Chapter 2 (Drawing the Color Line)

Today’s world has come a long way from what it used to be many years ago. This may not be easy for some to see because things such as racism and segregation still exist within our society. However, racism has drastically improved since then.
In chapter 2 of Howard Zinn’s book, “A people’s History of the United States,” he states that “the color line” is, in fact still with us and that racism has been most important in the United States in our world history. Zinn discusses the “starving time” for the Virginias. They were not able to produce enough food for themselves and needed a form of labor. The Virginias realized they couldn’t use Indians like Columbus did. The solution to their problem was “black slaves.” This was because, at that time in history, any black person was considered to be a slave. “The whites were in their own European culture,” while the blacks had been taken from theirs. Because of this, blacks were helpless in their new area and could not escape. American slavery was seen as the cruelest form of slavery in history. The Virginias began shipping slaves by ship. These ships were packed full of slaves and the living conditions were horrible for anyone to bear. One of every three blacks died when being shipped overseas. Many of the causes of death were suffocation because they were kept below deck. Although these deaths were unfortunate, the slave traders did not mind because they were making profits off their deaths and therefore, this process continued.
From the beginning and all throughout their enslavement, blacks resisted. They did not give up “their dignity as human beings.” Slaves planned an attack on the whites however, this was discovered. They also tried to run away in groups or alone into the wilderness.
Throughout this chapter, I was most shocked by the living conditions for the slaves as they were transported on ships. The slaves were kept below the deck where many were suffocated to death. It was noted that one out of three died through this process, but he slave traders did not care that people were dying because they were making a profit. I found this whole idea to be unbelievable. This incident shows one reason that racism has improved from many years ago.