8/28/08 notes

8/28/08 Spanish wanted oriental luxuries English wanted, but Spanish and Portuguese grabbed the best Muscavoid company that traded in the Russias, Ivan the terrible made marriage offer to queen Elizabeth, there was an East India company that eventually does manage to colonize India and attain a lot of wealth from that, Leventeen company that traded in the middle east (parts of Ottoman empire, Syria and Turkey), John Smith was part of Leventeen company who would later be associated with Virginia company (founded by the London company which went through a number of charters first started by Sir Walter Rowling who brought back tobacco Virginia eventually becomes a success, John Smith liked good publicity so he described the wonderful things he did including the whole Pocahontas stuff Obsidian is volcanic glass, obsidian knives were traded for fur Powhattan, Maseo, and Squanto and other Indian leaders cooperated with settlers was b/c they took the access to European goods which they all wanted and for good reasons knives, beads, wool and blankets, etcetera, were very useful and they used it to develop clients for power with other Indian tribes, all these relationships were instrumental?lesson: there is no one way relationship in human affairs Survival in Virginia was a long time being assured and this was infuriating to England because these colonies were not charity they were supposed to be self supporting and profitable and they didn?t become all that profitable until we start getting production on fairly large scale of tobacco The south and especially Virginia was aristocratic and founded by second sons of nobility Get stereotypes because they reflect underlying pattern of people who controlled Virginia tended to be from an area where there was more pretense to aristocracy and by a lot of second sons (have no title or land?you want your children to live so train them to be aristocrats but only one inherits title and land, make sure daughters marry someone with land and with sons get them commission in army and/or benefice which is good place in church or some kind of government job or see what they could do in the colonies) More land you have the more impressive you are and the people who did a lot of the heavy lifting were apprentices from England England had a rising population and the reason seems ecological as you improve agriculture you need fewer people on land, anyway the point is that there?s nothing for people in England so they come to America, they come pretty young and better to work here then to rot in England In 1620 a Dutch ship lands with 20 blacks, they came up from Cuba, this shipload in particular were sold as indentured servants but soon the idea emerges from contact with the Caribbean that these people are available as permanent slaves and we start getting the institution of chattel slavery being established in mainland north America and chattel slavery especially connected with race Under English speaking law there are two kinds of property: real property (land is the only thing that?s real) and personal property (these are your chattels and the idea develops that your slave is personal property, or a chattel) A serf who belongs to the land legally in most of Europe the people came with land, you could not sell them to another lord to use on his land, this was law, they were not owned by gov, this is different in Russia and Ottoman empire (where gov owned slaves), England and most of Europe people owned slaves and this was called ?chattel slavery?