The Legacy Of Slavery And Welfare

The Legacy of Slavery and Welfare

The justifications that white Americans made for this racial distinction was that the African race was inferior to the white race based on their rationalizations on the skin color, intelligence, and sexuality of the African people. The main focus of attack was the sexuality of the African woman. Incidentally, the 'Jezebel' woman directly caused the development of another stereotype upon the African American woman, "Mammy' who was the African American female slave considered the complete opposite of 'Jezebel'.

Collins observes, "... the Black woman as welfare mother remains essential to White hegemony because the White culture blames the woman for her impoverished condition and again deflects attention away from White, racist, patriarchal structures. African American mothers were also subjected to '"suitable homes"' rules in which states could deny benefits to mothers who were declared to be living immorality as stated by a judge "that having babies out of wedlock reflected weakness in the women's character" and such children were living in neglectful homes. The welfare queen image has continually been used to instill disgust for the welfare state. Mainly as the reproduction of African American children is no longer economically beneficial to the American people there have been many methods coerced upon African American to govern their reproductive habits.

In August of 1619, twenty African slaves arrived in America in the colony of Jamestown via a Dutch warship. Upon their arrival, they were immediately sold by the captain for much needed ship supplies. Although it's widely believed that that these African slaves were treated as white indentured servants there isn't any clear and concise documentation regarding the treatment of them as slaves. It isn't until 1640 that the true nature of these African slaves is revealed through documented cases involving slaves such as John Punch and others. John Punch was an African servant sentenced to serve his master for a term of life for the crime of running away even though two white servants were sentenced only to an additional four years of service for committing the same offense There are even incidents of the sale of African servants for terms of life that included any possible descendants they may eventually have. The heredity status of slavery was made possible by a 1662 Virginia law that declared the status of children would no longer be paternally decided but decided maternally. At this point the clear distinction between African slaves and white slaves is made as the perpetual enslavement of African slaves also included their descendants.

The justifications that white Americans made for this racial distinction was that the African race was inferior to the white race based on their rationalizations on the skin color, intelligence, and sexuality of the African people. White Americans believed that the African race was "destined by God" to serve them based on the blackness of their skin which they considered an abomination. A stance stated by Oliver Goldsmith in his 1774 volume History of the Earth, "that variations of human color"' are actual marks of the degeneracy in the human for; and we may consider the European figure and colour as standards to which to refer all other varieties, and with which to compare them."' The fact that African babies are born with a white complexion initially gives credence to this viewpoint.

Another stance that is rationalized about the enslavement of the African people concerns the intelligence or lack thereof of the African people. It is believed that due to their savagery behavior that they didn't have the necessary intelligence needed to survive within society on their own and that in actuality their enslavement was a benefit that gave them much pleasure. This was declared by South Carolina Governor George McDuffie in 1835 in the following, "the Negroes were '"destined by providence"' for slavery and that this was made evident not only by the color of their skin but also by '"the intellectual inferiority and natural improvidence of this race."' They were '"unfit for self-government of any kind,"' and '"in all respects, physical, moral, and political, inferior to millions of the human race."'

These beliefs helped to perpetrate the systematic enslavement of African Americans via the dehumanization of African American men and women by treating them as mere labor commodities rather than as citizens being that African American people were absolutely critical to the continuation of White economic power as they provided them free labor. Therefore, the attack on the sexuality of African Americans became essential as the basis for the supplement of slave labor was removed.

It was during the time of the American Revolution that many northern states began to question the validity of the concept of enslaving people for economic gain; therefore, many northern states began the foundation of becoming a free nation. Vermont begun by outlawing the bondage of humans in 1777 in its state constitution, Massachusetts abolished slavery in 1783, New York abolished slavery in 1827, and all of New England had through either state constitution or legislation prohibited the enslavement of people; also, northern states began to end the importation of people, especially Africans, for the sole purpose of enslavement beginning in 1778 with Virginia prohibiting the importation of slaves and by 1787 South Carolina had closed for international and domestic slave trade. Unfortunately the enslavement of African Americans was to continue throughout the South by the failure of Thomas Jefferson recommendation by one Congress vote that the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Alabama outlaw slavery after 1800. By this token, the South clearly makes known their stance on human enslavement.

However, the attack on the sexuality of the African American people did not begin with these actions but centuries early. The main focus of attack was the sexuality of the African woman. She was deemed a "lewd, lascivious, and savage" woman based on the absurd notion that she readily engaged in copulation with the African ape as this belief allowed for the sexual exploitation of the African woman as stated by Winthrop D. Jordan, "For by calling the Negro woman passionate they were offering the best possible justification for the their own passions. Not only did the Negro woman's warmth constitute a logical explanation for the white man's infidelity, but, more important, it helped shift responsibility from himself to her. If she