Featuring: Larry Kenneth Alexander
Transcript:
The 1660s was a pivotal decade for the American colonies—a turning point that would shape centuries to come. This decade began with the restoration of the Stuart monarchy and saw the emergence of a slavery scheme within the American colonies that would dehumanize, exploit, and oppress millions. It was during this era that the seeds of hereditary slavery were enacted by Virginia’s colonial assembly.
Just two decades earlier, Africans—referred to at the time as “Negroes”—were a minimal presence in the colonies. The fields and plantations were primarily worked by white indentured servants, men and women bound by contracts that held the promise of eventual freedom and opportunity. While arduous, their labor was underpinned by hope for a better future.
By the 1660s, however, the demographic landscape had shifted. Africans had increased significantly in number, comprising a quarter of the servant population, a proportion that seemed destined to grow further. This surge was no accident. The colonial economy, driven by the demand for tobacco, sugar, and other cash crops, required labor on a scale that white indentured servitude could no longer provide. Planters and landowners turned to the transatlantic slave trade, importing Africans in ever-greater numbers. These men and women, kidnapped from their homelands, stripped of their identities, and subjected to unspeakable cruelty, became an integral part of the colonial labor force.
By this time, Black individuals had become a vital component of the colonial economy—not through their own agency but through the economic interests vested in their labor. Planters, merchants, and landowners—some of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the colonies—controlled significant numbers of Black individuals. These people were no longer just workers; they had been transformed into assets, commodities, and sources of immense wealth.
This transformation brought with it a chilling shift in priorities. The wealthy elite began to focus not only on managing their labor force in the present but also on ensuring its perpetuity for the future. During this decade, the institution of slavery took on its most insidious form. Servitude for life, once a rare and exceptional condition, became normalized for people of African descent. It was also during this time that hereditary slavery emerged as a legal and social construct. For the first time, the status of “slave” was passed from parent to child, locking generations into bondage.
This was not a system born of happenstance or necessity. It was a calculated strategy designed to secure the economic dominance of a few at the expense of the humanity of many. Colonial government officials, corrupted by greed and bribery, overlooked English law and acted extra-legally to establish this system. Relying on graft and racial tyranny, they set in motion a legacy that would shape the moral and economic fabric of the American colonies for centuries.
The planters and colonial lawmakers of this era prioritized profit over the rule of law, embedding racism and exploitation into the very foundation of American society. The 1660s marked more than just a chapter in colonial history—it laid the foundation for a system of profound suffering and systemic injustice that would persist for centuries. During this decade, the moral compass of the colonies fractured, giving way to a trajectory driven by greed and upheld through violence.
This era was not merely a turning point; it was a harbinger of the enduring inequities that would come to define the nation’s future. It serves as a stark reminder of the destructive power of unchecked ambition and the dehumanization that follows. Let us remember this history, not passively, but with the intention to confront its truths and work toward a more just future.
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