The Forgotten American ( Jamestown, Indentured Servitude and a notion of self-governance) By Terrance Mann

The Forgotten American (
Jamestown, Indentured Servitude
, and a Notion of Self-Governance) By Terrance Mann

Just five human lifetimes ago, three ships appeared on the James River, off the coast of what would become the state of Virginia. The ship’s cargo was 100 passengers who would find starvation, disease
,and war with Indians, but no class system like the one they lived under in England
. (
or so they thought). These privations would not stop future colonists from coming
,as the class structure in Europe would not tolerate upward mobility. Land ownership was “not on the table” in Europe accept for the aristocracy. Conversely, land ownership in the “New World” was open to anyone who could survive the voyage. The Virginia Company established the system of governance and commerce. The Virginia
Company was, of course, a private corporation, complete with soldiers for hire. Also, it’s worth noting that 65% of the ship’s manifest considered themselves “gentleman.” As the other colonists discovered, it’s hard to get labor out of a someone who considers himself a “European gentleman.” The Virginia Company extended the “
rights of Englishman” to all white males
, regardless of country of origin. These rights had been hard
-won over several decades in England. The result of decades of fighting produced a document called the Magna Carta. These “rights” automatically extended to white males as the royalty of England considered that rising middle-class had won them. Individuals
'rights were recognized, not economic rights. While the Magna Carta was a seminal moment in European history, the European class structure remained unchanged. Of course, the English class structure extended to the Jamestown colony as the goal of the Virginia Company was to recreate the feudal system with English individual rights.  Many of the tradesman and soldiers for hire found themselves in the same master/slave relationship their great-great-great grandfathers enjoyed in the 11th century. Rights are important, but without economic mobility
,where are you?

Captain John Smith took command of the triangle shaped palisade called Jamestown in 1607. The rule was “if you don’t work, you don’t eat.” Everyone’s labor and efforts placed into the figurative communal pile. While the rule seemed to work on paper, it’s actual practice required enforcement and who better to enforce the communal pile than the more than sixty-five percent of the “gentleman” on the ship’s manifest. Everyone else could just live “their menial lives with their happy little crafts and trades” as Marcus Aurelius once stated. The 16th Emperor of Rome once “stoically” wrote this phrase to describe “the blood” tribute paid to Rome, which gave him the leisure to become a “philosopher king.” The first permanent settlers in the New World practiced communism in its purest form. Wait, not so fast; how could 65% of the colony’s population play gentlemen's games and gamble all day while the rest of the colonists built huts, gardened, and stood guard duty? The lower “castes” were allowed to use their leisure time hunting or fishing to stave off starvation. This experiment with communism couldn’t last as an economic model. The colonial leadership and the British Crown had decided to give a land grant of four acres to all who could make the voyage.  Many came as a result of the promise to own land. Several ships' manifests and local diaries documented half-starved British subjects walking into Jamestown from the pier looking like nothing more than skeletons, but they came on the promise of land. Many historians, e.g., Howard Zinn
,have argued that communal living learned from Native Americans created America
,but actually
,what created America was land speculation and crop production. Of course, any objective historical narrative would never diminish the role of native peoples and their interactions with the colonists. The colonist survived through several winters with the help of native peoples.  Still, the facts indicate the colony didn’t get launched until many hands had begun to duplicate themselves in many places at once, with the creation of crop production and exports. No longer was the colony dependent on the mother country for resupply. A point that left-leaning historians often leave out of the historical narrative as such an economic point might make one feel good about America, and most academics desire a more dependent and depressed post-modern mindset. Land speculation as an economic engine seemed to be all but erased from the historical record of  America’s beginning just like it’s founding religion.

A Dutch ship harbored at Jamestown in 1619. While many ships came in and out of Jamestown, and by this time, this ship had a special cargo that would begin to change the course of history in the new world. The ship’s  cargo was 20 Africans whose status could not be determined until the ship’s captain made it known they had been Christianized while in transport. The standard for slavery in Europe and the new world was not race but religion.

Since the Africans were Christianized, they were given an indentured servitude period of seven years ( the standard time frame) rather than the label of slaves. Many of them completed their indenture and became part of the Old Dominion Planters
'Society with their land. British subjects that came to the New World practicing the older Celtic religions were placed into permanent slavery. Christianity was the determining factor as to the status of a free or bond upon new arrival. Christianity was the founding religion of the New World despite the modern pundits and their antiquated message. Later, the consciousness of Europe changed from religion to race, and an “alien mercantile system” began to work to destroy what could have been a stable society.
 The beginnings of rationalism and materialism became indissolubly wedded in America once European consciousness changed on the race issue. This was another way of cheapening labor and continuing the European class system without the progenitors getting their hands dirty in the process.