[Ads-l] Fw: [ADS-L] Enslavement of Native Americans [was: wench]

Fri Apr 1 00:09:16 UTC 2016

http://goo.gl/6pDJX2

On Thu, Mar 31, 2016 at 7:07 PM, Z Rice <zrice3714 at gmail.com> wrote:

> "The Blacks" and Amerindians were enslaved in the United States. Our
> ancestors were not simply "servants". They were enslaved. Using the term
> 'servant' smacks of the revisionist use of "workers" and "immigrants" to
> refer to the same African population. Call it what it was.
>
> You also wrote: "It was generally agreed that Native Americans did not make
> good servants (a term which included what today we would call slaves) ...
> they didn't like service, resisted doing it, and would go missing."
>
> This comment that you made implies that Amerindians supposedly "did not
> make good 'servants' " (servants ??), and others did. Hopefully, I am
> mistaken and this is not what you meant. Regardless, you should also know
> that the rate of death for enslaved Amerindians was much higher than that
> of Africans enslaved in the US.
>
> Still, no one makes a "good" so-called "slave" (the usage of this term here
> is very telling). No one wants to be held captive, tortured, raped,
> molested, disfigured, and worked to death. No one wants their children
> snatched from them, raped, whipped, enslaved, and/or tortured to death. No
> one wants their family ripped apart. No one wants to be forced to do some
> other population's work (and for no pay no less). No one wants to suffer a
> starvation diet. A human being is prone to resist such barbaric policies
> and practices, as the history of those enslaved African ancestors has
> already demonstrated.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 31, 2016 at 9:34 PM, Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Fw: [ADS-L] Enslavement of Native Americans [was: wench]
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Re-sent under a better Subject heading.
> >
> > Which gives me the opportunity to add ... It was generally agreed that
> > Nati=
> > ve Americans did not make good servants (a term which included what today
> > w=
> > e would call slaves) ... they didn't like service, resisted doing it, and
> > w=
> > ould go missing.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> >     =20
> > ----- Forwarded Message -----
> >  From: Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET>
> >  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU=20
> >  Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2016 3:25 PM
> >  Subject: Re: [ADS-L] wench
> >   =20
> > This is a partial answer, for New England.=C2=A0 After various of the
> wars
> > =
> > between the English settlers of New England and the Native Americans,
> > captu=
> > red Native Americans were sold for transportation to the Southern
> colonies
> > =
> > or to the West Indies, where they surely would become slaves.=C2=A0
> Others
> > =
> > were kept as slaves in New England.=C2=A0 This was permitted by one of
> the
> > =
> > two exceptions in the 1641 Massachusetts "Body of Liberties" to the
> > prohibi=
> > tion of slavery ("bond slaves"), which allowed enslavement of persons
> > "take=
> > n in just wars".
> > (The other exception in Liberty 91 essentially undid the prohibition --
> > whi=
> > le Massachusettsians could not enslave others, they could buy slaves sold
> > t=
> > o them.=C2=A0 And there were New England shippers in the slave trade --
> > but=
> >  they would fit under the exemption if they had not actually enslaved
> > their=
> >  cargoes but rather had bought them in Africa and sold them in the New
> > Worl=
> > d.)
> >
> >
> > Liberty 91 is silent about "race", so it would seem to allow the presence
> > o=
> > f Native American slaves to the same extent as African slaves.
> >
> > For Joanne Pope Melish's evaluation of enslavement of Native Americans
> > (and=
> >  others), see her _Disowning Slavery: Gradual Emancipation and "Race" in
> > Ne=
> > w England, 1780=E2=80=931860_, Google Books (preview), search for
> "Indian"
> > =
> > (sort by Pages and look at the first 3 or 4 hits) and for "Body of
> > Libertie=
> > s".=C2=A0=20
> >
> > I do not have definite knowledge for the Middle Atlantic and Southern
> > colon=
> > ies, but I would bet there were Native American slaves there.=C2=A0
> George
> > =
> > cites an example from New York, and there probably were similar in the
> > Virg=
> > inia (Williamsburg) and South Carolina (Charleston) newspapers.
> >
> >
> > Joel
> >
> >
> > =C2=A0 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 From: James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
> >  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU=20
> >  Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2016 2:09 PM
> >  Subject: Re: [ADS-L] wench
> > =C2=A0=20
> > Something that appears to have overlooked in this thread:=C2=A0 in the
> > 17th=
> >  century both Africans and Native Americans were used as household
> > servants=
> > .=C2=A0 The blacks were usually slaves (slavery was practiced in all 13
> > Col=
> > onies until circa 1780).=C2=A0 I do not know if Native Americans could
> > also=
> >  be slaves (can anyone enlighten me?)=C2=A0=20
> >
> > If in the 17th and 18th centuries in the Colonies the term "wench"
> > generall=
> > y meant "slave woman", it would still frequently be necessary to specify
> > if=
> >  a particular wench were African, Native American, or
> mixed-race.=C2=A0=20
> >
> > Off-topic: "wench", long archaic, is enjoying a micro-revival in George
> R.
> > =
> > R. Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire series, set in a universe quite
> similar
> > =
> > to our Middle Ages, in which "Wench" is Jaime Lannister's disparaging
> term
> > =
> > of address to Brienne of Tarth.
> >
> > - Jim Landau
> >
> >
> >
> > _____________________________________________________________
> > Netscape.=C2=A0 Just the Net You Need.
> >
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-----
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