Takaki Chapter 3

In chapter 3 Ronald Takaki talks about the hidden origins of slavery and the giddy multitude, which is a disconnected class of indentured servants, slaves, and landless freemen both white and black. He then goes on to talk about the history of slavery and the indentured servants and how things started to change over time.
First Takaki talks about why the Indians were not able to become slaves and how they resisted. No matter if they were slaves or not they would be able to escape and survive off of the lands because they were accustomed to the lands already, and they could never be found. So when the slaves were brought in they were forced to work with the white indentured servants. At first the slave population was small but began to grow over time. Soon enough there was as many back people as there were white people. Punishments were severe for the slaves and indentured servants, but slaves had a more severe punishment than the servants. For example blacks were serving longer time periods for service than the indentured servants, and if they ran away they were not only whipped but also branded with the letter R. The difference between an indentured servant and a slave was that the slaves were serving their master for a lifetime and were by law considered to be property. Soon enough more laws came into effect about slaves stating that all servants who came into the country that were brought by land or sea and were not Christians were to be slaves. One of the reasons why slavery became so popular was because conditions in Virginia improved and black slaves would serve for a lifetime instead of a certain number of years like the indentured servants.
Takaki stated that Thomas Jefferson owned about 267 slaves and over time thought that slavery was wrong and something should be done about it. But the real question is why he had a sudden change of heart after he owned so many slaves and was just like every other cruel slave owner. It even stated that he would make sure he kept his slaves in line with severe punishments. I believe that Jefferson did realize there was a difference between the two races, but overall he did not think that blacks and whites would really get along if the blacks became free.
I think this reading was just refreshing my memory about slavery. I remember most of this information from previous history classes talking about how slavery came about.