A history of multicultural America. Questions and answers Essay

A history of multicultural America. Questions and answers - Essay Example The original servants in the Virginia Colony were indentured African servants and indentured White servants who came to the colony intentionally for earning money. However, the African servants that came to the colony were war captives or from enemy tribes (Takaki). Question 2: What is the difference between being an indentured servant and being a slave? Indentured servants were quite different from slaves as they were paid for their work and they worked as free workers bound under some agreement between them and the company for an agreed time period. The slaves were deprived of any rights and salary that were approved for indentured servants (Takaki). Question 3: What angered black American soldiers about the roles that were assigned to them during WWII? During WWII, the Black American soldiers were assigned different roles as compared to White American soldiers, which angered them. The roles were related to labor and non-combating positions. They were regarded unfit for combating due to which, they were assigned labor roles and other odd jobs to perform. Considering discrimination and inequality, they were angered. Even after the war, their testimonies were not collected as they were recorded from White soldiers (Takaki). Question 4: What was the major result of Bacon's Rebellion for blacks? The major result of Bacon’s Rebellion for blacks was increase in black slavery as the farm owners in fear of another rebellion and its aftereffects, started investing in acquiring slaves in place of indentured servants to get rid of any similar issue at all. They turned to Africa for slaves who became their primary source of labor (Takaki). Question 5: What was Thomas Jefferson's attitude toward slavery? How did he treat his own slaves? W hat did he believe should happen to blacks if they were freed from slavery? Jefferson’s attitude towards slavery was incongruous as condemned slavery openly and also had hundreds of slaves working on his plantation. He became the richest person on his land based on the expansion of his cultivated land, buying, and selling of slaves. He had appointed overseers for observing the slaves, their work, and these overseers were allowed to make use of physical violence for making them work. His treatment was cruel that can be noticed in his treatment of Hubbard, his slave who tried to escape. According to Jefferson, black slaves would not be able to feed themselves and take care of themselves if they were freed. He also proposed of deporting the blacks back to Africa after freeing them from slavery considering them inappropriate as free citizens in a White man’s society. Jefferson regarded blacks inferior to white population (Takaki). Question 6: Who was Phillis Wheatley, and what were the arguments that she put forward about blacks and slavery? Phillis Wheatley was a female poet and she was a slave brought from Africa. She had her own experience of ‘slave trade’, ‘forced separation from parents’ and ‘bondage in America’. She regarded slavery as a tyrannical institution depriving blacks of their rights and lives. She emphasized equality of blacks and informed that blacks were religiously equal to whites (Takaki). Question 7: Who was Benjamin Banneker? What stereotype about blacks did he work to dispel? What were his arguments? Benjamin Banneker was a black mathematician. He was also a slave like Wheatley. He dismissed Jefferson’s views about inferiority of intellect in blacks. He dispelled the stereotype about blacks that they were intellectually inferior to whites. He regarded Jefferson as a hypocrite. Banneker explained liberty as a ‘natural right’ for blacks. He talked about abolition of slave ry. He rejected the very notion of black inferiority (Takaki). Question 8: What were some of the ways slaves were managed by their masters? Overseers were appointed for black slaves that supervised them for work and threatened people for working by