Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, countries all over the eastern hemisphere continued traveling west in hopes of acquiring new colonies as well as creating fresh lifestyles in the New World. This unknown and mysterious place wasn’t filled with opportunities and success for all. There was extreme segregation between the white and the blacks especially in the southern parts of the colonies. When brought to the new world, the black people were stripped of their identities and referred to as “Negroes. ” In Virginia, whites believed that Negroes had no other purpose then to serve as slaves. The white people didn’t treat the Negroes like humans, but more like property and would brutally act upon them with violence. Compared to the whites, the Negroes were degraded in society and were given no rights. A 1624 census taken in Virginia shows that all of the whites were referred to by their first and last name, like any human would expect, where as the blacks were written down either as Negroes or just by a first name. A person’s surname is what identifies them. Depriving them of that is equivalent to taking away their self-identity (Doc 1,2,3). Negroes were also grouped together with commodities. When a white landowner would die, in their will they would pass down all of their things including cattle, servants, and their slaves. This shows that the slave-owners cared just as much about their Negroes as they did their animals (Doc 4,5). Not only were the blacks treated badly, but also anyone associated with the Negros would get punished as much, if not worse, than the Negro. This created separate class systems with the slaves being on the bottom, even lower than the indentured servants who were white laborers who worked at minimum wage with little benefits (Doc 7). Life for the Negro during this time was filled with great difficulties.
Indeed, there was no way to escape being a Negro. When you were born, if you were born with a black mother and a white father, you would be considered a Negro (Doc 8). Even the most holy ritual of baptism