takaki ch 3

In Takaki’s third chapter, “The ‘Giddy Multitude’: The Hidden Origins of Slavery,” the origins of slavery are once again explained to the readers. The chapter is titled this because in it, the word “giddy multiture” is defined, and some hidden origins are shown. A giddy multitude is “an unhappy social class built from indentured servants, slaves, and landless freemen, both white and black.” Takaki says that the hidden origin of slavery is the transition from white to black workers that worked merely due to timing. The growth of black population combined with the increasing rebellion by the white workers. This chapter is very similar to Zinn’s in the sense that it shows that Africans were better slavery candidates at the time period in which they were enslaved because the Native Americans knew too much about the nation. It is stated that Negro slaves produced more tobacco than the indentured servants by significant amounts. It also explains how the slave owners feared for a revolt from the whites grouped with the African slaves. One important example taken from this chapter was when Takaki mentions Thomas Jefferson’s viewpoint on slavery. He says that the only way for conflicts to be eliminated in white society would be to have more whites own land than work for another white man.

This chapter is merely a review for me although it includes different examples than I have previously known. I was shocked to hear that everyone thought that if whites did not have to work so hard than our society would be better. They did not even think that the African slaves would feel anything towards the work that they had to endure. I would also like to know how the white people were able to get slaves from African when they did not use force. This would be hard to imagine that the African kings would sell people to white Americans to use as slaves. It was redundant to read the same basic idea that was assigned for the last reading although it sticks in my head more when it is reiterated by multiple assignments dealing with the same topic. Origins of slavery is a sad thing to read about although if taking a proper historian view, one needs to take themselves back to the viewpoints of the people in that time period. Africans were thought of as animals then. Whipping race horses is still not considered harsh in today’s society, so back then it would not be considered harsh to whip an animal.