Believe it or not, a hierarchy existed among slaves. This hierarchy was seen acted out at the market. Where slave would sell the master's goods and return with a profit. Word traveled quickly amongst slaves. It was thought that to be a slave was a terrible affliction but at least be one to a good and kind master. To be a slave to a cruel and sadistic master was to be seen as inhibiting the lowest rung of the slave hierarchy.
Slavery had a religious basis. The Book of Genesis tells a story that after Ham, Noah's son, had seen his "nakedness" he cursed him. It was believed that African slaves were descended from Noah's son Ham. Hence the "curse of Ham" was placed upon them to serve whites. The curse of Ham reads:
And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
Every Sunday in church, slaves who attended were reminded of this "fact". They were encouraged to be good slaves and always reminded to be content. Reinforcing this was the idea of being a slave to the soul.
Slaves were told that they were slaves to the flesh, in that there slavery would end when they died and they might go to heaven. If they were a bad slave and/or killed their master, they were told, over and over, that they would go to Hell and be a slave there for the rest of time. With this being said, could a slave find freedom.
Still manumission was not unheard of…depending of where you were a slave. There is a famous story of former General turned President George Washington freeing his slaves on Mount Vernon. Nevertheless, freedom was still a diminutive possibility. For example, in some slave systems, if a mother and master had a child, the child would be free by virtue of his "white" blood. That is all well and good, but what, in the end, was American slavery?
What needs to be understood is that slavery, in America at least, was matrilineal. Simply, if the mother was a slave, then that is the same fate that awaited the child. There is a historical basis for this. The website “The Law Library of Congress” has an article on this topic. They say:
Virginia was one of the first states to acknowledge slavery in its laws, initially enacting such a law in 1661. The following year, Virginia passed two laws that pertained solely to women who were slaves or indentured servants and to their illegitimate children. Women servants who produced children by their masters could be punished by having to do two years of servitude with the churchwardens after the expiration of the term with their masters. The law reads, “that each woman servant got with child by her master shall after her time by indenture or custom is expired be by the churchwardens of the parish where she lived when she was brought to bed of such bastard, sold for two years.”
The second law, which concerned the birthright of children born of “Negro” or mulatto women, would have a profound effect on the continuance of slavery, especially after the slave trade was abolished-and on the future descendants of these women. Great Britain had a very structured primogeniture system, under which children always claimed lineage through the father, even those born without the legitimacy of marriage. Virginia was one of the first colonies to legislate a change:
Act XII: Negro women's children to serve according to the condition of the mother. WHEREAS some doubts have arisen whether children got by any Englishman upon a Negro woman should be slave or free, Be it therefore enacted and declared by this present grand assembly, that all children borne in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother. And that if any Christian shall commit fornication with a Negro man or woman, him or her so offending shall pay double the fines imposed by the former act.
This is what made slavery different. There were laws, enacted from the beginning of America's founding, to make a racial distinction between indentured servants and slaves.
