Step by step Step by step by Step by step Give the Whites an acre on the edge of town A rifle to convince them that they’re safe and sound Naturally it's for their own protection That's how we plan to have them keep the Native population down Whip the Whites who try to hide Black runaways Reward them for reporting those who disobey Excommunicate interracial married couples who cohabitate We can't afford another coalition that would Compromise our fragile capital position any day Not in any way (1662) Virginia Statute Act 12: Be it enacted and declared that all children born in this country – bond or free – shall be held only according to the condition of the mother. (1660) Virginia Statute Act 22: Be it therefore enacted that any captured English servant accompanying a runaway Negro must serve time for said Negro's absence. (1691) Virginia Statute Act 41: Any white man or woman whatsoever being free who intermarries with a negro, mulatto or Indian shall be banished and removed from this dominion forever. Step by step Step by step by Step by step Bacon was the warning shot across the bow His strategy is nagging at me even now His workers found a way to work together Their appetite for joining Black and White is what we can't allow Strip some Blacks and rip their backs out in the square We'll treat them like a feature at the county fair By day or night when Black and White assemble Defiance from any alliance should be punished everywhere The children of the slaves we own as property (cause that's the law) We lynch them when they stray from home improperly (cause that's our job) Here's some good advice Never let them make you have to give an order twice ("La-la-la-la": repeat over following phrases with fingers in ears) They're simple-minded and uncivilized Any independence should be neutralized As pious and devoted men of God We should never feel we need to spare the rod The master has a fundamental role To remind a worker who is in control For the benefit of the community We perform our duties with impunity
The Back Story
The aristocracy had begun to realize the dangers of coalitions between poor Blacks and Whites even before Bacon’s Rebellion. Over the years, the slave codes and Virginia Acts methodically reinforced the dehumanization of Blacks and the barriers between them and poor Whites.
Step by step policies were put into place that trained Whites to understand the benefits to be gained from keeping White supremacy (and, ultimately, slavery) intact. Bacon’s Rebellion was only one incident that encouraged such laws and practices. It was clear that great wealth was to be had if free labor could be found, especially in an agrarian economy.
The Whiteness Factor
Some policies had been put into place that prevented most Blacks from gaining their freedom. Elizabeth Key, a Black indentured servant who was being treated as a slave, sued for her freedom in 1662 and won. So the same court that freed her later passed a law precluding that option. But such laws failed to keep Black and White from wanting to associate and from feeling a common bond. The Slave Codes became a way to accomplish that insidious task. Punish Black slaves more harshly than White servants to communicate a difference in social status. Outlaw marriage across color lines (anti miscegenation laws). Reward Whites for reporting runaways and punish them for cooperating with escapees. Finally, encourage poor Whites to feel like they were aligned with richer Whites by giving them just enough to keep them from rebelling.
Separating Black and White poor from each other has been an ongoing strategy in the United States since its founding. Encouraging dissension between the races is one of the easiest ways for the ruling class to inhibit coalition building and social movements.
Recommended Reading
- In the Matter of Color (by A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. © 1978, pub. by Oxford University Press)
- States’ Laws on Race and Color (Edited by Pauli Murray, pub. University Of Georgia Press, Athens, GA, 2017)
- The New Jim Crow – Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (by Michelle Alexander, pub. The New Press 2010, 2020)