1 Myne Owne Ground Questions 1. What are the main points Breen is trying to make about race relations in midseventeenth century Northampton County? About the way scholars think about race relations in general? - In the beginning of chapter 2, it seems that the authors are trying to show that race didn’t play a big part in laws or decisions that were made in the 1600s – status played a bigger part than race. The first and second chapter both give examples of free black men, like Anthony Johnson and William Harman, that were given the same rights and freedoms that white men were given. A line from chapter 2 says “… the Burgesses did not attempt to disarm all black men… [it] specifically concerned ‘negroe slaves,’ and it does not appear that freemen such as William Harman ran much danger of being left weaponless. Indeed, it was not until 1738 that the Virginia legislatures declared that ‘all such free mulattos, negros or Indians… shall appear without arms.’” This implies that there were not as many race problems as people think during the 1600s, when the US began being further colonized. 2. Put in your own words what the authors mean in chapter two when they describe race relations as status and process. - In my opinion, chapter 2 seemed to contradict itself. In the beginning of the chapter, the authors discuss how status determined how you were treated, not your race. They gave examples like Anthony Johnson and William Harman (mentioned in question 1) that were given the same rights that white farmers/planters were given. On page 28, the authors seem to start the contradict the first part of the chapter when describing the consequences for runaway slaves or indentured servants. “Historians have discovered that in general the court’s treatment of offenders varied, depending on a person’s skin color, the white runaways faring better than did the blacks.” - When describing race relations as a process, I think the authors meant that your status was defined by your interactions with others and not necessarily by your race, or the color of your skin, alone. When thinking about race relations in this context, they could be described as situational: race relations “were defined within specific social setÝngs.” When free blacks of higher status, like Anthony Johnson, were working in a patron-client relationship, they “adopted forms of behavior suitable for that particular transaction,” but they also expressed their African values and culture within their family groups, which points to the idea that race relations were situational. 3. List the kinds of evidence used to support their arguments about race relations in Virginia. Does the evidence always support the conclusions they draw from it? - The main type of evidence used is documents from court cases and other legal matters. These are used as examples to support the author’s points. 2 - No, I don’t think the evidence always supports the conclusions the authors draw from it. This can be seen in their idea that in the 1600s blacks didn’t have as difÏcult of a life as we seem to think they did.