Class In Colonial North America

782 Words4 Pages
Class, gender, and racial boundaries that were formed in colonial North America shaped what work an individual knew how to do, the work that they were allowed to do, and the money they earned or the resources they had access to. In this situation the individuals who had economic power were able to expand their power vastly by exploiting the individuals who had very little power to stop it. The disparity in power between the masters and the workers in colonial America becomes a key factor in how labor and economy are shaped during this period and in times afterward based on gender, race , and class The male European settlers, in general, had the most economic power to begin with. They were able trade with the Native Americans for commodities that they could sell for their own European currency and purchase more goods to trade with the natives. These traders quickly found a way to exploit the Indians by causing them to incur debt so large that they would eventually have to surrender their land to the trader, although some traders were killed by Indians who became fed up with their crooked dealing, some of the traders made huge amounts of money from these transactions. This juncture creates a huge schism between class and race essentially because the Europeans were able to capture the lands of the natives at the same time as gaining large amounts of money, and with taking the land of these people as debt payment they essentially took their last bit of real economic power they had leaving them with only their skills as assets. Essentially from there on out the Indians did what they had to do in order to survive in this world for men this usually meant hunting and selling skins, as they were doing often before, and the Indian women would use their crafting skills in order to make a living often traveling to place to place as they did so. However, not all of the
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