This color line happens around the 17 century, when first black slaves were brought to Virginia. Zinn believe the two main causes of racism are human decision and historical forces. Zinn gives evidence of what he believe by mentioning on page 26 “a million blacks had already been brought from Africa to South America and the Caribbean, to the Portuguese and Spanish colonies, to work as slave.” This shows that the United State took slavery to the next level. This show that the causes of racism is not historical forces but rather human decision. Zinn also mention in page 28 “Africa slavery lacked two elements that made American slavery he most cruel form of slavery in history: the frenzy for limitless profit that comes from capitalistic agriculture; the reduction of the slave to less than human status by the use of racial hatred, with that relentless clarity based on color, where white was master, black was slave.” This proves that it was not …show more content…
He stated, on page 28 “The conditions of capture and sale were crushing affirmations to the black African of his helplessness in the face of superior force.” The colonist tried to force the Indians to work for them, but the Indians were admirable to the colonist, even though the colonists were more civilized. African American slave were the colonist’s way to show their domination. Zinn tells us that some workers were starved in the winter “dug up graves to eat the corpses”(page 24). Also, many of the settlers weren’t used to working and didn’t even know how. They didn’t want to work; yet they wanted to eat and make money off of their new discovery of tobacco. They couldn’t force Indians because the Indians were able to fight back. As Zinn Said “They could not capture them and keep them enslaved; the Indians were tough, resourceful, defiant and at home in these woods” (page 25). So, the early settlers got into the African slave