The practice of slavery dates to primeval times, even though its institutionalization without a doubt first occurred in early historical times, when agricultural advances made possible more highly organized societies. Slaves were needed for various specialized functions in these societies and were obtained either through raids or conquests of other peoples or within the society itself, when some people sold themselves or their family members to pay debts or were enslaved as punishment for crimes. Morgan relates the incidents involving frontier settlers encroaching on Indian land and provoking the conflict that initiated Bacon's Rebellion. Racism and violent hostility, with Indian retaliation, a situation that invites some sympathy for the Indians, helps to explain Berkeley's refusal to sanction Bacon's generalship of the settlers' campaign against the Indians and the conflict between Bacon and Berkeley.
Scarcity was seen as a risk to republicanism, in views of the fact that the poor would be indebted their votes to their creditors and benefactors, and must therefore be kept out of the political system. Ethnic slavery was the faultless way to recognize the poor and keep them subdued and out of politics, thus ensuring the liberty of property owners of all economic levels. Blacks took on (at least in the eyes of whites) the attributes that had always been assigned to England and identifying those negative qualities with race only made it easier for committed republicans to justify their inequality. Thus, in Virginia, contempt for the poor became contempt for blacks, and while northerners could decry slavery, they could also accept that republicanism rested upon keeping the poor and landless down.
Racial discrimination became an indispensable, if unrewarding, component of the republican principles that enabled Virginians to show the way to the nation." ...................
