Greg Hasty J. M.
On September 27, 2004, the question of whether the 16th and 17th centuries were times of social experimentation cannot be answered without first understanding what social experimentation is. Another perplexing problem is who decides what defines a social experiment. One common definition that most people agree upon is that social experimentation is the way in which a society or group of people tries to adapt or adjust to new life or new situations. With this theory, we can begin to see the social experimentation that took place during these centuries and the increases and decreases of it. To understand what people in a new land had to do to survive, we must first understand how they lived in their native lands.
The English had a reputation for doing almost anything, including terrorizing the native peoples of a land, to gain control of it. A pamphleteer, Thomas Churchyard, said, killed man, woman, and child, and spoiled, wasted, and burned, by the ground all that he might: leaving nothing of the enemies in safety, which he could possibly waste or consume.” These are people who demand an empire and the resources they gain from it, driving and compelling them to kill and suppress native peoples. The Spanish outlook on empire building and resource acquisition, although somewhat more brutal in reasoning, typically involves less violent actions. This fact largely comes into play when these people spread colonies into North America.
You do not expect me to make lengthy commemoration of the judgment and talent of the Spaniards… And who can ignore the other virtues of our people, their fortitude, their humanity, their love of justice and religion?” and “For numerous and grave reasons, these barbarians are obligated to accept the rule of the Spaniards according to natural law” are both quotes that give insight into Spanish ethical ideals and their will to not burn, pillage, rape, and kill every living thing in these villages, as much as to consume and encompass them.
Although the question of why these people actually left their native lands hasn’t been answered concretely, we can assume that the vast majority of these people left to rid themselves of the old feudal system and the horrible economic state of Europe. Knowing this allows us to understand what ideas they brought over to this new land.
I have spoken with my father, a 30-year history teacher, and he has enlightened me about some of the early colonies. For instance, in Europe, men ruled over women as an adult does over a child, and the father over his children. However, in this new land, there were situations that created favorable stances for women. With the early deaths of men due to disease and constant interaction with the natives, women were generally left to look after these estates. Landowners were the government and spoke for the people with their right to vote. There was a colony in New Jersey that allowed women the right to vote whether they owned land or not.
This is by far not a part of the English feudal lord system. We now have a history of movement and conquest of these peoples, and a few of their ideas. So, how did they become and how did they make every culture around them a social experiment? This question encompasses a very broad topic, and to be able to answer it, I must first focus on a singular topic. The Virginia Laws, provided to us from 1643 until 1691, truly identify a social experiment between two races of people and even classes of people. If we recap, a social experiment is anything a society or group of people does to adapt or adjust to a new place or situation.
These laws show the progression of a people’s values over time and how they adapt to make life and society exactly as they believe it should be. The first idea of not allowing the intermixing of marriages arose in March of 1643. In 1658, we still have the idea of having servants,” and the idea of stealing persons as possessions comes up. In 1662, the question arose of what a child born of a negro woman should be – slave or free – and they resolved this by law, making them born under the condition of their mothers. The underlying problem I have in writing this theory of how social classes will decree and announce how they want society to be.
