The acquisition of raw materials such as sugar, tobacco, cotton, and indigo was the primary objective of the colonization of the English settlements. There were two different economic systems that emerged in the colonies: agrarian capitalism in the North, and slave capitalism in the South. The land used was appropriated from the Indians with virtually no cultural mixing. The Indians were "simply outside "in both physical and linguistic senses "the evolving colonial project" (Russel 39). There were many confrontations between Indians and settlers, but because of Western weaponry and disease, as well as a new freedom from England after the War of Independence, there was little resistance to British colonization and movement eastward. Because of the facile seizure of land from the indigenous population, as well as the English view of the "savages' primitive" lifestyle, the beginnings of white supremacist ideology began (Cross).
Racism against Africans as we know it did not develop as early as against Indians. In fact, until the solidification of African slavery in the South, there was relatively little racism towards Africans in comparison. Because indentured servants were the laborers of choice in the North, and tobacco, which was not in high demand on the world market, was the primary crop in the South, there was no need for a large amount of labor exploitation of blacks, therefore relatively little racism (Russel 42). According to Pem Buck's article, "African and European indentured servants made love with each other, married each other, ran away with each other, lived as neighbors, and liked or disliked each other according to individual personality." .
Slowly, with the decreasing amount of indentured servants due to economic insufficiency, and the increasing need for slaves in the South , institutionalized racism toward Africans developed. Laws began to turn up promoting white dominance, for example: laws limiting the European right to teach slaves to read, increasing the punishment for slave misbehavior, and the expectance of whites to patrol at night (Buck 32).
