Myne Owne Ground Analysis

Proving that two races were able to live side by side without much conflict, Myne Owne Ground discusses the relationships between the English and African slaves settled in Virginia during the mid to late 1600s. The authors T.H. Breen and Stephen Innes do so by using relatively unpopular sources, and exposing personal stories and experiences from slaves who had the opportunity to work their way up the social ladder. They counter the idea that blacks have always been seen as inferior, and that they were instantly deemed slaves as they entered the New World. Seeing that owning land was one of the most prominent social status determinants during that time, the authors point out that “not until the end of the seventeenth century was there an inexorable hardening of racial lines,” and with the ownership of land especially, anyone, black or white, could be seen as a prominent figure among peers (Breen & Innes, 5). Rather than focusing on the cruelty of slavery at the time, they choose to focus on the statuses former slaves were able to achieve and feats they were able to accomplish. Through picking apart laws, personal accounts, and various documents, …show more content…
Payne worked with her and came to the conclusion that first, he take over her land, and second, to help her obtain new slaves if she did give him possession of land. Most shocking though is that he sought so purchase white slaves. After doing so, he would be granted freedom. This situation is just another example of the undefined lines between the two races, whites were able to purchase blacks and vice versa. Racial barriers did not exist, “Anthony Johnson owned a black slave...whites ran away with blacks...Johnson’s true self was a black slave-owning Englishman” (Breen & Innes 112). All of this was proven through the writing and explanations done by the Breen and