Sociology Questions

TANYA MARIA GOLASH-BOZA

RACE AND RACISMS

A CRITICAL APPROACH SECONDEDITION

The Origin of the Idea

of Race

As You Read

1.1 What arc race and ethnicity? What is racism?

1.2 How old is racism? How is race distinct from previous ways

of thinking about human difference?

1.3 How did the writers of the U.S. Constitution think of slavery?

1.4 How did the Indian Removal Act affect Native Americans?

1.S What role did science play in the propagation of racism?

1

Chapter Outline

Defining Race and Ethnicity 6

Race: The Evolution of an Ideology 7

Historical Precedents to the Idea of Race 8

Slavery Before the Idea of Race 9

European Encounters with Indigenous Peoples of the Americas I 0

Slavery and Colonization 11

vo;ce.s The Spanish Treatment of lndigenoJs Peoples 12

research focus Slave Fl ights and Runaway Communities in Colonial Angola 14

Exploitation in !he Thirteen English Colonies 15

The Lego/ Codification of Racial DifFerences 19

voicet. From Bui/whip Days 22

Slavery versus the Ideal of Freedom in the United Stales 23

Global View The Idea of Race in Latin American Notion-Making 24

The Indian Removal Act: The Continuation of Manifest Destiny 25

The Rise of Science and the Question of Human Difference 27

European Taxonomies 27

Scienti fic Racism in the Nineteenth Century 28

Conclusion and Discussion 31

Check Your Under~tanding 31 Talking about Race 33

CHAPTER 1 The Origin of the Idea of Race

ot • ' L.UUC fUflOIU\. •uunta• MOU Hldl Utilt MHUUilol CUrllt L~L~ In thl' 1600<>, Nathe .\ml'rkans, Europl'an culunbt'>, and l'nslavcd

Afrimns found thetml'hcs together in the Ne\\ World. Wh) did the

Europeans lwlie\C the) needed sla\'e~·? .\nd what \\as the motivation

forc:-.ploiting .\fricans in particular? In this c;..ccrpt frumA People':>

History qf'thc United States, I hmard Zinn prm·i<les some insight.

HOWARD ZINN <s...r A .JD

PEOPLE'S HISTORY

OF THE

UNITED STATES

~-~-... _ ........ ....._ __ "'.__.....,.. ..... ._.__,.. ___ --.. -·-... ·-· T he Virginians needed labor, to grow corn for subsistence, to grow tobacco for export. They had just figured out how to grow tobacco, and in 1617 they sent off the first cargo to England. Finding that, like all

pleasurable drugs tainted with moral disapproval, it brought a high price, the

planters, despite their high religious talk, were not going to ask questions about

something so profitable.

They couldn't force Indians to work for them, as Columbus had done. They were

outnumbered, and while, with superior firearms, they could massacre Indians,

they would face massacre in return. They could not capture them and keep them

enslaved; the Indians were tough, resourceful, defiant, and at home in the woods,

as the transplanted Englishmen were not.

White servants had not yet been brought over in sufficient quantity. Besides,

they did not come out of slavery, and did not have to do more than contract their

labor for a few years to get their passage and a start in the New World. As for the free

white settlers, many of them were skilled craftsmen, or even men ofleisure back in

England, who were so little inclined to work the land that John Smith [leader of the

Virginia Colony] , in those early years, had to declare a kind of martial law, organize

them into work gangs, and force them into the fields for survival.

There may have been a kind of frustrated rage at their own ineptitude, at the

Indian superiority at taking care of themselves, that made the Virginians especially

ready to become the masters of slaves. Edmund Morgan imagines their mood as he

writes in his book American Slavery, American Freedom:

If you were a colonist, you knew that your technolo1:,,ry was superior to the Indians'. You lcnew that ,you were civilized, and they were savages . . . But your superior technology had proved insufficient to extract anything. The Indians, keeping to themselves, laughed at ,your superior methods and lived from the land more abundantly and with less labor than you did ... And when your own people started deserting in order to live with them, it was too much ... So you killed the Indians, tortured them, burned their villages, burned their cornfields. It proved your superiority, in spite <if

CHAPTER 1 The Origin of the Idea of Race 5

,IJOUr failures. And you gave similar treatment to any of,1Jour own people

who succumbed to their savage way.9 qf life. But you still did not grow much corn ...

Black slaves were the answer. And it was natural to consider imported blacks

as slaves, even if the institution of slavery would not be regularized and legalized for several decades. Because, by 1619, a million blacks had already been brought

from Africa to South America and the Caribbean, to the Portuguese and Spanish colonies, to work as slaves. Fifty years before Columbus, the Portuguese took ten

African blacks to Lisbon- this was the start of a regular trade in slaves. African blacks had been stamped as slave labor for a hundred years. So it would have

been strange if those twenty blacks, forcibly transported to Jamestown, and sold as objects to settlers anxious for a steadfast source of labor, were considered as

anything but slaves. Their helplessness made enslavement easier. The Indians were on their own land.

The whites were in their own European culture. The blacks had been torn from their land and culture, forced into a situation where the heritage oflanguage, dress, custom, family relations, was bit by bit obliterated except for the remnants that blacks could hold on to by sheer, extraordinary pressure.

Source: Zinn 2010, 25- 26.

In the colonial Americas, no one would have described the population using the terms Native

A111erica111 white, or black. Instead, people identi- fied themselves by groups such as Shawnee, Irish, and Ashanti. How, then, did our current racial categories come to be? What distinguishes the

idea of race from previous ways of thinking about human difference? These are the questions we

will consider in this chapter. In the contemporary United States, one of

the first things we notice about someone we meet is race. When we aren't sure of someone's race1 we may get inquisitive or begin to feel

uncomfortable (Dalmage 2000). It is as if, before interacting, we have to know if the other person

A When people in the United Staks arc unsure of someone's race, many feel compelled to ask: ~\Vhat arc you?"

6 CHAPTER 1 The Origin of the Idea of Roce

social construction An idea

or way of vicwi ng people

based not on biological

difforcnccs hut on social

perceptions.

race A social construction

to describe a group of

people who share physical

and cultural traits as well

as a common ancestry.

racism (I) The belief that

races arc populations

whose physical difforcnces

arc linked to significant

cultural and social

differences within a

hierarchy. (2) The practice

of subordinating races

believed to he inferior.

ethnicity Group identity based on notions of

similar and shared history, culture, and

kinship.

is white, black, Asian, Native American, or something else. The perceived

race of the other person affects how we treat one another and what we expect

the other person to say and do.

It may be hard to imagine a time when the idea of race did not exist, when we

did not categorize ourselves and others this way. But this time was not so long

ago: although humans have long used various factors to classify one another,

the idea of race as a classificatory system is a modern invention. Ancient Greeks and Romans, for example, did not think that the world's population could be

divided into races (Eze 1997). Their system of social classification was much different from ours. Race is a modern social construction, meaning that the

idea of race is not based on biological differences among people, even though race has become important in determining how we interact. It is a particular

way of viewing human difference that is a product of colonial encounters.

DEFINING RACE AND ETHNICITY

The word race refers to a group of people who share physical and cultural traits as well as a common ancestry. The idea of race implies that the people of the

world can be divided into biologically discrete and exclusive groups based on physical and cultural traits. This idea is further linked to notions of white

or European superiority that became concretized during the colonization of the Americas. Racism refers to both (1) the belief that races are populations whose physical differences are linked to significant cultural and social differ- ences within a hierarchy, and (2) the practice of subordinating races believed

to be inferior.

The idea of race is slightly different from the concept of ethnicity. Races are

categories of people based on a hierarchical world view that associates ancestry, descent, and appearance with cultural and moral attributes. Ethnicities, on

the other hand, are group identities based on notions of similar and shared

history, culture, and kinship (Cornell and Hartmann 1998). Ethnicity also has

a distinct historical trajectory from race. People self-identify as belonging to

an ethnic group on the basis of a perceived shared history and a concomitant

set of cultural attributes. In contrast to ethnicity, race is often an externally

imposed category. In the United States, people are placed into races based

on socially constructed, ascribed characteristics often related to physical

appearance, such as skin color or hair texture, regardless of self-identification. Sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (1997, 469) argues that "ethnicity has a

primarily sociocultural foundation, and ethnic groups have exhibited tremen- dous malleability in terms of who belongs; racial ascriptions (initially) are

Race: The Evolution of on Ideology 7

imposed externally to justify the collective exploitation of a people and are

maintained to preserve status differences." It's important to emphasize that race is a social construction, an idea we

endow with meaning through daily interactions. It has no biological basis. This

might seem an odd statement, as the physical differences between a Kenyan, a

Swede, and a Han Chinese, for example, are obvious. However, these physical

differences do not necessarily mean that the world can be divided into discrete

racial groups. If you were to walk from Kenya to Sweden to China, you would note incremental gradations in physical differences between people across

space, and it would be difficult to decide where to draw the line between Africa

and Europe and between Europe and Asia. There may be genetic differences

between Kenyans and Swedes, but the genetic variations within the Kenyan

population are actually greater than those between Swedes and Kenyans (Smedley 2007). Although race is a social, as opposed to a biological, conA

struction, it has a wide range of consequences in our society, especially when

used as a sorting and stratifying mechanism. Race is also a historical construction, meaning that the idea of race was historical construction

formed in particular times and places. Of particular note in its development An idea or view that" as

are the eras of colonialism- the practice of acquiring political control over formed in particular

another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically~ times and places.

and slavery in the Americas. The idea of race involves classifying humans into distinct groups with particular cultural and moral traits. Through this classi- colonialism The practice

fication, Europeans and their descendants have used the idea of race to justify of acquiring political exploitation, slavery, colonialism, and genocide, the mass killing of a group of control over another

people, especially those of a particular ethnic or racial group. country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it

economically. RACE: THE EVOLUTION OF AN IDEOLOGY

An ideology is a set of principles and ideas that benefits the dominant group.

The racial ideologies that operate today reflect our times and are rooted in

the history of the Americas. The way we understand the idea of race today

is distinct from previous ways of thinking about human difference. Before

the conquest of the Americas, there was no worldview that separated all of

humanity into distinct races (Montagu 1997; Quijano 2000; Smedley 2007).

Understanding what race means today requires delving into the historical

process through which the idea of race was created. Once we understand that

thinking of people as belonging to specific racial categories is not "natural" but

constructed, we can begin to think about why and how these categories were

created. As we will see, European thinkers created racial categories to justify

genocide The mass

killing of a group of

people, especially those

of a particular ethnic or

racial group.

ideology A set of

principles an<l ideas that

benefits the dominant group.

8 CHAPTER 1 The Origin of the Idea of Race

mass genocide and widespread exploitation. This brutal history in turn raises the question of why we continue to use these categories.

Historical Precedents to the Idea of Race Until the sixteenth century, Northern Europeans had limited knowledge of the world beyond their immediate communities. Southern Europeans, in contrast, had much more contact with other peoples. Alexander the Great traveled to India in the fourth century B c., the Greeks established trade routes with Ethiopia in the third century B.c., and Islamic peoples conquered Spain in the eighth century Ao. Yet this contact did not lead to a racial worldview. Ancient peoples did not divide the world into distinct races based on physical and cultural traits. Instead, Greeks had great respect for the achievements of Ethiopians {Snowden 1970), and Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived in rea- sonable harmony in Spain for hundreds of years (Smedley 2007).

Although the idea of race did not develop until later, these early interactions between Europeans and other groups did provide important precedents for current ways of conceptualizing human difference. The Spanish Inquisition is one example. When the Catholic Church began to consolidate its power in Spain under the reign of monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile (1479- 1504),Jews were expelled from Spain, and converted Jews were subject to scrutiny. In 1480, Ferdinand and Isabella established a tribunal called the Spanish Inquisition, which was intended to ensure the ortho- doxy of people who had converted from Judaism and Islam to Catholicism. The monarchs issued royal decrees in 1492 and 1501 that ordered Jews and Muslims to convert or leave the country. During the Inquisition, Jews and Muslims were obliged to convert, but conversion did not ensure their safety, as converts continued to be subject to scrutiny and suspicion. Moreover, people believed to be the descendants of Jews and Muslims also faced persecution.

Discrimination against Jews and Muslims was more religious in nature than racial, yet the ideas regarding purity of blood that emerged set the stage for

ideas of racial difference that were to become part of the European under- standing of human differences (Qpijano 2000; Smedley 2007).

Another crucial precedent to the idea of race is the English view of the Irish and later of Native Americans. England and Ireland were involved in centu-

ries of conflict before the English first settled in North America, and English soldiers often portrayed the Irish as savage, sexually immoral, and resistant to civilizing forces. Many English colonists had been deployed to Ireland before settling in the New World. The ideas the English developed about the Irish may thus have played a role in settlers' perception of Native Americans as savage

Race: The Evolution o f on Ideology 9

(Allen 1994; Smedley 2007). This perception was a precursor to the racial idea that some humans were less fit for civilization than others.

Slavery Before the Idea of Race Slavery was not new or particular to the Americas: the practice of enslaving people has existed since antiquity. In African, European, and Middle Eastern societies, conquered peoples often became slaves in the aftermath of war. As agricultural societies grew, so did the demand for labor, leading peoples such as the Greeks and Phoenicians to raid other societies for slaves. Slavery existed not only across societies but also within societies: people lacking the support of a family often had no place other than as slaves, and some people became enslaved as a means of paying off a debt or as punishment for a crime. Slavery of this form almost always involved persons of the same ethnic group as their masters.

The prevalence of slavery in ancient societies does not imply that racism existed then as well. Although some ancient writings refer to skin color, these

references are rarely derogatory and by no means represent the general ide· ology of any ancient society. On the contrary, Greeks and Romans held the Egyptians as well as the Ethiopians in high esteem and admired their culture and way of life. These ancient peoples developed no known stereotypes of

blacks as primitives or lacking in culture (Snowden 1983). Marriages between Egyptians and black Africans were common-

place in ancient times, and Muslim conquerors regarded anyone they succeeded in converting as

brethren (Franklin 1974). The status of slaves varied across societies. In

some instances, slaves were adopted as kin after serving for a certain number of years; in other cases, slaves were permitted to marry and own property {Smedley 2007; Morgan 1975). Many slaves were granted rights not found in the system of slavery in the New World. These rights included access to education, the potential to obtain free- dom for themselves and their children, the right to marry, and the right to own property. Until

the eighteenth century, no society categorically denied the humanity of slaves. It was not seen as

necessary to rationalize slavery by denying that slaves were fully human. Although slaves were at

/\ Although sla\'cry was common in Ancient Greece, the idea of race did not yet exist .

10 CHAPTER 1 The Origin of the ldeo of Race

> When Chr istopher Columbus encountered the nath·c peoples of the Caribbean, he found them to he peaceable and generous.

times treated brutally, the humanity of slaves was never put into question, and

slavery was never attributed to racial inferiority (Smedley 2007).

European Encounters with Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Before the arrival of European colonizers, the Americas were home to over

100 million indigenous people. As a result of warfare, slavery, and disease, about 95 percent of this population was decimated during the first two centuries of colonization {Stannard 1993; At a Glance 1.1). The excerpted accounts in the Voices sidebar on p. 12 provide a small window into the depths of this massacre.

When Christopher Columbus encountered the native peoples of the Caribbean islands in 1492, he found them to be peaceable and generous.

Despite the Spaniards' initial admiration for the indigenous people, the rela- tions between the two groups soon deteriorated, as it became clear that the

Spaniards' primary motive was to extract gold from the Americas. Intent upon taking as much gold as possible, the Spaniards used their weaponry to over-

power and enslave the people indigenous to the Americas to compel them to

Race: The Evolution of on Ideology 11

find gold and silver for the Spaniards to take back to Spain (Todorov 1984).

The abuse the Caribbean peoples suffered at the hands of the Spaniards was devastating: the Arawaks of Santo Domingo, for example, were reduced from

over 3 million people in 1496 to a mere 125 in 1570 (Jones 2003). Reports of the Spaniards' extreme cruelty toward the indigenous people of

the Americas made their way back to Spain and eventually became a subject of controversy. Fifty years after Columbus's arrival in the Caribbean islands, the

enslavement of indigenous people was outlawed. The Spaniards continued to

extract labor from indigenous people, however, by relying on other systems of

forced labor {Wade 1997).

One of the most remarkable aspects of the conquest of the Americas is that

many of the civilizations in the Americas were far more advanced than those

from which the Europeans hailed. Europe in the sixteenth century was quite a

ghastly place, with frequent famines and epidemic outbreaks of the plague and

smallpox. Large cities were pestilent and dirty, with unsightly open sewers. Crime was rampant. Half of all children died before they turned ten. Thus,

we can imagine the surprise and awe that the magnificent city of Tenochtitlan engendered in the Spaniards who arrived there. Tenochtitlan, an Aztec city in

central Mexico, had about 350,000 inhabitants- many times the population of London or Seville at the time. When the Spanish explorer and colonizer

Hernando Cortes {1485- 1547) saw this city, he declared it to be the most beau- tiful city on earth. His companion and chronicler Bernal Diaz (1492- 1585)

agreed, calling it a "wonderful thing to behold." Unlike European cities of the

time, Tenochtitlan boasted clean streets, amazing floating gardens, a huge

aqueduct system, and a market more extensive than any the Europeans had ever seen (Stannard 1993).

Despite their admiration, the Spaniards did not preserve this city. The

arrival of the Spaniards led to the destruction of not only this amazing city,

but also many towns and cities across the Americas. The population of cen-

tral Mexico was decimated in less than a century, declining from 25 million

in 1519 to barely 1.3 million in 1595. This pattern continued throughout the

Americas, so that nearly 95 percent of the native populations were destroyed

in less than 200 years (Stannard 1993).

Slavery and Colonization

Africans were present in the conquest of the Americas from the beginning, both as slaves and as sailors and explorers. Spain and Portugal were slavehold-

ingsocieties long before Columbus set sail in search of the Indies. Many, but not all, of the slaves in Spain in the fifteenth century were Africans. Some African

12

(/)

()) u ·- 0 >

CHAPTER 1 The Origin of the Idea of Race

The Spanish Treatment of Indigenous Peoples The following excerpts are from a 1519 report by the Dominican order about the Spanish treatment of indigenous peoples in the Carib Islands.

Some Christians encounter an Indian woman, who was carrying in her arms a child at suck; and since the dog they had with them was hungry, they tore the child from the mother's arms and flung it still living to the dog, who proceeded to devour it before the mother's eyes.

When there were among the prisoners some women who had recently given

birth, if the new-born babes happened to cry, they seized them by the legs and hurled them against the rocks, or flung them into the jungle so that they

would be certain to die there.

Each of them [the foremen] had made it a practice to sleep with the Indian women who were in his workforce, if they pleased him, whether they were married women or maidens. While the foreman remained .. . with the Indian woman, he sent the husband to dig gold out of the mines; and in the evening, when the wretch returned, not only was he beaten or whipped because he had not brought enough gold, but further, most often, he was bound hand and foot and flung under the bed like a dog, before the foreman

lay down, directly over him, with his wife.

Sourt!e: Todorov 1984, 139.

residents of Spain and Portugal- enslaved as well as free- accompanied

Spaniards on their initial conquest voyages to the New World. Juan Garrido (ca. 1480- ca. 1547), for example, was born in Africa and later traveled to

Portugal and then to Spain, where he joined an expedition to Santo Domingo. Juan Garrido also participated in the conquest of Puerto Rica, Cuba, and then

Mexico.Juan Garda (ca. 1495- date of death unknown), in contrast, was born in Spain as a free mulatto and traveled to Peru as a colonist (Restall 2000).

The Spanish colonists- often called conquistadores-endeavored to subdue native populations and to convert them into Catholics and subjects of the Spanish Crown. Their main goal, however, was to extract as much wealth as possible from the Americas. This extraction of wealth required labor, and the Spanish colonists enslaved the native populations to this end. The harsh con- ditions of this enslavement led to massive declines in the native populations,

Race The Evolut ion of on Ideology 13

and in 1550, the Spanish Crown outlawed the practice, although it continued to allow other forms of forced labor. The ban on enslavement of indigenous people did not end the need for labor1 and the Spaniards turned to Africa in their search for workers. As they realized that agricultural exploitation, partic· ularly the harvesting of sugarcane, could bring enormous wealth, they began to bring African slaves in very large numbers to their colonies in the Americas (Franklin 1974; Morgan 1975; Smedley2007). The Spaniards and Portuguese had long been trading with Africans and thus could imagine the possibili- ties for slave trading with Africa. Notably1 the Spaniards were well aware of the technological advances developed in Africa and did not seek Africans as

slaves because they thought they were inferior. To the contrary, the Spaniards believed enslaved Africans would be a valuable asset. Consequently, tens

of millions of Africans were brought over between the early 1600s and the nineteenth century as slaves (Bowser 1974).

Between 10 and :m million African!> were hrought to the Americas on sla\'c ships. Near!) a quarter died while at sea.

14 CHAPTER 1 The Origin of the ldeo of Race

Whereas the Spaniards had had centuries of contact with Africans, the

English who settled in North America had had no such contact until the arrival

of twenty Africans in Jamestown in 1619. Slaves did not become an essential part of the workforce in North America until much later.

The form of slavery that eventually emerged in the North American colonies

was unique in several ways. First, slaves had no human or legal rights. They were

seen only as property, not as people who could marry or own property them-

selves. Second, slavery was permanent and the slave status was inherited. Third,

slaves were forbidden to learn to read or write, thereby ensuring their inferior

social status. Finally, slavery in North-America was unique insofar as nearly all

Africans and their descendants were enslaved, and only this group could be

enslaved. This unique system of human exploitation laid the groundwork for a

new idea of human difference (Smedley 2007). Before delving further into this

point, let's take a closer look at the English settlements in North America.

research focus Slave Flights and Runaway Communities in Colonial Angola

Slavery was common in Africa well before the transatlantic slave trade. And for

as long as slavery existed, so did slave rebellions and runaway slave communities. Brazilian historian Roquinaldo Ferreira has studied these forms of resistance in

colonial Angola, a country in southwestern Africa, focusing on the seventeenth

to nineteenth centuries.

Ferreira argues that slave flight and the formation of runaway slave commu·

nities were frequent in Angola, which the Portuguese colonized in 1575. His

work shows that these factors disrupted internal trade networks and impeded

Portuguese plans to develop a plantation system there. Slaves played an import-

ant role in Angola's economy during this period, working in both urban and farm

settings. Their resistance posed major problems for the Portuguese colonists.

Local resistance to slavery also posed a threat to the transatlantic slave trade.

Angolan slaves feared being sent on ships to Brazil and would do whatever they could to avoid that fate, including running away. Angolan slaveowners were thus

reluctant to sell into the transatlantic slave trade, fearing that the sale of one slave would cause others to flee.

,._ - --

Race The Evolution of on Ideology 15

Some runaway slaves were taken in by African rulers. For example, in 1805

a ruler named Caculo Cacahenda hired a runaway who was a scribe literate in Portuguese. The scribe helped his new employer correspond diplomatically and

commercially with the Portuguese in Luanda, Angola's capital.

Runaway slaves sometimes joined together in communities called quilombos in Portuguese, some of which became large and powerful. One was led by a

former slave named Calumba, who commanded widespread respect from African

rulers. In a Portuguese military campaign against Calumba, sixty-four individ-

uals were captured, which gives us an idea of how large his quilombo may have been. There were at least five quilombos in Angola in the 1820s, and the popula-

tion of these communities may have been in the thousands. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Portuguese colonial

government consistently tried to break these quilombos. They were unsuccessful, and in the late nineteenth century, the Luanda administration signed a treaty that

allowed the quilombos' existence and promised to cease attacks on them.

For Discussion 1. What are some differences between the Angolan slave trade and the transatlantic

slave trade?

2. Why do you think the Portuguese tried to break the quilombos?

Source; Ferreira 2014.

Exploitation in the Thirteen English Colonies In the late fifteenth century, Europeans began to explore parts ofN or th America where indigenous peoples had lived for thousands of years. The English,

learning of the great wealth the Spanish had accrued in the New World, were anxious to fill their coffers with riches as well. England first sent colonists to

Roanoke Island in the late sixteenth century, but that attempt at settlement failed. The first permanent English settlement was at Jamestown in 1607. Much

as Columbus had recounted in 1492, these English settlers reported that the

local Native Americans were kind and generous and helped them to survive the

unfamiliar conditions. Amicable trade relations did not last long, however, as it

became clear that the Englishmen's intentions were not benign: they planned to

take over indigenous land and resources (Morgan 1975; Zinn 2010).

16 CHAPTER 1 The Origin of the Idea of Race

Takeover of Indigenous Lands European colonists engaged in constant warfare with Native Americans, often

burning their lodging and crops and enslaving entire tribes. The English colonists justified their takeover of indigenous lands in religious terms. They interpreted

their successes as God's will. For example, John Winthrop (1588- 1649), a leader of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the mid-seventeenth century, wrote that

the death of so many Native Americans as a result of smallpox showed that "the

Lord bathe cleared our title to what we possess" (quoted in Wood 1991, 96). It is important to note that when the English colonists interacted with Native

Americans, they did not see them as belonging to a separate race; this idea did not yet exist. Instead, the English saw themselves as superior in religious and

moral terms. These religious justifications, however, laid the groundwork for racial distinctions that emerged later (Jordan 1968; Smedley 2007).

The first fifty years of the new settlement in Virginia were full of hardship. Disease, starvation, and war caused extremely high death rates among both

Native Americans and English colonists. There were severe food shortages, partly because the first settlers did not plant enough corn. Morgan (1975) points out that most of the settlers in Virginia were not farmers but nobles or gentry who thought food cultivation was beneath them. Although the settlers were too proud to grow

corn to eat, they were willing to take up the enterprise of growing tobacco to sell and expected to make their riches in this manner. As there was no shortage ofland

in this vast country, the only commodity lacking was labor power {Zinn 2010). The English colonists were notoriously successful at decimating the Native

American population, yet less so in their attempts to use Native Americans for labor. When the English realized they would not become rich instanta-

neously through gold or silver mining, as it appeared the Spaniards had done,

they turned to agricultural production to seek wealth. For this, they needed

labor- lots of it. The English were able to enslave Native Americans they cap-

tured in warfare, but most indigenous slaves either died or ran away, leaving

the English in need of more labor in order to accumulate wealth {Zinn 2010).

Indentured Servitude The lack of success at enslaving Native Americans led the colonists to turn

to Britain, where they recruited poor men, women, and children from the

streets of cities such as Liverpool and Bristol. Englishmen also rounded up

Irish and Scottish peasants who had been conquered in warfare, banished, or

released from prison. Indentured servants from Europe who were willing to

work for four to seven years to pay off their passage and debt soon became the

primary source oflabor for the colonies {At a Glance 1.1). The harsh treatment

Race: The Evolution of an Ideology 17

AT A GLANCE 1.1 Servitude, Slavery, and Genocide in the Americas

Slaves and Servants ln Populatlon: Chesapeake Colonies The enslaved population increased as the Indentured servant population declined.

100 ~--

90

BO 70

60

50

Free ____ '":..___ .... -·-------- ~ .. . --

The American Slave Trade Between 1450and1900, 12,817,000 Africans were brought to the New World as slaves.

1450-1500 ~

1501-1600 1

,; I 1601-1700 ~tttttt1

1701- 1800 ~ttttttt1tttt,tttttttttttttt 1801-1900 ~TTTTTTTTTTT1TTTT I

0 2 3 4 5 6 7 Number of persons, in millions

Genocide of Indigenous People

Data from Tomlins 2001

Each figure T represents 250,000 persons

Data from Lovejoy 2012

Between 1492 and 1600, as many as 138 million indigenous people were ki"led-90 to 95o/o of the pre-1492 population .

• Indigenous populat~on killed

• Remaining indigenous population

90-95°0

Data from Stannard 1993;

Taylor 2002

18 CHAPTER l The Origin ol the Idea of Race

of European indentured servants needed no justification, as servitude was a

way oflife in Britain at that time (Smedley 2007; Zinn 2010).

Throughout the seventeenth century, indentured servants endured harsh

conditions as laborers in the colonies. Hopeful laborers continued to come

to the Americas, despite the difficult circumstances, because there were pos·

sibilities for social and economic advancement in North America that did

not exist in England. The flow of English laborers began to decline, however,

with the restoration of the monarchy in England in 1660, as King Charles II

implemented policies that discouraged emigration (Smedley 2007).

The Enslavement of Africans In addition to bringing English laborers, colonists brought Africans to the

colonies as slaves (At a Glance 1.1). Most African slaves brought to North America were from West Africa and were Yoruba, Igbo, Fulani, or Mada.

In 1619, English colonists brought the first group of Africans to the North American colonies. These twenty Africans occupied nearly the same social

status as European indentured servants and were soon joined by African slaves

brought over by Dutch and Spanish slave ships. All of these early Africans

were granted rights that were later denied to all blacks in Virginia. There is no

evidence that African slaves during the period before 1660 were subjected to

more severe disciplinary measures than European servants. Some slaves were

allowed to earn money of their own and to buy their freedom with it. There are

several cases recorded in which masters set up conditions in their wills whereby

Negro slaves would become free or could purchase their freedom after the mas-

ter's death. The terms of these wills imply that the freed slaves would become

regular members of the community (Morgan 1975; Smedley2007; Zinn 2010).

The enslavement of Africans turned out to be particularly profitable in part

because Africans brought with them agricultural and craft experience. In

addition, unlike people indigenous to the Americas, Africans had immunities

The American Slave Trade

H92 11)19

Christopher First African Columbus lands sla\·cs arri\'e in in the Caribbean Jamestown

I 1660 I 167<> I 18_6~1 I 186;> First sla\'e codes Bacon's Rebellion Abraham Slavery is cnactccl Lincoln issues abolished in the

the Emancipation United States Proclamation

Roce· The Evolution of an Ideology 19

to Old World diseases and thus could live longer in slavery. The initial justifi-

cations for bringing Africans to the colonies were not racial in nature. At the

time, slavery was an accepted social system. To the extent that a justification

was offered, it was that Africans were heathens and their enslavement would

ensure their salvation (Smedley 2007). Over time, racial justifications for the

enslavement of Africans emerged.

The Legal Codification of Racial Differences Slave codes of the 1660sspelled out the legal differences between African slaves

and European indentured servants. In 1667, Virginia issued a decree that slaves

who had converted to Christianity could continue to be enslaved because of

their so-called heathen ancestry. Whereas earlier justifications for slavery were

primarily religious, the idea that ancestry could be used to determine social

status set the stage for the development of the idea of race. In the late seven-

teenth century, Virginia and Maryland each passed a series oflaws that solidified

the status of blacks. The strongest indicator of the solidification of the status of

Africans was the prohibition of manumission: masters were not allowed to free

their slaves, thereby establishing a permanent slave class. Other laws established

lifelong servitude, forbade interracial marriage, and limited the rights of blacks

to own property and bear arms. These laws specific to blacks both reflected the

social order and solidified the status quo. For most of the seventeenth century,

European indentured servants and African slaves had shared a similar social

status. The slave codes gradually changed this social classification.

Laws against Intermarriage The shared social position of African and European servants and slaves in the

early years of the colonies meant that these groups intermarried and frater-

nized. The fact th at Africans and Europeans had amicable relations can be seen

in the laws passed that forbade these relationships. In 1661, Virginia passed

a law that imposed harsh conditions on English servants who ran away with

African slaves. In 1691, Virginia passed another law that prohibited free whites

from intermarrying with blacks and Native Americans. Had these groups been

naturally disinclined to intermarry or to fraternize, these laws would not have

been necessary. As the 1661 law shows, plantation owners were concerned that

European indentured servants and African slaves would see that they shared a

common interest in fighting for more rights and better conditions.As historian

Howard Zinn puts it, "only one fear was greater than the fear ofblack rebellion

in the new American colonies. That was the fear that discontented whites

would join black slaves to overthrow the existing order" (2010, 37).

slave codes Laws enacted

in the 1660s that clearly

spelled out the diffrrenccs

between African slaves

and European indentured

servants.

20 CHAPTER l The Origin of the Idea of Race

When Africans and Europeans first found themselves together in the Americas, sexual relations and even marriage between these two groups were

not uncommon. African men and women married European men and women (Smedley 2007). Various laws were passed, however, both to prevent and to

control these relationships. The aforementioned 1662 law made it clear that

when African women had children, the child's status as slave or free would be in

accordance with the condition of the mother. The law also indicated that when

Christians- here meaning Europeans- had sexual relations with Africans,

they would pay double the normal fine for adultery. The European men who

wrote these laws perceived it to be important to prevent sexual relations

between Europeans and Africans and to ensure that the children of enslaved

A In Bacon's H.chdlion, white indentured sen ants joined forces with enslaved Africans to prote:-.t thei r conditions.

African women would also be slaves. This law

effectively prevented the formation of families by

enslaved African women and European men.

Bacon's Rebellion Bacon's Rebellion, which occurred in September

1676, provides one example of what could happen

when blacks and whites joined forces to fight for their interests. The rebellion itself was not partic-

ularly successful, but the coalition that emerged between poor whites and African slaves and

freedmen became a cause for concern among the elite planter class, who depended on these groups

for cheap labor. In Bacon's Rebellion, white indentured servants joined forces with enslaved

Africans and freedmen to protest their condi· tions. This massive rebellion, in which protes-

tors demanding an end to their servitude burned

Jamestown to the ground, was a clear threat to the

status quo. One of the last groups to surrender was

a mixed group of eighty black and twenty white servants. This multiracial coalition indicates that

blacks and whites were willing to join forces to

fight for their common interests as laborers. After

Bacon's Rebellion, an official report arguing for the continued presence of British soldiers in Vir-

ginia stated: "Virginia is at present poor and more

populous than ever. There is great apprehension

Race: The Evolution of an Ideology 21

of a rising among the servants, owing to their great necessities and want of clothes; they may plunder the storehouses and ships" (Zinn 2010, 37).

Howard Zinn and other historians argue that Bacon's Rebellion stirred up fear in the hearts of the elite planter class and that this fear led these elites

to pass laws that worked to divide blacks and whites. For example, in the aftermath of the rebellion, the Virginia Assembly gave amnesty to the white

servants who had rebelled but not to the blacks. By extending this and other

privileges to whites that were denied to blacks, the elites succeeded in prevent-

ing future class-based alliances between blacks and whites that would threaten

the social order.

Wealth Imbalance ancl the Tenuous Social Order Wealth in colonial North America was concentrated in the hands of very few

people. In 1700, there were about 250,000 colonists, most of whom lived in hor- rendous conditions. In Virginia, there were only about fifty wealthy families,

who depended on the labor of the other 40,000 poor colonists. This imbalance of wealth made for a tenuous social order (Zinn 2010). lt soon became clear to

the rich elite and the governing body that they could not continue to disregard

the interests of the majority of the population. In 1705, a law was passed requir.

ing masters to provide white servants whose indenture time was completed with ten bushels of corn, thirty shillings, a gun, and fifty acres ofland (Morgan

1975, 344). This tactic of giving servants a piece of the American Dream was intended to avoid rebellion by convincing poor whites that the rich landowners

were not extortionists or enemies, but protectors of their common interests. To reinforce this impression, it was further mandated that servants had the right

to possess property but that slaves did not (Morgan 1975, 333). The Virginia

Assembly in 1705 also prohibited any Negro, mulatto, or Indian from raising

his hand in opposition to any Christian, which meant any white man (Jordan

1968). By denying black slaves privileges extended to white servants, the first

step was taken in creating a division between blacks and whites (Zinn 2010).

In New York in 1708, a group of slaves was accused of murdering a farmer

and his family. Shortly afterward, a law was enacted preventing the conspir-

acy of slaves. This meant, in effect, that slaves could not gather in private to

talk about anything. In 1712, a slave rebellion involving about fifty slaves left

nine whites dead and six others wounded. Immediately thereafter, New York's

repressive laws were reinforced. For example, arson committed by a slave was

made into a crime punishable by death (Szasz 1967). One purpose of the slave codes was the prevention and deterrence of slave

rebellions, which were becoming more and more of a real danger with the

22 CHAPTER l The Origin of the Idea of Race

(/)

Q) u ·-0 >

increasing number of slaves, especially in the southern colonies, where slaves

often outnumbered whites. In 1730, in Virginia, the governor ordered that all whites should bring their guns with them to church on Sunday so that they

would be prepared for a slave uprising in the event that slaves took advantage of their absence to conspire {Jordan 1968). The idea of a slave rebellion was even more distasteful to whites because of the widespread idea that any slave insurrection would have as its ultimate goal not only the emancipation of slaves but also the dominance of blacks over whites (Jordan 1968).

Solidifying the Idea of Race Eventually, the entire slave class was composed of black Africans, and, as a result of manumission restrictions, most blacks were enslaved. The creation of

From Bui/whip Days My mother's mistress had three boys- one twenty-one, one nineteen, and one seventeen. One day, Old Mistress had gone away to spend the day. Mother always worked in the house; she didn't work on the farm, in Missouri. While she was alone, the boys came in and threw her down on the floor and tied her down so she couldn't struggle, and one after the other used her as long as they wanted, for the whole afternoon. Mother was sick when her mistress came home. When Old Mistress wanted to know what was the

matter with her, she told her what the boys had done. She whipped them, and that's the way I came to be here. - Mary Peters dc.~cribing the brutal circumstance.~ cif lier own conception

I saw slaves sold. I can see that old block now. My cousin Eliza was a pretty girl, really good-looking. Her master was her father .... The day they sold her

will always be remembered. They stripped her to be bid off and looked at .. . . The man that bought Eliza was from New York. The Negroes had made

up 'nuf money to buy her off theyself, but the white folks wouldn't let that happen. There was a man bidding for her that was a Swedeland. He allus bid for the good-looking cullud gals and bought 'em for his own use. He ask the man from New York "What you gonna do with 'er when you git 'er?" The man from New York said, "None of your damn business, but you ain't got money 'nuf to buy 'er." - Former slave Daniel Dowdy

Source: Mellon 2002, 297; 2s7.

Slavery Versus lhe Ideal of Freedom in the Uniled States 23

this sort of color line, alongside the introduction of the concept of hereditary

slavery, was an important step toward solidifying the idea of race. Notably,

it was not until the eighteenth century that negative beliefs about Africans became widespread among the English settlers. Even then, there is ample evi·

dence that blacks and whites continued to fraternize. In 1743, a grand jury in Charleston, South Carolina, denounced "The Too Common Practice of

Criminal Conversation with Negro and other Slave Wenches in this Province"

(Zinn 2010).

The stories of Mary Peters and Daniel Dowdy {Voices: From Bullwhip Days) elucidate the cruelty and dehumanization that were part and parcel of colonialism and enslavement in the Americas. These two phenomena-

colonialism and slavery- have left a strong mark on the way people in the

United States view the world. Our contemporary racial worldview is a relic of

the systems of human classification that were first used in the context of the colonization of Native American territories and the enslavement of Africans

in the Americas. Although such brutal practices are no longer morally or

legally permissible, the ideas of racial difference that emerged from those

practices persist.

SLAVERY VERSUS THE IDEAL OF FREEDOM IN THE UNITED STATES

The Declaration oflndependence famously begins by stating that all men are

created equal. The question was, then, why were some enslaved? Although the

concept of liberty was at the core of the American Revolution, nearly half of

the fifty-five men who made up the 1787 Constitutional Convention owned

slaves, and most of the rest profited from slavery through their business prac-

tices. A prominent member, George Washington (1732- 1799), was one of the

richest men in the colonies and the owner of many slaves. These men struggled

with the contradictions inherent in advocating for freedom in a slaveholding

society, yet they were unwilling to outlaw slavery (Feagin 2001).

The writers of the founding documents of the United States were not will·

ing to end slavery in part because most of them profited directly or indirectly

from it. The wealth generated by slave labor in the United States had made the

American Revolution possible: a significant amount of the funds that financed

the American Revolution came from profits from slavery {Feagin 2001). The

contradiction between the ideals of freedom and the prevalence of slavery led

to justifications of slavery in terms of blacks' alleged racial inferiority. Writings

by people such as Thomas Jefferson validated the belief that people of African

2.4 CHAPTER 1 The Or g n of the Idea of Race

descent were less than human. In 1787, Thomas Jefferson wrote in Notes 011 Virginia: "Blacks, whether originally a distinct race or made distinct by time and circumstance, are inferior to whites in the endowment both of body and mind" (Jefferson (1787] 2004, 98-99).

Slavery was an immensely profitable enterprise for a small number of slave- holders. In 1860, the twelve wealthiest counties in the United States could all be found in the Deep South. The profits were not evenly divided, however: about 7 percent of Southerners owned three-quarters of the 4 million slaves in the South. This concentration of wealth meant that slaveowners constituted a powerful planter class that went to great lengths to protect its property, which included humans: slaveowners saw enslaved Africans and African Americans as an investment they did not want to lose. Additionally, many whites who did not own slaves profited indirectly from the slave system. In the southern

The Idea of Race in Latin American Nation-Making Contradictions surrounding racial ideologies ore

not unique to the United Stoles. During lhe nine·

teenth cenlury, Latin American countries sought their

independence from colonial rule. As in the United

States, such calls for polilicol freed om seemed al

odds with these notions' long hislories of slovery

and servilude.

From 1870 lo 1940, Lalin American countries

were engaged in notion-making. That is, Lalin Ameri·

con inlellectua and polilical elites ollempled to build

nalional unity for their fledgling nations !Knight 1990).

In lhis process, they endeavored lo prove that their

countries were modern notions with a unique identity.

They had lo contend, however, with European schol-

ars who viewed them as racially degenerate ISlepon

1991). Many European scholars looked down on

Latin America, which they perceived as having high

levels of racial mixture and a relatively small number

of whites.

Latin Americans countered European intellectuals'

impression of them with claims that racial mixlure !mes·

lizaje) would lead to progress. Latin Amer can inlellec·

tuals argued that racial mixture was not only beneficial

but also the hallmark of Lalin American notions. According to lhis logic, the mixture of Iberians (those

of Spanish or Portuguese descenl) with other races

was what mode countries such as Mexico, Cuba,

and Brazil great notions. Ahhough Lalin Americons

developed their own brand of racial ideology, they

did nol rejecl the belief thal whiteness was superior.

Instead, they expanded the idea of whileness lo

include racially and culturally mixed people in order

to accommodale their own realities. Faced with differ·

ent racial demographics, Lalin American intellectuals

developed racial and nalional discourses thol suiled

their countries. A consideration of Lalin American

racial ideologies and discourses reveals thal ideas of

while superiority come in many forms.

The Indian Removal Act: The Continuation of Manifest Destiny 25

United States, slavery was part of the economic and social fabric of society.

There were fewer slaves in the northern states, but many Northerners had

strong economic ties to slavery insofar as they consumed and manufactured

products made on slave plantations. These strong economic interests in slavery

meant that the practice was not ended in the United States until the victory of

the North in the Civil War {Wilson 1996; Feagin 2001).

On January 1, 1 863, President Abraham Lincoln (1809- 1865) issued the

Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves held in the rebel states of

the Confederacy. His willingness to issue this proclamation was not hindered

by his belief that blacks were inferior to whites. Five years earlier, in 18581 Lincoln had declared: "I am not nor ever have been in favor of the social and

political equality of the white and black races: that I am not nor ever have been

in favor of making voters of the free negroes, or jurors, or qualifying them to

hold office or having them to marry with white people .... I as much as any

other man am in favor of the superior position being assigned to the white

man" (quoted in Feagin 2001, 83- 84).

In 1865, the United States finally abolished slavery. Slavery was one of the

main reasons for the long and bloody Civil War that had pitted the North

against the South. From the perspective of plantation owners in the South,

slavery was a profitable institution that ensured the proper place of blacks in

society. From the perspective of capitalists in the North, slavery gave southern

capitalists an unfair competitive advantage (Feagin 2001). The end of slavery

marked the end of an era of extreme exploitation. The racist ideologies that had

justified the enslavement of Africans and the massacre and removal of Native

Americans, however, would endure.

THE INDIAN REMOVAL ACT: THE CONTINUATION OF MANIFEST DESTINY

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 enabled the administration of President

Andrew Jackson to use military power to displace at least 70,000 Native

Americans, killing tens of thousands in the process. Indian removal is often

associated with the Cherokee of Georgia, but there were actually many more

"Trails of Te>irs," including the forced displacement of the Apalachicola of

Florida, the Peoria of Illinois, the Shawnee of Ohio, and a host of other tribes

(Littlefield and Parins 2011). These removals violated treaties the United

States had made with Native Americans, even though the Indian Removal

Act contained a clause guaranteeing that "nothing in this act contained shall

be construed as authorizing or directing the violation of any existing treaty

Indian Removal Act of

1830 Act that enabled

the administration of U.S. President Andrew

J ackson to use military

power to displace at

least 70,000 Native

Americans, killing tens of

thousands in the process.

Trails of Tears The forced displacement of the

Cherokee of Georgia, the

Apalachicola of Florida,

the Peoria of Illinois, the

Shawnee of Ohio, an<l a

host of other tribes.

26 CHAPTER 1 The Origin of the ldeo of Race

> Under Prcsitk•nt .Jackson's administration, tens uf thousands of Native Americans dic<l as a rcsu It of forced displacements knm\ n as the Trails of Tears.

between the United States and any of the Indian tribes" (quoted in Cave 2003, 1335). These forced displacements, which continued until 1859, when the Seminoles were removed from Florida, wreaked havoc on indigenous communities (Littlefield and Parins 2011).

During these treacherous journeys, tens of thousands of Native Americans

died from disease, cold, starvation, and exhaustion. Approximately 17,000 Cherokee were forcibly removed, and nearly half of those who embarked on

the Trail of Tears died in the process. Large numbers of indigenous people died in other removals: about 6,000 of the 40,000 Choctaw did not survive the

journey, and only about half of the Creek and the Seminole peoples survived their removals (Churchill 2002).

The justifications for Indian removal were distinct from those used for slavery, as whites tended to see Africans as a vital source of labor. Native Americans, in contrast, were construed as hindering white expansion, and thus the racial ideologies surrounding Native Americans tended to explain and pre· diet their gradual extinction. Notably, this extinction was imagined as occur- ring through both assimilation (marriage to whites) and natural selection

The Rise of Science and 1he Question of Human Difference 27

(death from disease). Whereas colonists' ideas about Africans served to justify

their hyperexploitation of slaves, whites' ideas about Native Americans aimed

to justify the assimilation and gradual extinction of these groups, enabling

whites to appropriate Indian lands (Berger 2009).

THE RISE OF SCIENCE AND THE QUESTION OF HUMAN DIFFERENCE

ln the seventeenth century, people in the Americas developed and acted on folk

ideas about differences among Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans that were based on daily interactions and the prevailing social order. The slow

emergence of the idea of racial difference can be seen in the laws passed and

the decisions made by religious leaders. However, the rise of science in the

eighteenth century would fundamentally alter this conversation. The question

of human difference began to move from the realms of religion and folk ideas

to that of science.

European Taxonomies

Before the rise of science, Westerners understood the world primarily in bibli-

cal terms. Theology provided explanations for nearly everything. Thus, when

Europeans encountered the Americas, they attempted to place these peoples

into their understanding of the history of the world, as described in their scrip-

tures. This led to debates over which of the three sons of Noah was the ancestor

of the Native Americans and even over whether Native Americans were fully

human. The strong belief in the biblical scriptures carried over into scientific

thought, which became the central arena for shaping understandings of race

(Smedley 2007).

One of the key features of the rise of science was the emergence of taxon-

omy. Scholars endeavored to classify all flora and fauna known to them. Soon,

scientists began to attempt to classify human beings into types. One of the

first efforts to develop a classificatory system for humans appeared in a French

journal in 1684. The author, Franc;ois Bernier (1625-1688), divided humans

into four groups: Europeans, Far Easterners, Negroes, and Lapps (people from

Lapland in northern Scandanavia). His system used physical traits such as skin

color and hair texture, which would later become prominent determinants of

racial status, to categorize different groups. Other scholars worked on devel-

oping classificatory schemes, but it was not until 1735 that we begin to see the

development of a comprehensive system of classification that resembles the

modern concept of race (Eze 1997).

28 CHAPTER 1 The Origin of the Idea of Race

scientific racism

The use of science or

pscmloscicnce to justi(y

or reproduce radal

im·quality.

In 1735, the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus (1707- 1778) proposed that

all human beings could be divided into four groups. These four groups are

consistent with the modern idea of race in two ways: all of them are still used

today, and Linnaeus connected physical traits such as skin color with cultural

and moral traits such as uindolence." Linnaeus described these four groups,

which correspond to four of the continents, in Systemae Naturae in 1735:

Americanus: reddish, choleric, ... obstinate, merry, free; ... regulated by customs.

Asiaticus: sallow, melancholy, ... black hair, dark eyes, ... haughty, ... ruled by opinions.

Africanus: black, phlegmatic, relaxed; women without shame, ... crafty, indolent, negligent; governed by caprice.

Europacnus: white, sanguine, muscular; inventive; governed by laws.

Other European men elaborated on this schema. For example, Johann

Blumenbach ( 1752- 1840 ), a German professor of medicine, proposed a class if.

icatory system that divided humans into five varieties that also were associated

with geographical origins: Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, American, and

Malay. Both Blumenbach and Linnaeus endowed Europeans- their own

group- with the most admirable qualities. It bears repeating that the idea of

race is an idea that was initiated by European men and that, not surprisingly,

consistently has been used to explain and justify European superiority. The

Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711 - 1776), for example, asserted in 1748

that whites were the only "species" to have created civilized nations and to have

developed arts and sciences. European explanations of white racial superiority

espoused by Blumenbach, Linnaeus, and Hume soon reached the Americas,

where they were used to explain and justify the enslavement of Africans and

the continued takeover of indigenous lands (Eze 1997).

Scientific Racism in the Nineteenth Century The nineteenth century was an age of emancipation from slavery and libera·

tion from colonial powers. It also saw the rise of industrial capitalism and the

emergence of scientific racism- the use of science or pseudoscience to justify

or reproduce racial inequality. For intellectuals in the Americas and Europe,

scientific racism was central to most human and social inquiries. Eighteenth-

century scientists had developed elaborate systems of human classification. In

the nineteenth century, scientists built on these classification systems by devel-

oping anthropometrics- tools designed to measure the qualities of humans.

The Rise of Science and the Quest ion o f H uman Diffe rence 29

With the publication between 1853 and 1855 of Comte Joseph-Arthur de Gobineau's four volumes entitled Essays on the Inequality of the Human Races, it is safe to say that by the mid-nineteenth century, the idea of race was fully in place. Gobineau (1816- 1882) divided humanity into three races-

white, yellow, and black- and argued that racial differences allow us to explain fundamental differences among people.

Gobineau's thinking was in line with that of Herbert Spencer (1820- 1903), who contended that the superiority of the

European race explained its dominant position. He pointed to the natural inferiority of Native Americans as an expla- nation for their decimation. Spencer's ideas of the "survival of the fittest" would hold great sway for many years to come. Both Spencer and Gobineau used ideas and rudimentary evi- dence from travel accounts to make their claims. Other scien·

tists, however, were developing anthropometric techniques that enabled them to measure differences between people

(Gould 1996). Samuel George Morton (1799- 1851), a scientist and physi-

cian who worked in Philadelphia, amassed an impressive col· lection of human skulls. He began his collection in the 1820s, and by the time of his death in 1851 he had over 1,000 skulls. Morton used these skulls to test his hypothesis that brain size could be used to rank the various human races. In his initial

...,.n.--

.... _ ,__ ____ _

--

efforts to measure brain size, Morton filled the cranial cavity with mustard seed. Later, when he realized that mustard seed did not provide consistent measurements, he switched to lead

shots with a one-eighth-inch diameter that produced less vari- able results. Using both mustard seeds and lead shots, Morton's

measurements consistently showed that Europeans had larger

A A racist illustration from Josiah Clark Nott and George Robert Gliddon's lmlijfe11011.~ UaccN c!f'tlic Earth (18.57), showing pcrcci\'cd distinctions between the white man, the black man, and the chimpanzee.

brains than Africans or American Indians. In 1977, evolutionary biologist and

scientific historian Stephen Jay Gould reanalyzed Morton's raw data and found several examples of unconscious bias in his work (Gould 1996).

Morton found that American Indians had the smallest skull sizes. Gould explains that Morton arrived at this conclusion because he had included

155 skulls of Peruvian Incas, who had an average brain size of seventy-five cubic inches, yet he only included three skulls of Iroquois people, who had,

on average, a much larger skull size. In contrast, in the Caucasian group, Morton eliminated the Hindus, who had the smallest skulls, from his sample.

30 CHAPTER l The Origin of the ldeo of Roce

Had Morton ensured equal representation from each of the American Indian

and Caucasian groups, he would have found no significant differences in skull size.

Stephen Gould explains that skull size is related to body size, and yet he contends that Morton never took body size into account when he measured skulls. As women tend to be smaller than men, women often have smaller skulls. When Morton compared the brain sizes of Africans and Europeans, his African sample was entirely female and his English sample entirely male.

Of course, he found that Europeans had larger brains. What is remarkable about Morton's research is not just that it is full of unconscious bias, but also

that his biases are consistently in favor of his expectations. Morton set out to prove, through science, that Europeans were superior. All of his miscal-

culations turned out in favor of his hypothesis. In this sense, Morton was similar to nearly all of his contemporaries: European and American male

scientists of the nineteenth century developed a plethora of methods to mea- sure human abilities and consistently found that white men were superior to

all other groups. Paul Broca (1824- 1880), a French anthropologist, built on the work of

Samuel Morton to develop more elaborate techniques to measure humans. Broca believed strongly that there was a direct correlation between brain

size and intelligence, and he spent much of his career measuring the brains of dead people. Broca eventually ran into trouble with his arguments when he

discovered, by measuring the brains of eminent scholars who had passed on, that many people considered to be highly intelligent turned out to have small

brains. Broca, however, accounted for those anomalies by asserting that they died very old or that their brains had not been properly preserved. When a

study of criminal brains revealed that criminals had abnormally large brains, Broca argued that their sudden death by execution meant that their brains did not atrophy, as did those of people who died of natural causes. Broca eventu- ally went on to measure other characteristics of brains and bodies; however, his scientific measurements always showed what he set out to prove: that Europeans were superior to other groups (Gould 1996).

Ideas of European racial superiority emerged during a time when colonists

were advocating radical ideas of freedom for themselves. Justifications for Indian removal often were couched in terms of perceived lack of civilization:

Native Americans would not make as good use of the land as whites would and thus did not deserve to live on the land. The supposed natural inferiority of

Africans began to be used as a justification for slavery. In the late eighteenth century, Americans such as Thomas Jefferson (1743- 1826) grappled with a

Check Your Understanding 31

fundamental contradiction: they were advocating for liberty, justice, and the

rights of men at the same time that they depended on African slavery.

CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

The brutal, troubled history of the idea of race clearly demonstrates the power

ofideologies about human difference. The idea that the world 's population can

be divided into discrete racial groups is a product of a specific series of events:

colonialism, slavery, and the rise of science. Because Europeans wished to

take land from indigenous peoples in the Americas and to extract labor from

Africans, they developed ideologies ofinferiority as justification.

Alongside this large-scale theft of land and exploitation of labor, science began to emerge as a field of study concerned largely with the classification of

all objects and species into specific groups. Scientists rushed to develop taxon·

omies offlora and fauna, including classifications of humans. Europeans who

proposed these classifications put their own group at the top of the hierarchy.

This subjective (and overt) bias of Europeans continued with the develop·

ment of anthropometric and other measurement techniques in the nineteenth

century. European scientists measured human skulls, brains, and many other

parts of the human body and arrived at the same conclusion: Europeans were

superior. This recounting of history offers a revealing look at not only the past

but also the present. We cannot simply look at the past and point fingers at

those "racists" of yesteryear. Instead, we should also be compelled to explore

the assumptions and ideologies that govern our behavior today.

CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING Key Terms social construction 6

race 6

racism 6

ethnicity 6

historical construction 7

colonialism 7

genocide 7

ideology 7

slave codes 19

Indian Removal Act ofl830 25

Trails of Tears 25

scientific racism 28

32 CHAPTER l The Origin of the Idea of Roce

1.1 What are race and ethnicity? What is racism? (pp. 6-7) • Race refers to a group of people who share physical and cultural traits as well as a

common ancestry. It is a social construction and has no biological basis.

• Ethnicity refers to a group identity based on notions of similar and shared history, culture, and kinship.

• Racism refers to the belief that some races are superior to others, as well as the practice of subordinating races believed to be inferior.

Review Critical Thinking ,, Why do sociologists argue that race is a social » Why is it important to understand that the idea

and historical construction? of race is a modern invention?

1.2 How old is racism? How is race distinct from previous ways of thinking about human difference? (pp. 7-23)

• There are historical precedents to the idea of race, including the Spanish Inquisi·

tion and the subjugation of the Irish by the English. • Slavery existed long before the invention of the idea of race.

• When the Spanish colonists arrived in the Americas, they displayed extreme

cruelty to the native people of the Americas.

• African slaves were brought to the Americas to meet labor needs.

• The idea of race emerged to justify slavery and colonization.

Review » When was the idea of race invented?

Critical Thinking ,, Can you imagine a world in which racial classifi-

cations had no importance? Why or why not?

1.3 How did the writers of the U.S. Constitution think of slavery? (pp. 23-25) • Although the Declaration oflndependence states that wall men are created equal,"

nearly half of the authors were slaveowners. • Slavery was not abolished in the United States until 1865.

Review ., Why were slavery and freedom in tension

during the writing of the Declaration of

Independence?

Critical Thinking » What are today's prevailing racial ideologies in

the United States?

» In what ways do those ideologies work to justify

the current racial hierarchy?

Check Your Understanding 33

1.4 How did the Indian Removal Act affect Native Americans? (pp. 25-27) • The Indian Removal Act of 1830 resulted in the death of tens of thousands of

Native Americans due to forced displacements.

Review Critical Thinking " How were the justifications for Indian Removal

distinct from those used for slavery? " How and why do racial ideologies related to

Native Americans and African Americans differ?

1.5 What role did science play in the propagation of racism? (pp. 27-31) • From simple classification schemes to more complex endeavors, bias has affected

scientific attempts to explain differences among racial groups.

Review Critical Thinking » How did the unconscious bias of nineteenth-

century scientists influence their measurements

of various racial groups?

» What biases toward race might be present in

today's sciences and social sciences?

Talking about Race Imagine someone said to you that African Americans are naturally

gifted at basketball. How could you respond in a constructive way to

such a statement? The first step is to ask for further explanation. Listen

to any evidence provided to support the claim. You should be able to

draw from the knowledge you gained in this chapter to respond to the

contention that there are natural or genetic differences between racial

groups. Use your sociological imagination to encourage your conver-

sational partner to think of explanations other than genetics for racial

differences in basketball skills.