social construction of race

the Eric Williams thesis

-1944 -slavery was not born of racism RATHER racism was a consequence of slavery -the construction of race can thus be understood as embedded in the construction of racism -race and racism are created in tandem as a "technology of social control"

problematic narrative of the 1619 project

-"In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country's original sin" -reduces many historical events and power struggles to a single event -this event did NOT play a major role in the construction of a lifetime slavery system or the concept of race as we know it -after 10 years there were still only 23 persons of African descent in the colony (as late as 1650 only 300 out of the 11,000 population were from Africa) -the colony did not have the legal architecture for slavery yet, it had to use the architecture of indentured servitude -example: Mary Johnson was one African woman who arrived on the ship. She is one of many who married free people and gave birth to children who lived free lives.

An Act Concerning Servants and Slaves

-1705 -this act made it so "slavery was well on its way to completely replacing indentured servitude as the primary source of bound labor" -"all servants imported an brought into the country... who were not Christians in their native country.. shall be counted as slaved"

Medievalism vs nuanced history of "African" and "European" relations

-Medievalism is a system of beleif and practice inspired by the Middle Ages of Europe which are expressed in architechture, literature, music, art, philosophy, and various vehicles of popular culture -this conceptualization of Medieval Europe most often clings to an image of medieval Europe as : 1. Wholly and completely "white" (a "pure white utopia") 2. a social formation wherein people of African ancestry were either absent or of marginal importance -in REALITY: people from "African" kingdoms travelled to Europe many times, learned european languages, were educated, and converted to christianity -inequality existed, but kings saw kings as equal -for example, the Portuguese were completely dependent on imports of wheat and sought trading contracts with an African empire (good relations between the local rulers was necessary for this)

indentured servitude

-a form of labor where the person is contracted to work without wage/salary for a specific number of years -when the indenture ends, the servants receive a set of supplies and a sum of money deemed adequate to starting a new life -the indenture can be extended for breaking rules

Elizabeth Key

-an indentured servant who's mother was African and father was English born -in 1656 she petitioned the courts for her freedom when her master tried to extend her sentence again -her arguement was that she had served two very long terms and 1. she was christian 2. she was the daughter of a free English man -Key won her case (won her freedom) -major significance: the idea of "race" as we understand it today still did not exist in 1656 -stories like Key's would only become less and less common as the idea of race developed and continues to morph and change

labor in the american colonies

-early colonists grew tabacco for European markets -they needed a large labor force -Colonists first tried to get this labor from Indigenous Americans, however, enslaving this group was very difficult -they instead sold Indigenous people to other countries to separate them from their land and support system -then, the early colonists turned to England to send labor

ethnicity

-groupings based on shared culture -the practices, norms, values, and beliefs of a group that might include shared language, religion, and traditions

indentured servitude in america

-in 1607: Jamestown Settlement is established in Virginia colony -in 1615: King James and his Privy Council decide that convicts can be sent out of England, but the Magna Carta (1215) protected certain individual rights of all Englishmen against the "arbitrary authority" of despotic rulers -the english legal authorities "offered transportation" to the colonies as an act of "royal mercy" -they presented it as if the convicted could "choose" to escape transportation to the colonies

Tudor England

-in the book The Black Tudors the author discusses Africans who lived free in Tudor as musicians at court

early bound labor

-many cultures in history enslaved people, usually as prisoners of war -most people in Tudor England, Spain, and Portugal, and some on the African contient, had some kind of servile status

the atlantic slave trade

-spanned from late 1400s to late 1800s -the most destructive time was 1700 to early 1800s where 2/3 of the total enslaved people were trafficked out of Africa to the Americas -Over 12 million people were trafficked through the middle passage (5% brought to US, 41% to Brazil, and 48% to the carribean/west indies islands and northern south america)

technology of social control

-the concept that because race is socially constructed, its definition can be manipulated to produce certain outcomes -example: the Voting Right Acts of 1965 outlawed discriminatory voting practices, but gerrymandering exists today as a method to take away power from Black voters

declaration of independence and the construction of blackness

-the declaration of independence published that "All men are created equal" while black individuals were currently enslaved -thus, the logic had to go, that Black men were not created equal because they were not really men -german scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach first categorized people based on 5 major "races" in 1776

national origin

-the geographic and political associations with a person's birthplace or residence -ethnicity does NOT equal national origin -people from one nation can be of a wide range of ethnicities -example: Vietnam is home to 54 formally recognized ethnic groups

race

-the grouping of humankind based on shared physical or social qualities that can vary from one society to another -if certain qualities are considered as denoting a certain race or not it is entirely socially determined, NOT based on biological DNA

steps in the development of generational slavery

1. Virginia legislators didn't want indentured women's labor interrupted by pregnancy 2. Took cues from English law to impose sanctions on servant women that prohibited marriage fornication and child bearing during service 3. When a servant became pregnant, they had extra years added to their service 4. The masters did not view this as sufficient compensation when the woman was already indentured for what would likely be the rest of their life 5. around 1650, landowners and tobacco investors began pressuring the courts to give the masters of servants (be it African or English women) who were serving long terms and became pregnant the right to automatically gain "ownership" of that child for a very long term 6. Masters realized legal precedent would make it difficult to assume ownership over a child of an English servant 7. The first to challenge the current legal norms were those with servants of whole or partial African ancestry because this seemed the easiest path towards their goals. they argues that the servants were "not English" and thus the English laws did not apply to them 8. Over time, indentured servants born into servitude became largely composed of black individuals. the process of making "race" as a technology of social control was thus "gendered" meaning it was rooted in the control of women's bodies as reproducers