Introduction
Race has become a key factor in people’s lives and is at the heart of official change and social science. The human race can be divided into subgroups based on inherited differences in physical and behavioral characteristics, known as racial discrimination. No evidence of racial biogenetic differentiation has been found throughout the twentieth century’s research. On the other hand, several historians contend that races are cultural interventions demonstrating attitudes and beliefs imposed on distinct populations throughout the 15th-century European conquests. As a result, many academics consider race a fixed and solid class that cannot be tampered with. Many unsubstantiated claims are made about unchallengeable qualities such as race, and it is essential to remember that the evidence for these claims is weak. Racial beliefs are just as important today as they were hundreds of years ago in creating racial divisions and prejudice. This paper examines the concept of race and how previous racial ideologies contributed to the expansion of racial slavery in the United States.
Racial Slavery in the United States
Race and racial ideology are excellent tools for those in positions of authority. About human beings, the term “race” originally appeared in the 17th century, and numerous scholars have since tried to define it. In most situations, academics define “race” by dividing people into groups based on physical characteristics (Kukla & Jon, 1985). Some examples include persons with similar hair textures, facial features, or skin color, all considered races. For example, the European race, African race, and Asian race are examples of groups with distinct characteristics found in a vast population. The Arab race or the Latin race, for example, can be classified as a race using the term race. That is not all; race can also classify individuals based on their national or ethnic characteristics, such as the French race, the American Race, and the Irish Race, etc. (Locke et at., 2019). Most researchers agree that “race” defines people into groups based on their unique characteristics, such as their physical appearance, language, geographic region, and religious views.
The term “race” was first used in the English language to refer to the classification of human beings in the late sixth century. Before the eighteenth century, the term was simply a classification term used to describe a specific type, kind, or form of thing. Poets and writers such as Shakespeare used the word to define groups of people from time to time, such as the race of bishops or the race of saints, among others Kukla & Jon, 1985). However, the phrase began to be used in the eighteenth century to start ordering and attacking the social statuses of individuals in the English provinces when the name was first introduced.
Racial ideology was constructed to build a system and culture of power that benefited those in power. It was necessary to put policies, procedures, decision-making authority, and practices that favored those groups considered superior to the inferior. To provide one example, Europeans used their belief in their superiority as a race to invade new lands, establish their authority, and amass vast wealth by enforcing their will on the subjugated peoples they conquered. Furthermore, racial structuring ensured that those in power could take advantage of people like African slaves to get cheap or even free labor (Kukla & Jon, 1985). All of this was justified based on perceived disparities among people, according to which the other group was inferior to all other groups. Racial construction allows some racial groups to exploit and control other groups, particularly those in power.
Considerations about slavery’s economic impact largely shaped race ideology. Race was a management strategy intended to divide and control the working class from a financial standpoint. The most significant issue the settlers encountered throughout the industrialization era was a lack of workforce. They used indentured slavery to get free labor since the concept of separation based on distinctions in human nature had already been put into practice by the Jamestown planters. Individuals are forced to work for free for some time under this system. People with large estates in the mid-17th century needed servants to tend to their properties. Capitalism in the United States relied heavily on slavery, which made the creation and maintenance of racial identity necessary (Locke et at., 2019). Forced labor, mainly enslaved Africans, was essential to capitalism’s new economic model.
Slavery in the United States began in the early 1600s when the first African slaves were transported to the American colonies as laborers. The English Settlers also utilized European indentured servants and indigenous enslaved people to compel them into labor. In the past, these groups of workers were grouped into comparable social classes and worked together (Locke et at., 2019). Demand for land and labor rose due to a growing desire for financial security. As time went on, indentured service became less effective and no longer financially viable. To make slavery a criminal offense, the concept of slavery had to be refined, and stringent distinctions had to be formed. Servants of European descent
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Americans depended on African work because of their ability to produce tools, clothing, and utensils that they could sell and use to supplement their wages and improve their living conditions. Furthermore, free labor supports the enhancement of manufacturing, the construction of improved transportation infrastructure, and the overall expansion of the economy (Locke et at., 2019). As a result, when enslaved Africans rose and began to protest the slavery system, most masters were reluctant to abandon their positions because it would harm their economic advancement and level of revenue.
People disagree on whether an already-existing racist ideology caused the emergence of racial slavery or whether an African slave trade caused it. Before slavery, the English tended to separate themselves from other groups they thought were distinct and foreign. People in Ireland were treated as savages by English policymakers and practices in the 17th century because English individuals accepted that the Irish were unequipped for human advancement (Locke et at., 2019). Thus, the English attempted to conquer and compel these people to work, but their attempts were a resounding failure. As a result, they set out to colonize other parts of the world, assuming that different cultures were somehow inferior to the English. England’s separation rules and attitudes spread to their colonies and the United States. According to the speech by George Mason (Tarter & Brent, 1991), the importation of slaves began after colonization, “The first clause allows the importation of slaves for twenty.”
Racism was not a direct factor in developing the present order of the progressive system at the outset. The vast majority separate themselves from others by their way of life, convictions, and social rank. Having money and a high social position did not make one group of individuals more valuable than another; only the people believed that they were. Even under slavery, it was not about the color of a person’s skin but its advantages to the oppressors’ employers. When slavery was legalized, the problem of racial slavery did not improve; instead, it took a different turn (Kukla & Jon, 1985). Those who were enslaved, how they were treated, and the benefits that enslaved people were entitled to be laid down in the laws, regulations, and practices that were in place. It was not until the legalization of slavery that slavery became a permanent legal position.
As a result of inherited status regulations, slavery was attached to an individual’s life and could not be removed. The law ensured that generations of Africans would be enslaved because most enslaved people were of African descent, “WHEREAS some doubts have arisen whether children got by any Englishman upon a negro woman should be slave or free (Kukla & Jon, 1985).” Slavery in the United States grew due to these practices and regulations, and enslaved people were constantly exploited by their masters. As a result, racial slavery was spawned by prevailing ideologies about race.
Conclusion
To conclude, by 1763, Americans had never been more united than they were at that time. They worked together, and then they celebrated together as a group. However, they were also aware that they were not regarded as complete British citizens and were instead classified as something else. Americans throughout the colonies perceived imperial reforms as a danger to the British liberties they believed they were entitled to due to their birth. During the 17th century, the authorities drew colonial leaders together in an extraordinary show of collaboration against taxes levied by Parliament. For instance, according to Locke et al., the Parliament had enforced taxes on trade, “To ensure that profits ended up in Britain, Parliament issued taxes on trade under the Navigation Acts (Locke et at., 2019)” Public boycotts of British products helped to forge a single narrative of suffering, opposition, and common political identity among the colonies.
Works Cited
Locke, Joseph L., and Ben Wright, eds. The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open US History Textbook, Vol. 1: To 1877. Stanford University Press, 2019, Web.
Tarter, Brent. “George Mason and the Conservation of Liberty.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 99.3: 279-304. 1991, Web.
V Kukla, Jon. “Some Acts Not in Hening’s” Statutes”: The Acts of Assembly, October 1660.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 83.1: 77-97.1975, Web.