How The U.S. Created Race & Racism to Divide the Working Class
“Fork by fork, step by step, option by option, America or, to be more precise, the men who spoke in the name of America decided that it was going to be a white place defined negatively by the bodies and the blood of the reds and the blacks. And that decision, which was made in the 1660s and elaborated over a two-hundred-year period, foreclosed certain possibilities in America—perhaps forever—and set off depth charges that are still echoing and re-echoing in the commonwealth. What makes this all the more mournful is that it didn’t have to happen that way. There was another road -- but that road wasn’t taken. In the beginning, as we have seen, there was no race problem in America. The race problem in America was a deliberate invention of men who systematically separated blacks and whites in order to make money.”
—”The Road Not Taken,” Lerone Bennett (1970)
The Body of Liberties, 1641: Massachusetts becomes the first colony to legalize slavery. This is done through the passage of the Body of Liberties. Under section 91 the article clearly sanctioned slavery - and creates three categories of workers: Native Americans (Reds), white people under the system of indenture, and Blacks.
Salem Massachusetts, 1645: Emanuel Downing writes to his brother-in-law about a scheme to trade captured Native Americans for Africans, claiming that the Puritans can maintain “20 Moors cheaper than one English servant.”
The Body of Liberties, 1662: The Bodies of Liberties was amended to include the enslavement of a slave woman’s offspring to be a legal slave. This guaranteed that offspring of all slaves were considered as the same legal status as their mother, a slave.
The Royal African Company, 1672: The British Parliament charted the Royal African Company (RAC). This company would have a monopoly on the slave trade between Africa and America. All slaves were to be brought to America only through this company.
Bacon’s Rebellion, 1676: Stricter slave codes emerged in Virginia after Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676, when wealthy planters decided to abolish indentured servitude and establish permanent slavery for Africans, fearing that class conflict would undermine their tobacco plantation holdings. Also in 1676, a law was enacted that prohibited free blacks from having white servants.
Virginia General Assembly, 1691: Any white person married to a “black or mulatto” was banished and a systematic plan was established to capture “outlying slaves.”
The Negro Act, 1740: The comprehensive Negro Act of 1740 passed in South Carolina made it illegal for slaves to move abroad, assemble in groups, raise food, earn money, and learn to write English. Additionally, owners were permitted to kill rebellious slaves if necessary.
The Naturalization Act of 1790: Alternately known as the Nationality Act, this act restricted citizenship to “any alien, being a free white person” who had been in the U.S. for two years. In effect, it left out indentured servants, slaves, and most women.
The Indian Removal Act, 1830: Signed into law by Andrew Jackson, The Removal Act paved the way for the forced expulsion of tens of thousands of American Indians from their traditional homelands to the West, an event widely known as the “Trail of Tears,” a forced resettlement of the native population.
The Foreign Miners Tax, 1850: The California legislature passes the Foreign Miners Tax, which requires Chinese and Latin American gold miners to pay a special tax on their holdings, a tax not required of European American miners.
The Fugitive Slave Act, 1850: Passed by Congress in 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act required that all escaped slaves were, upon capture, to be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate in this law enlisting the assistance of other whites. The act also made it possible for a black person to be captured as a slave solely on the sworn statement of a white person with no right to challenge the claim in court.
