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You're right that slavery isn't inherently racist. > Western slavery required racism to justify... That's not really congruous with history. Firstly, America

You're right that slavery isn't inherently racist. > Western slavery required racism to justify... That's not really congruous with history. Firstly, American slavery took on a uniquely racial tone about 50 or so years into Anglo colonization. At the outset slaves were legally treated identically to indentured servitude; to gloss over some obviously tortured history: at some point though it became onerous to track ownership and simply more convenient to identify someone as a slave by the color of their skin. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Johnson_(colonist) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Johnson_(colonist)

mcguire 7y ago
Well, yes and no. "At the outset of [Black Africans in Renaissance Europe], Kate Lowe defines the editors’ key question: how were the main stereotypes concerning black people established in this period? She provides several examples relating to the main set of prejudices: the African was generally identified as a naked person who would mutilate his/her face and body with scarification, piercings, and tattoos; he/she would be considered as carefree and characterized by immoderate laughter, unaware of his/her condition, lazy and sexually promiscuous, physically strong, a good musician or dancer. Lowe recognizes the existence of noble or ennobled black men in European courts, but she stresses the role of black people as a necessary counter-image in the construction of European whiteness and ‘civilization’ (a notion coined in the eighteenth century). This is a necessary starting point, although some of the chapters develop a more nuanced vision of race relations in this period." (https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/619 https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/619) It may not be possible to read too much into the legal change between temporary indenture and permanent slavery.

mcguire 7y ago

Well, yes and no. "At the outset of [Black Africans in Renaissance Europe], Kate Lowe defines the editors’ key question: how were the main stereotypes concerning black people established in this period? She provides several examples relating to the main set of prejudices: the African was generally identified as a naked person who would mutilate his/her face and body with scarification, piercings, and tattoos; he/she would be considered as carefree and characterized by immoderate laughter, unaware of his/her condition, lazy and sexually promiscuous, physically strong, a good musician or dancer. Lowe recognizes the existence of noble or ennobled black men in European courts, but she stresses the role of black people as a necessary counter-image in the construction of European whiteness and ‘civilization’ (a notion coined in the eighteenth century). This is a necessary starting point, although some of the chapters develop a more nuanced vision of race relations in this period." (https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/619 https://reviews.history.ac.uk/review/619) It may not be possible to read too much into the legal change between temporary indenture and permanent slavery.