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The US as a Racial State

Basic definitions, beginnings

Pamela OliverSociology 220 General Theoretical Orientation

• Groups are in conflict, one group wants what belongs to another.– European colonial expansion, in our story

• Resources and capacities are crucial– Inequalities in military, economic resources lead to

political inequalities– Weaker groups can resist domination and still lose

• Legacies of history– Past struggles create today’s structures– Today’s conflicts are defined & constrained by the

past

About “Americanism” and “Anti-Americanism”

• All large countries have invasion, conquest of minorities and horror in their history

• There are class, race, ethnic, religious, linguistic conflicts and inequalities in most countries

• To talk honestly about the unpleasant aspects of our history is not to imply that the US is worse than other countries and certainly not to imply that only the US has problems

• This course is about OUR history, about the U.S.

• This is not about “good” and “bad” people, it is about what happened

USA as a Racial State

Early formation of US was a government of, for, and by White people (people from Europe)

• American Indians were “foreign nations” to be fought, negotiated with. Not citizens of US.

• African slaves explicitly excluded from citizenship in Constitution of 1789; citizenship rights of free Africans attacked after 1790s

• 1790 Immigration and Naturalization Act. Migrants from Europe can become citizens in relatively easy process of "naturalization." Only "Whites" can be naturalized. (Restrictions not removed until 1940s)

Act of March 26, 1790 (1 Stat 103-104) (Excerpts)Act of March 26, 1790 (1 Stat 103-104) (Excerpts)That any alien, being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof, on application to any common law court of record, in any one of the States wherein he shall have resided for the term of one year at least, and making proof to the satisfaction of such court, that he is a person of good character, and taking the oath or affirmation prescribed by law, to support the Constitution of the United States, which oath or affirmation such court shall administer; and the clerk of such court shall record such application, and the proceedings thereon; and thereupon such person shall be considered as a citizen of the United States. And the children of such persons so naturalized, dwelling within the United States, being under the age of twenty-one years at the time of such naturalization, shall also be considered as citizens of the United States. And the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens: Provided, that the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States: . . .

Why?

• Why was the US created legally as a racial state?

• Why wasn’t it created as a multi-racial government for all the people in a geographic area?

• What do you think?

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Why a White racial state? (short answer)

• Conquest: The land belonged to Native Americans. Europeans created “their” state in opposition to the indigenous American nations. “Race” was the boundary between the White “Us” and the Indian “Them”

• Slavery: provided needed labor for European property owners; slavery was racialized, so Whites were free citizens white Blacks were slaves & not citizens even if not slave

Short history overview• ~ 20,000 BCE – 1491 American history largely

uninfluenced by people from AfroEurAsia• 1491 – 1789 European invasion & African

forced migration• 1789 – 1945 USA as racial state

– Continued invasion & domination by Europeans– Genocide of indigenous Americans– Slavery & legal subordination for Africans– General exclusion of Asians (and subordination of

the few who immigrated)– Imperial expansion: annexation of Northern Mexico;

colonization of Puerto Rico, Cuba, Virgin Islands, Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, Philippines

Before 1492

Human migration

Source: www.pbs.org “Race the Power of an Illusion”

C15,000-30,000BCE

C30,000BCE

Human migration (re-pictured)

Agriculture invented ~ 8000-10,000 BCE

Indigenous Americans Before 1492 (1)

• Arrived 12,000 – 30,000 years ago (before agricultural settlements in Europe)

• Some hunter/gatherers, some settled agriculture, some cities, some empires

• Long history of civilizations rising & falling, wars etc. before Europeans. Thousands of years!

• Archeological evidence of groups of traders & immigrants from Africa, Europe, Asia. Either blended in or disappeared. America remained in control of the Americans.

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Indigenous North Americans before 1492 (2)

• Estimates 2-10 million in what is now US• Relatively low population density, relatively

abundant resources for the population• Some agricultural communities, some

nomadic• No horses [horses introduced by the Spanish]• Good book summarizing recent research

America before Europeans: 1491 by Charles C. Mann

Indigenous North Americans before 1492 (3)

• 300+ languages/dialects spoken (grouped into larger language groups)

• Self-governing nations with governments, some were formal democracies, others monarchies or theocracies – Influence of indigenous American democratic

forms on European American ideas• Inter-cultural contact

– Significant trade and “trade languages” – Wars, raids, kidnapping

• Not paradise: real people living real lives, doing both good and bad things

Specific indigenous American groups in eastern part of what became the US (lines divide political units; colors mark linguistic groups)

European Political boundaries in 1400 (for comparison)

1492 – 1789 The Europeans and Africans Come Together

The Europeans & Africans Come

• Columbus 1492. Spanish & Portuguese in Latin America & Caribbean – Columbus & slaves– Conquistadores of African descent (Moors)

• French and British trade in North America

• British the major slave traders• European settlers & their slaves in North

America in 1600s. Importation of slaves 1607-1808.

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1500-1776 Colonial Era

• European incursions• European governments "claim" America and

divide it among themselves.• 1600s early colonies in North America were

tiny weak toe-holds on the continent; stronger by 1700s

• Disease and internal conflict among indigenous Americans permitted the European settlements to survive in 1600s

• Early contacts were relatively equal, sometimes hostile, sometimes friendly (trade, coexistence)

European Claims 1750

Slavery

World slave trade

Africans and Europeans

• ~ 90% of the people who crossed the Atlantic to North & South America between 1500 and 1800 were African, NOT European

• ~ 75% of migrants to North America before 1800 were African, NOT European

• So why is this country predominantly White?

Africans and Europeans

• Europeans and Africans arrived together• ~ 90% of the people who crossed the

Atlantic to America between 1500 and 1800 were African, NOT European

• ~ 75% of migrants to North America before 1800 were African, NOT European

• So why is this country predominantly White?

• Death rates, rates of natural increase

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Atlantic Basin 1500-1800

• Unsettled, varied, multi-racial, multi-cultural

• People from many European nations migrating. More German and Scots than English after 1700.

• Africans in many roles: sailors, traders, bondsmen. Most slaves, but some free.

The Africans in North America

• 1607 - 1776. 175 years of slavery in colonial period.

• Some Africans, like Europeans, 17 year indentures, but racial differences rapidly emerge

• Always ~10% “free Blacks.” – A few even own slaves themselves– Free Blacks support the American revolution.

Crispus Attucks.• Whites argue about whether “equality” should

include Blacks.

Regional patterns for Africans 1500-1800• Northern

– Often 1 slave per household, isolated; Adopted European culture & language; declined in #s

• Chesapeake (Virginia/Maryland)– Larger groups, families; grew from natural increase;

Cultural mixing with Europeans: adopt English with African grammar

• Carolina & Georgia– Plantations, extremely high death rates; no natural

increase, continued importation of slaves; African communities on large plantations; created Gullah language, own customs

Whites, Blacks, and the Racial State

• Slavery enshrined in the Constitution of 1789.• Invention of cotton gin gives new profitability

to slave plantations• 1808 importation of slaves ends after a huge

wave of importation in the last decade. Henceforth, slaves are all native born.

• European Americans mobilize to strip free Africans of their citizenship rights, ban them from communities, kick them out of formerly integrated churches.

• The African-American movement begins as a defense against European-American actions.

What happened to the Native Americans?

• Where are the Americans, the indigenous Americans?

• Why is this country predominantly White? What happened?

• How long did it take?

Genocide

Americans: From 2-10 million before 1500 to 500,000 in 1800 (down to 200,000 in 1900)

• Military battles, especially Spanish (less so English, French early on)

• Disease: killed 90%+ of many American populations, weakened others, made European settlements possible

• Economic disruption: Fur trade, Horses, plains culture

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Indigenous American responses varied

• Early contacts ambiguous: coexistence & conflict; intermarriage, contact between cultures.

• Some places a multicultural vision: different ethnicities in separate villages but with positive relations between them

• Some American groups adopt European ways, even own slaves.

• Some try to fight the invaders, resist encroachment, try to drive them out

• Others retreat west, regroup in the face of disruption

European ideologies of justification

• Tiny proportion of colonists were Pilgrims & Puritans arriving 1620s, but they became icons of the national myth. Most Europeans arrived after 1800. Most colonists immigrated for economic advancement

• Religious self-views. The Promised Land. The New Canaan, New Israel. enter Canaan & kill all the inhabitants. Saw disease and deaths of natives as a sign from God. Hostile reactions from natives increased European hostility to the locals.

• Some thought they should live peacefully with native Americans and share the land. Some did.

• Development of ideas of biological/cultural superiority: fed into Darwin

Wars

• The European conquest of America was violent and costly

• It took 300 years• It was not easy• There was substantial indigenous

American resistance to the conquest

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War of 1812: British-Indian War

• Started 1810-11: War between Euro-American USA and Native People.

• Delaware, Miami, Sauk, Mesquakie, Potawatmi, and Kickapoo join the Shawnee warrior Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa (the Prophet) to forge a pan-Indian movement and drive white Americans off their lands. But many tribes divide or refuse to join them.

• October 1811, the alliance is attacked and defeated in the Battle of Tippecanoe.

• British side with Tecumseh in an effort to contain the independent Euro-American USA.

• Tecumseh is later killed during the War of 1812. This is the decisive battle of the war.

1810: Early Pan-Indian Racial Identity

• "Where today are the Pequot, Narraganset, Mohican, Pokanet and many other such powerful tribes? They have vanished before the avarice and oppression of the white man....The only way to stop this evil is for all the red men to unite and claim an equal and common right to the land." -Tecumseh

1815-1860 The White State Expands

• European immigrants create population pressures, westward expansion. Accelerated displacement, “cleansing” of indigenous Americans.

• Louisiana purchase: 1803. Buy from the French land that is inhabited by Americans.

• 1824 BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) created under the War Dept.

Ethnic Cleansing

• 1830 Indian Removal Act. Indians forcibly relocated from eastern states to west of Mississippi

• Trail of Tears. Forced relocation of "five civilized tribes" from Georgia to what is now Oklahoma. Thousands die in a thousand mile march.

• Area west of the Mississippi (originally Oklahoma, Kansas) is "Indian territory" to be governed by "Indians" [Americans] “in perpetuity.”

• Plains and Southwest Americans become increasingly hostile to the invaders.

Indian Nations, SE 1820

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Trail of Tears

Cherokee

Creek

Seminole

Chickasaw

ChoctawChief Black Hawk

http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/blackhawk/

Plaque outside Sewell Social Science Building Chief Black Hawk Three Views

The “Black Hawk War”: Sauk [Sac] and Fox• Background in wars and treaties over land in Illinois• Previously displaced from Illinois by unfair treaty of

1804• 1832 a band of ~ 1000 left Iowa to return to ancestral

ground in northern Illinois• US army chased them through Wisconsin, eventually

attacking and killing most of them (including women & children) on the banks of the Mississippi at Bad Axe

• Black Hawk was trying to surrender: language difficulties + army hostility prevented this

Map of Black Hawk “war” & massacre 1832

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Massacre at Bad Axe (H. Lewis ~1846)

Chief Black Hawk

http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/blackhawk/

Expansion and Displacement

• Repeatedly, European settlers move onto land specifically reserved for "Indians," battles ensue, US troops enter the battle, take land from Indians previously reserved to them.

• US government seeking to obtain land peacefully by treaty from as many groups as possible. Groups pacified are dumped into "Indian territory," where the groups there make room for newcomers.

• 1837, 1842 Chippewa treaties cede what is now northern Wisconsin, Michigan & Minnesota to the US; treaties specifically reserve the right to hunt, fish, and gather on the ceded territory.

Chippewa Cession

Alaska

Settled 12,000-30,000 years ago by people who crossed the Bering Strait (still close cultural ties across the strait for some groups today)

Native People

• Several different cultural-linguistic groups

• Relatively inhospitable climate not attractive to Europeans

• Natives still more than 50% of population in 1930Inuit woman c. 1907

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Alaska history (quick sketch)

• Native people: thousands of years• Some genealogically related to people who

moved farther south (“Native Americans”)• Others are distinct groups, especially the

Inuit (aka Eskimos) & the Aleutians• 1725-1865 Russia explores, “claims” Alaska,

establishes a few settlements• 1867 the US buys Alaska from Russia• 1870s-1940s Gold, fisheries etc. draw more

European-Americans• Territorial organization 1912• 1959 Statehood

The Annexation of Northern Mexico

Map: Annexation of Northern Mexico

New Spain

• Spanish colony 1521-1821 (300 years).• Creation of “Mexicans”: mixed indigenous &

Spanish ancestry, Spanish culture.• “Indios” resist, remain separate in some

areas.• Most of northern New Spain never heavily

settled by Spanish, strong resistance from indigenous Americans.

• Mexican independence 1821, Mexican Republic 1824. Political turmoil.

Texas

• 30,000 Anglo-Americans had moved into Texas, greatly outnumbering the Spanish-Mexicans; generally slaveholders

• 1824 Mexican republic abolishes slavery• 1830 Mexico attempts to stop Anglo immigration,

enforce laws against slavery• 1836 new Mexican constitution restricts “states

rights” (over slavery, among others); Anglo-Texans backed by some Tejanos (Spanish-Texans) secede from Mexico and create Texas as an independent White state

• 1845 fearing Texas expansion west, the US annexes Texas as a slave state

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

• 1848 US provokes a war with Mexico, easily wins• Northern Mexico ceded to the US• Guarantees to Mexican citizens living in the area:

– US citizenship– Recognition of property titles from Spain/Mexico– Right to be Catholic– Right to speak Spanish

• About 7% of Mexican Americans today are direct descendants of those covered by the treaty

• Mixed experiences: some retain land & status, others lose land, forced out by Anglo mobs. No consistent protection of citizenship, language, property rights

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California Gold Rush 1848

• First entry of significant numbers of Chinese – initially into gold fields, then as laborers to support growing western economy [more later]

• Anglo-American immigrants rapidly overwhelm Mexicans in northern California, drive them out

• Fewer Anglos in desert southern California, Mexican landowners retain much of their land in large rancheros

Black and White 1816-1860

• Blacks 20% of the population• Slavery in the US as a extreme institution• Growing international opposition to slavery• Abolition movement in US grows• Idea of race as biological developed to defend

enslavement of Africans• Restrictions on free Africans in both north and

south• The 10% free Africans mobilize against these

restrictions & against slavery• Slavery divides the nation

Slavery

• There had been slavery for thousands of years, but US slavery was a peculiarly capitalist and particularly inhumane institution: people as property, no rights as human beings

• Physical geography, social organization made slave rebellions & escape more difficult than in other locales

• Slave labor was a fundamental element of 18th and 19th century economy: Black slaves built much of the economic power of the nation

• US Black/White racial definitions a product of slavery: child of a slave mother was a slave; “one drop rule”

• Idea of race as the basis for slavery was generated to defend it

Abolitionism: Movement to Abolish Slavery• Militant movement rooted principally in

the northeast, but gained adherents. – Violent battles between pro- and anti-

slavery forces– Black participants & leaders; also racial

tensions within movement• 20th century tendency to ignore the

history of White abolitionists

John Brown

John Brown: militant radical abolitionist fought a guerilla war against slavery.

• 1859 Harper’s Ferry raid, his capture, trial and execution

• Bells tolled throughout the North for him• song: John Brown’s body (sung to an

old camp meeting him)• tune used for Battle Hymn of the

Republic, poem by Julia Ward Howe)

John Brown’s Body

John Brown's body lies a-mold'ring in the grave (3x) His soul goes marching on Glory, Glory! Hallelujah! (3x)His soul is marching on He captured Harper's Ferry with his nineteen men so true He frightened old Virginia till she trembled through and throughThey hung him for a traitor, themselves the traitor crew His soul is marching on John Brown died that the slave might be free, (3x) But his soul is marching on!The stars above in Heaven are looking kindly down (3x)On the grave of old John Brown

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Civil War 1860-1865

• North vs. South, slave vs. free• Bloody war, occupies White military forces• Black soldiers, slaves gradually being

liberated; 10%+ of Union army by 1865• American Indians choose sides or try to avoid

the war, diversion from “Indian wars” in the west

• Ends with the victory of the North, abolition of slavery

• South occupied by northern army, White southerners disenfranchised

US History Overview 1860-1820

• 1860-1865. US civil war (war between the states)

• 1865 – 1920. Consolidation of the racial state.– Even more European immigration – Jim Crow segregation worsens conditions for

Blacks – Final conquest of the indigenous Americans – Imperialism & colonialism. – Asian immigration & racist anti-Asian movements &

laws lead to bans on Asian immigration• 1920 Massive immigration ends for 50 years

Overview 1865-1920• Europeans: South devastated, US consolidates

military control of the continent; massive migration from Europe

• Africans: Freed slaves start to make some advances, White state reconsolidates around segregation & White dominance

• Americans: US military forces conquer the remaining free Americans, drive population down to 200,000

• Asians: Significant immigration, explicit racist attacks, segregation, passage of restrictions against immigration; colonialism (Philippines, Hawaii)

• “Latinos”: colonialism (Puerto Rico), displacement (Mexicans), coexistence