The White Man’s Burden: Historical Origins of Racism in the United States is Winthrop D. Jordan’s condensed version of his previous work,White Over Black: American Attitudes Towards the Negro, 1550-1812. A distinguished professor of History, Jordan attempts to establish the origins of racism in the United States and explain why racial slavery predominated the eighteenth and most of the nineteenth century in the United States.
Winthrop begins his work, interestingly, by investigating English European’s initial contact with Africans. Although the English had references from antiquity of people with black skin, the sudden presence of many Africans was halting for the English. The English began looking for reasons to explain the Africans’ blackness. In point of fact, the English called Africans “black” suggesting the powerful impact the Negro’s complexion had on their perceptions (Jordan 1974, 5). The concept of “black” in England was loaded with intense meaning. For instance, black could mean soiled, dirty, foul, having dark or deadly purposes, sinister, atrocious and horrible, just to name a few Oxford English Dictionaryentries for the word black in the sixteenth century (Jordan 1974, 6). Calling Africans “black” gives insight into the already unmistakable distaste Englishmen had begun to display for black Africans. What, I wonder, was the Africans’ initial impression of the white Europeans? Africans would have at least been familiar with Albinism, but were they shocked at the white skin of whites?
Englishmen seemed to have been very preoccupied with explaining why Africans had black skin. Winthrop delves into these theories, including the sun scorching the Africans’ skin and the well-known curse of Ham. Regarding the scorching effect of the sun on the Africans’ skin, some English Europeans realized that removal of the African from the scorching African sun did not cause the Africans to “whiten up.” This theory was even more debunked when it was observed that African children born in England were still black. If the sun scorched theory had been true, Africans born in England should have not been black (Jordan 1974, 8). Of course, the longstanding justification for African slavery, the curse of Ham and his descendants, was explanation enough for some Europeans to explain the black color of African skin (Jordan 1974, 9). Regardless of the reason, Africans were set radically apart from Englishmen because of their skin color.
I would next like to address the theme of African relation to apes. In our modern world, it is really unbelievable to read instances where Africans would not only be compared to apes, or orang-outans, but actually thought to copulate with and prefer them over other human beings. Again Winthrop goes back to the initial introduction of African peoples with Englishmen. Around this same time, the Englishmen likewise became acquainted with apes on the West coast of Africa. Apes were connected with blackness. One plus one is two, so it was a logical conclusion to the English that Africans and apes were linked. Examples are even provided of similarities of Africans and apes on nose shape, skull shape, muscle mass, etc (Jordan 1974, 17). The English took this link to the sexual level as well. Africans were referred to as libidinous and lecherous, and associations were also made between the ape and his “venerous-ness.” White men repeatedly commented on African sexuality, especially their “large, virile members” (Jordan 1974, 16). These first impressions gathered about Africans at the onset of African discovery, exploration and exploitation, were carried into the New World and left to simmer. Because of the African’s so-called deficiencies and supposed similarities between apes, I think it was easy for white men to enslave the entire race. We do not see complete enslavement of any other race of people except Africans. Skin color had to be one of the primary reasons behind African enslavement.
As the settlement and expansion of the New World grew, so too did the need for labor. Winthrop first describes the three forms of slavery that emerged in the New World. Free wage labor was present from the beginning and temporary servitude coincided with settlement of the United States. Chattel slavery was the last to appear, but indeed the most brutal and lasting (Jordan 1974, 20). Winthrop explains the concept of chattel slavery, and to me it was very interesting. The slave’s loss of freedom was complete. His slavery meant deprivation of liberty. Chattel slaves would serve in perpetuity, and this perpetuity carried over into the next generations. Slaves were treated as and thought of as beasts. The Negro slave fit the mold for every qualification (Jordan 1974, 33). Again, when Negroes are thought of as and treated as beasts, the enslavement of them comes almost natural.
In addition, Winthrop suggests that slavery in the United States was learned from the Portuguese and Spaniards in the West Indies. In the Caribbean, by law Indians and Negroes had to serve for life. On the other hand, Englishmen did not have to serve for life (page 36). When slavery expanded in the United States, a racist base for slavery developed, for in New England, particularly, there was no economic reason for slavery. New Englanders had no staple crop to sustain that way of life. New Englanders treated Negroes differently from other English people and servants. Winthrop indicates this different treatment could not have alone been caused by slavery (Jordan 1974, 39). I wholeheartedly agree that even early English settlers to America were prejudiced against people with black skin.
Another point I would like to make concerns African and African-American intellectual capacity. People were adamant that Negroes were “ignorant, stupid, unteachable, barbarous, stubborn, and deficient in understanding” (Jordan 1974, 90). Winthrop cites founding father, Thomas Jefferson, as repeatedly writing that Negroes were deficient in feeling and understanding. It is amazing to me how this thought pattern extended throughout several generations, even to my own. I can remember watching a football game on television when I was very small. Warren Moon was the quarterback. For whatever reason, the question of why there were very few black quarterbacks in the NFL was brought up. My grandfather answered me, “There aren’t any black quarterbacks because they aren’t smart enough.” Reading The Whiteman’s Burdenand correlating my own minimal experience with regard to African-American intelligence really makes clear to me the depth of racism in our country.
Winthrop spends much time recounting Thomas Jefferson and his viewpoints on slavery. Brock Anderson mentioned that it is hard to say that Jefferson’s views on slavery extended to the entire populace of America, and I agree. While other people may have shared Jefferson’s opinions, certainly not all citizens could have agreed. The main point I would like to mention here, is the fact of Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemmings. For Winthrop to knowingly rely so heavily on Jefferson’s viewpoints as an example of conclusion in early America, despite the fact that while Jefferson was condemning slavery, he was carrying on a relationship with a slave whom he never manumitted, seems heavily biased to say the least. Notwithstanding, the intricacies of the relationship between Jefferson and Hemmings, and furthermore their relationship between master and slave is very fascinating to me.
In conclusion, I believe the initial English repulsion toward the skin color of Africans and the virtually simultaneous need for hard labor in the United States, both led to the development of racism.
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