Those were eloquent words penned by Thomas Jefferson, but we know he only meant them for some people. While he was composing the document in a rented room in Philadelphia. His slaves and indentured servants were in the midst of a years-long project of constructing Monticello, where during his lifetime he owned more than 600 slaves. You’ll note he had slaves AND indentured servants. When America was initially colonized, there were only indentured servants both Black and white, there was no distinction in law. Indentured servants typically served their employers for seven years and were freed.
The word “white” as it applied to a race of people didn’t occur in print until 1671. White and Black indentured servants often worked together, the white, rich landowners dependent upon them to perform labor and work their fields. That doesn’t mean these servants were all treated the same. In 1640, a slave named Emmanuel was caught attempting to escape along with six European indentured servants. As a penalty, the Europeans had their terms of servitude extended. Emmanuel’s term wasn’t extended, he was branded with an “R” for runaway, he was already considered a servant for life so no need to extend his service. Many Black indentured servants were illegally kept after their service should have expired. Many of them spoke little English and most were forbidden to read. Also in 1640, John Punch escaped along with two other servants. When captured, they were given an additional four years to serve their master, Punch was required to serve the rest of his natural life.
It was 1661 when Virginia first passed slavery laws, which is considered by some historians when slavery began in America although Massachusetts had passed similar laws as early as 1641. While white indentured servants still existed, all slaves were Black (though not all Black people were slaves). White masters were producing so many children via the rape of slave women, they had to change the law, not only condemning any children born to those women to a lifetime of slavery but also absolving white men of any responsibility for the children and any charges of rape.
1676 marked a dramatic change in indentured servitude. Virginia plantation owner Nathanial Bacon took matters into his own hands after his relative, Governor William Berkeley wasn’t moving fast enough to rid the area of Native Americans so Bacon could own even more property. Berkeley was concerned the tribes would join forces and be impossible to control. Bacon gathered up his white and Black indentured servants along with his Black slaves, forming a militia to fight the various tribes that had been raiding the farms (defending their land). For their support, he promised them their freedom. Thousands of Virginians and their indentured servants joined Bacon and ultimately burned down Jamestown, then the capital of Virginia.
The thought of white and Black servants and slaves joining forces scared the shit out of colonists. It marked the end of heavy reliance on indentured servitude in favor of chattel slaves. Term limits on indentured servants gave way to a lifetime of slavery, making up for any labor shortage from the loss of white servants. The elite powers that created a wedge between white and Black of similar low status. Even the poorest white person was placed above any Black person. By 1705, Virginia established its first slave codes, codifying white supremacy into law by doing the following:
- Established new property rights for slave owners
- Allowed for the legal, free trade of slaves with protections granted by the courts
- Established separate courts of trial
- Prohibited blacks, regardless of free status, from owning arms [weapons]
- Whites could not be employed by blacks
- Allowed for the apprehension of suspected runaways
The initial motive for pitting Black people against white was always economics. The threat of them working together against the elite was too great to allow them to merge. Whiteness was literally created to distinguish themselves from those they wished to control, and not all light-skinned people were initially allowed to be considered white. Among the people not originally considered white in America included; Germans, Greeks, white Hispanics, Spaniards, Jews, Slavs, Italians, Afghans, Iranians, and Irish. The Immigration Act of 1790 only offered naturalization to, “any alien, being a free white person.” In 1923, the Supreme Court ruled that people of Indian descent were not white and couldn’t become citizens.
“The average man knows perfectly well that there are unmistakable and profound differences” between Indians and white people.”
In 1925, an Armenian immigrant successfully argued his whiteness due to his family’s and country’s Christian traditions.” People of Jewish and Arab descent were generally considered white though many of them objected to the classification. The Census Bureau once proposed a new category to classify Middle Eastern and Northern African people in the 2020 Census but it was abandoned.
At one time, 18 US states had passed variations of the “one-drop rule” stating if you had any African ancestry whatsoever (except presumably Middle-Eastern or North African) you were considered Black. The reason the distinction was needed was that the Supreme Court affirmed segregation in Plessy v.Ferguson which legalized Jim Crow, segregated schools, separate bathrooms, and more. While other groups like the Irish and Italians were mostly accepted as white, that distinction was never given to black people, though several generations of mixing allowed a small percentage to pass for white. My grandfather had a single photo of his brother Paul, who we understood lived in Chicago passing for white. I never met Paul as the price he paid was giving up all contact with the family that would expose his Black
By the late 1600s, cities in the North began forming police forces. Prior to that, businesses had individually paid people to protect their property, especially from the various groups of immigrants who drank in taverns and not at home. They also had gangs and because they often started with nothing, some stole to survive. Business owners (generally rich white men) got together and hired forces to protect them collectively, it was more efficient and saved money. Ultimately, the Irish distinguished themselves as policemen, earning respectability and changing their non-white status along the way. Their path to whiteness lay in protecting white property and keeping the immigrants under control. Boston and then New York had the first police forces and many of Irish descent still play prominent roles in forces across the North.
The South already had effective police forces, they were called slave patrols. The first slave patrols were formed in South Carolina and spread throughout the thirteen colonies. Their primary mission was to maintain curfews, check travelers for passes (stop & frisk), break up large gatherings, and return any runaway slaves to their plantation. Slave patrols were ruthless and violent, issuing beatings and often summary justice; an execution without evidence or trial. The function was important enough that even rich people in some locales took their turn in slave patrols. Even after slavery ended in 1865, slave patrols still existed until they ultimately became the basis for police forces in the South.
Voting wasn’t an issue during slavery, then Black people got the right to vote soon after the Civil War. During Reconstruction, there began appearing black men elected to Congress and state legislatures throughout the South. Oscar Dunn became Lt. Governor of Louisiana, James Lynch became Secretary of State in Mississippi. This left a bad taste in the mouths of Southerners but Federal troops were still stationed there after the war. That ended with the Compromoisenofn 1877 when Republicans won the Presidency in the contested 1876 election, and Democrats got the removal of Federal troops. Democrats immediately implemented Jim Crow, literacy tests, and threatening, sometimes killing black people who attempted to vote.
Women didn’t have the wholesale right to vote until the 1920 Presidential election, fearing loss of control racists doubled down on preventing blacks from voting. The Klan, along with police and the other good citizens of the area, wiped out the Black population of Ocoee, FL after two Black men attempted to vote. By some counts, hundreds of the Black population were killed and the rest burned out. Ocoee didn’t have another Black resident for over 40 years. Voter suppression was rampant and often sanctioned by the government.
As time went by, the second and third generations of most immigrants became white. Only those distinguishable by color were not and were therefore discriminated against, often excluded from the unions that had formed in the North and restricted as to where they could live, dine, and go to school. Non-whites included Native Americans, those of Indian descent, Asians, some of Spanish heritage, and of course, Black people. Coming from most parts of Europe was now the standard. English speaking Germans and Slavs had now become white. Ironically, during World War II which featured over 900,000 African-Americans serving in the slowly integrating US armed forces. Germany dropped propaganda leaflets asking Black soldiers why they served a country why they had so few rights, offering them real freedom if they changed sides.
The history of the US Census shows America’s focus on race. In 1790, the available categories were:
Free white males al least 16 years of age, including heads of families
Free white males under 16
Free white females, including heads of families
All other free persons
Slaves
By 1830, a question was added, “The number of White persons who were foreigners not naturalized.” The 1850 Census included a column for color including “B” for Black and “M” for Mulatto. By 1890 one could write in, Mulatto, Quadroon, Octaroon, Chinese, Japanese, or Indian. The year 1930 saw those from Mexico listed as a race without regard for color, that classification never happened again. !950’s Census removed color as a classification but by 1960 it was back. In the year 2000, the Census described white people as follows:
A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as “White” or report entries such as Irish, German, English, Scandinavian, Scottish, Near Easterners, Iranian, Lebanese, or Polish.
We’ve arrived in 2020 and surprisingly little has changed in matters of color and race. Police forces still execute summary justice with relatively little opposition. An occasional scapegoat is thrown under the bus but real change is still only hoped for. They protect the property of the rich and target the immigrants, poor, and people of color. The Supreme Court has gutted the capacity to enforce voting rights and made corporations people in the eyes of the law, allowed unlimited anonymous gifts to elected officials they want in power.
The Supreme Court has a pattern of protecting the rich and the white. They have weakened every Civil and Voting Rights bill that ever passed the Congress, always restoring the status quo. As we speak, Dreamers are in limbo, possibly facing exportation. Birthright citizenship is being questioned. In 2010, Sen. Lindsey Graham proposed a change in the 14th Amendment and Sen. Mitch McConnell agreed there should be Senate hearings. President Trump said in 2019:
“We’re looking at that very seriously. Birthright citizenship, where you have a baby on our land — you walk over the border, have a baby, congratulations, the baby’s now a U.S. citizen. We’re looking at it very, very seriously …It’s, frankly, ridiculous.”
The Census Bureau projects America will no longer be a white majority country within the next 30 years. 46% of white people fear America’s future once that happens according to a Pew Research Study. White power will not gracefully cede power and all of its institutions; the Courts that Mitch McConnell is working so hard to pack, the Congress, the banks, the corporations, and the current President are all playing their role in protecting whiteness. This President has done more to visibly promote the welfare of only one segment of the population than any President since Andrew Johnson. He defends white supremacists, placed white nationalists in key positions in the White House, placing one of those (Stephen Miller) in charge of his immigration policy. Even now, as outside agitators are stoking violence in the streets of American cities, Trump is telling Americans who not to blame, supported by his lackey of an Attorney General.
“Don’t let them blame anyone else!”
America can do better. It’s hopeful to see that millions of Americans of all colors have taken to the streets in protest of racism and police brutality. Still, recent events have also exposed the worst in some of us for which there will be a reckoning. The Attorney General has unleashed Federal troops on peaceful protesters in Washington, D.C., while the President has threatened to put the armed forces in America’s neighborhoods, primarily Black neighborhoods. There are still brown children in cages, Native Americans on reservations, and Black people filling jails due significantly to mass incarceration policies. Congress recently proudly reduced sentencing disparities for use of a type of cocaine used primarily by minorities to 18:1 as opposed to a type used by white people. They hailed it as progress.
It will take the will of the people to make meaningful changes. If Donald Trump was a reaction to the first Black President, millions in the streets protesting is a reaction to centuries of injustice and those that perpetuate it. The day may come where color doesn’t matter in America. It won’t occur a day too soon.
