White and Black were both among the created social classes in 17th century North America under the racial guise of burgeoning capitalism, while the colonial society was responding to the material demands and seeking to perpetuate its control. Socially, the difference between European indentured servants and enslaved Africans, staged in the case of John Punch in 1640, is a seminal form of lifelong servitude that was established by race. Already in 1691, the totalitarian tool ‘white’ was used in Virginia to imply citizenship, thus being a foundation of racist citizenship (Biewen et al., 2017). This work has the aim of finding the roots of these racial groups, systematizing them in law, and evaluating how they affected the enslaved women and immigrants up to 1790. In the course of the discussion, the indivisibility of race, gender, class, and phenotype will be introduced to reveal the reality shaped by these categories, to demonstrate their social construction and the contribution they had in American history (Bainbridge & Danielle, 2018).
The racism age was touched upon in the 17th century, and skin color was not the only criterion for the formation of ‘white’ and ‘black’ categories of race in the new world who were being inflicted by the idea of new economic and social order. The developing plantation economy created an emerging socioeconomic context and required a specific labor hierarchy, with European indentured servants and enslaved Africans being the lower strata. Indentured European labor occupied the most important place, as demonstrated by the Virginia colony changing to African slavery from the 1676 event of Bacon’s Rebellion. In this rebellion, having both Europeans and African indentured servants involved emphasized the possibility of cross-racial alignment that launched a strong challenge to the colonial authority (Race2012pbs, 2017). In the aftermath, the lines of race were drawn with the Virginia Assembly passing laws to prohibit Amerindian-european multiracial unions, racially divided punishments, and engrain racial slavery (Golash-Boza, 2018). In addition to abolishing slavery, ratified constitutional amendments triggered subsequent legal steps that took the form of racial separation, which became a deeply ingrained aspect of American politics.
Racial inequalities were entrenched in US society by legalizing racial demarcations. The Virginia Slave Codes of 1705 show how the law created racial hierarchy and allowed masters to abuse enslaved Black people with legal immunity. These laws also rewarded white people who caught runaway slaves by emphasizing racial boundaries (Biewen et al., 2017). The women traders suffered greatly. These rules removed their autonomy and allowed owners to exploit them without legal repercussions, allowing them to control Black women and turn them into objects.
Further, the Constitution of race, gender, and class was apparent in laws that prevented whites from marrying African or Native Americans to promote white supremacy and racial purity (Bainbridge & Danielle, 2018). These rules were hollow phrases that perpetuated white rule, not social standards. Therefore, they were the trump card that established the socio-political context that would affect US racial relations and non-white treatment.
The 1790 Naturalization Act emphasized political identity by laying out the racial lines; that is, “free white persons” were the only persons who would be able to naturalize and enjoy all the civil rights (Golash-Boza, 2018). But, this legislative move was not just an action of exclusion but a monumental instance in the racial making in the US legal system. Although the immigration act served as a measure of legalization of these immigrants to America and an alignment towards emergences of “whiteness”, the system greatly discriminated against non-European immigrants by depriving them of legitimacy for citizenship (Clevenger & Samuel, 2017). The political ramifications were profound: although it was undermining human rights, it was the foundation of the nation, which was based on racial hierarchy in the legal code. Therefore, attaining the status of being “White” would mean attaining the American dream, and this basically integrated the two concepts (race and the politics of belonging). In essence, the color whiteness would become a prerequisite both for the rights and the rituals associated with American belonging. This inevitably casts a long shadow over the concept of American identity and politics of belonging as well.
This paper has reflected upon the evolution of racial categories and their institutionalization in the United States from the colonial period to the approval of the Naturalization Act in 1790, paying attention to social, economic, and political dynamics that led to this taking place. The coining of the terms ‘White’ and ‘Black’ as distinct racial categories in the face of colonial challenges was a strategic ploy; this was ultimately sealed in the laws that paved the way for racial categorization, which had a profound impact on the lives of enslaved women and immigrants. These legal structures embedded race in the framework of social hierarchy in such a way that it was directly linked to the American understanding of citizenship rights and privilege, thus having a profound impact on who was eligible for these. How people have constructed the meaning of race historically is a crucial aspect of considering modern race relations, because the fundamental categories and laws built on these constructs continue to impact the structure of society and the lived experiences of individuals. Ruminating this legacy, one realizes the need for a self-critical assessment of current policies and approaches. This evaluation inevitably leads to the illumination of the systemic issues of inequality that still exist in American society.
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