Chapter 7 - 18th Century Thought & the Crystallization of the Ideology of Race

In chapter seven Smedley describes how colonizers begin viewing others as "racially" different, taking into account not only the cultural differences, but adding in their own biological ones - whether these biological differences existed or not. Expansion, the further colonization of other countries, and scientific exploration helped to further the new definition of "race" being that anyone of a different skin color was inferior and less human than the colonizers.

In the Americas it was stated that the Europeans arrived with a yearning for individualism and freedom. Many of them had just left behind the English monarchy and wanted to govern themselves. I find it interesting that they held such a belief that was high in rebellion and anti-authority, but as soon as they had the chance they were using their power to abuse the Native Americans and Africans. Their excuse of course, was that the land that had presented itself to them was a gift from God, and that they were the chosen ones destined to receive it.

As we have discussed before, the initial treatment of Native Americans was generally positive, but as the European colonizers began to become more greedy and expected more from the Natives, who were unwilling to always freely give, the Europeans began taking it on their own. God had given them the right to life, liberty, and property, and if the Natives didn't like it they could either convert over and become protestant and share in the glories of God (but that share would of course be less than what God had given the Europeans), or be killed. Even in chapter four it stated that when Natives began dying out due to the epidemics brought over from Europe, the colonizers simply viewed it as Gods way of "thinning out" the Native population to make room for the Europeans. Again, most of the negative beliefs about Natives originated from the English's dislike for the Irish. At first this form of "racism" against the Natives was simply ethnocentrism that was brought along by cultural differences, but later biological differences came into play.

As for the Africans the folk stereotypes caused colonizers to believe that they were somehow less than human and more animal than anything. The Africans were compared to apes and according to the religious "Great Chain of Being" animals are lower on the totem pole than humans. However knowing that they were humans, many colonizers blamed the differences on the excuse that Africans were of a different "species" of human. The colonizers not only saw rebellion (as seen from some Native Americans) as inferior, they saw that the compliance from many Africans (probably due to fear) also as inferiority.

What started the biological beliefs of race was the great obsession with the "Anglo-Saxon culture". Many English people wanted to separate themselves from the other ethnic groups - Normans, Celts, Vikings, etc. and push their superiority. At first it began as just ethnic superiority, but later became racial as well. The Anglo-Saxon origins lie with the Germanic people who were considered the first "noble savages". They were the English's idea of a pure barbaric group who later became these "civilized" English people that God had picked as his chosen ones. These ethnocentric views later became more racialized (especially in the U.S.) when European Americans stopped seeing themselves as different ethnicities (ex. German, English, etc.) and grouped themselves together as simply "white".

The book uses Thomas Jefferson as an example of how race was viewed in the U.S. considering Jefferson was all about liberty, human rights, and justice... that is if you were a white male. Other than the obvious reason of being "God's chosen men", how do you think Jefferson and other founding fathers of this country thought it made sense to preach freedom and liberty for all - and yet knowingly treat other humans like animals?