Social Class and Caste: A Study of Ethnicity in Colonial Latvia and Race in America

by Stefan Bruvelis, Ana Costa (Contributor)

Until the mid-19th century, Latvian serfs were considered ‘too drunken’ and thieving, too quarrelsome and prone to violence for either freedom or property ownership. Abolishing serfdom, their Baltic German owners argued, would be like “putting a shaving knife in the hands of an infant.”

Nonetheless, with enough difficulty, effort, and luck, Latvians could sometimes adopt German mannerisms and language to advance in society; by 1905, they were even among the Russian Empire‘s most literate ethnicities. In the United States meanwhile, the color of a person’s face immediately advertised (and de facto still advertises) their social standing. A black person can never ‘choose’ to stop being black, whether they’re being chased by a plantation foreman, a Jim Crow sheriff, or an all-white jury.

Thus, the difference between colonial Latvia and the United States is that of modifiable social class versus unchangeable caste. This book discusses the parallels between modern America and Latvia of the 18th and 19th centuries, where differences in property ownership between ethnicities were proportional to those still between white and black Americans today.

194 pages, Paperback

Published May 29, 2022