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The Haymarket Series
The Invention of the White Race: The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America, Volume 2
On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, Martin Luther King declared his dream of a racially integrated, non-discriminatory American society. Some three centuries before, that dream had in many ways been a reality, since white skin privilege was recognized neither in law nor in the social practices of the labouring classes. But by the early decades of the eighteenth century, racial oppression would be the norm in the plantation colonies, and African Americans would continue to suffer under its yoke for more than two centuries. In this second volume of his acclaimed study of the origins of racial oppression, Theodore Allen explores the ways in which African bond-laborers were turned into chattel slaves and were differentiated from their fellow proletarians of European origin. Rocked by the solidarity across racial lines exhibited by the rebellious labouring classes in the wake of the famous Bacon's Rebellion, the plantation Bourgeoisie sought a solution to its labor problems in the creation of a buffer social control stratum of poor whites, who enjoyed little enough privilege in colonial society beyond that of their skin color, which protected them from the enslavement visited upon Africans and African Americans. Such was, as Allen puts it, 'the invention of the white race,' that 'peculiar institution' which continues to haunt social relations in the US down to the present.
372 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
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About the author
Theodore W. Allen
5 books26 followersTheodore William "Ted" Allen (1919–2005) was an anti–white supremacist, working-class intellectual and activist who began his pioneering work on "white skin privilege" and "white race" privilege in 1965. He co-authored the influential White Blindspot (1967), authored Can White Workers Radicals Be Radicalized? (1969), and wrote the ground-breaking Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race (1975) before publication of his seminal two-volume classic The Invention of the White Race (1994, 1997).
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
April 23, 2017
It's an okay book. Supposed to be about how white supremacy came to be in the United States, which is basically explained in the last 100 or so pages of the second volume.
The first volume is about Irish indentured servitude, which was not the same was what black people endured under slavery. Are there some parallels, such as being excluded from land accumulation & public office, even light breaking up of families by sending Irish kids to Anglican schools, sure. But, their treatment is still not on the level as black people in the U.S., especially as it pertains Irish & general Anglican indentured servants in the U.S. I suppose it's good to know that white people had done it before to their own but it wasn't necessarily derived from this, at least not consciously, so the connection is flimsy.
The second volume is the better of the two & even then doesn't really begin to shine until the end, which is where the explanation for where white supremacy, as it exists in the U.S., came from & about when it came to be. The author points to Bacon's Rebellion & the solidarity between black & white workers & indentured servants as evidence of lack of prejudice, which I think is a terrible argument. They may have united against a common enemy, rich southern planters, but that by no means says there was no prejudice. This is especially of note given the indoctrination that took place, with the help of local politicians & the church, into white supremacy. How could it have manifested so easily & become so strong in a generation or two without there being some existing prejudice to exploit? It is clear beforehand that union during the rebellion was not based on an active class analysis, it was simply based on loosely analyzed common interest which clearly wasn't enough to keep white people from aligning along the lines of race regardless of class to make them feel like they were better & could get ahead in life.
All that to say is that this book seems mostly like an apologetic for liberal white guilt & a way to excuse white people for buying into whiteness. They bought a line of bullshit from the upper class thinking it would help them get ahead, when really, they're mostly a few superficial steps away from the rest of us. They bought in & should always be taken to task for having done so & continuing to do so. It's an okay book to have for the historical facts of specific events & the last chapter (or 2) for explaining how white supremacy was formed by the upper class, but that's about it. It's mostly a way to shoehorn in Irish indentured servitude (they like to call it slavery) & make it seem like there is a connection & as if they & white working class people are victims of being seduced by white supremacy. This connection & solidarity didn't seem to matter to them. As with most things, the history is complex but it's not a stretch to understand that any different groups that come to interact will ultimately develop some prejudice due cultural clash & being unfamiliar & I don't understand the need or desire to act like the prejudice didn't exist & simply developed out of thin air with prejudice being institutionalized by laws meant to benefit white people thus making white supremacy & racism a thing. It's one of the most over-hyped books I've read in a while & it's unfortunate that it is held in such high regard, but given how slavery for black people is consistently downplayed with the fact of Irish indentured servitude, it isn't surprising.
The first volume is about Irish indentured servitude, which was not the same was what black people endured under slavery. Are there some parallels, such as being excluded from land accumulation & public office, even light breaking up of families by sending Irish kids to Anglican schools, sure. But, their treatment is still not on the level as black people in the U.S., especially as it pertains Irish & general Anglican indentured servants in the U.S. I suppose it's good to know that white people had done it before to their own but it wasn't necessarily derived from this, at least not consciously, so the connection is flimsy.
The second volume is the better of the two & even then doesn't really begin to shine until the end, which is where the explanation for where white supremacy, as it exists in the U.S., came from & about when it came to be. The author points to Bacon's Rebellion & the solidarity between black & white workers & indentured servants as evidence of lack of prejudice, which I think is a terrible argument. They may have united against a common enemy, rich southern planters, but that by no means says there was no prejudice. This is especially of note given the indoctrination that took place, with the help of local politicians & the church, into white supremacy. How could it have manifested so easily & become so strong in a generation or two without there being some existing prejudice to exploit? It is clear beforehand that union during the rebellion was not based on an active class analysis, it was simply based on loosely analyzed common interest which clearly wasn't enough to keep white people from aligning along the lines of race regardless of class to make them feel like they were better & could get ahead in life.
All that to say is that this book seems mostly like an apologetic for liberal white guilt & a way to excuse white people for buying into whiteness. They bought a line of bullshit from the upper class thinking it would help them get ahead, when really, they're mostly a few superficial steps away from the rest of us. They bought in & should always be taken to task for having done so & continuing to do so. It's an okay book to have for the historical facts of specific events & the last chapter (or 2) for explaining how white supremacy was formed by the upper class, but that's about it. It's mostly a way to shoehorn in Irish indentured servitude (they like to call it slavery) & make it seem like there is a connection & as if they & white working class people are victims of being seduced by white supremacy. This connection & solidarity didn't seem to matter to them. As with most things, the history is complex but it's not a stretch to understand that any different groups that come to interact will ultimately develop some prejudice due cultural clash & being unfamiliar & I don't understand the need or desire to act like the prejudice didn't exist & simply developed out of thin air with prejudice being institutionalized by laws meant to benefit white people thus making white supremacy & racism a thing. It's one of the most over-hyped books I've read in a while & it's unfortunate that it is held in such high regard, but given how slavery for black people is consistently downplayed with the fact of Irish indentured servitude, it isn't surprising.
September 22, 2024
Continuing on from the case in Volume One (Racial Oppression and Social Control) Allen moves from exploring the origins of the racial logic in social hierarchies of the emergence of American agricultural capitalism, where whiteness did not, for instance, apply to the Irish, to explore the transformation of African bond labourers into chattel slaves and their racialised separation from other European-sourced bond labourers. In short, Allen's case is that North American racial logic is grounded in the order of North American capitalism. In this, it is a masterful Marxist argument that the racial hierarchies of the USA are intimately interwoven with its particular capitalist order. As the title indicates – whiteness came later, after class, as a way to split the working population from its common concerns. These two volumes should radically transform the way historians and others explore US history.
January 24, 2013
"To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time." - James Baldwin
December 19, 2020
This is a historically important pair of books, because they set out in exhaustive detail — complete with footnoted citations — the facts behind the invention of racial slavery by the early Virginia plantation overseers. While the style is approachable, the sheer amount of detail makes the two books a grueling slog. Yes, slavery had existed for millennia, but defining an enslaved class based purely on race was new, hence its being known by its proponents as the "peculiar institution". The first volume also looks at how similar techniques had been used by the English in Ireland, setting up a system of racial superiority for (Protestant) settlers versus the (predominantly Catholic) Irish.
May 17, 2014
In Volume II of The Invention of the White Race, Theodore Allen explores the transformation that turned African bond-laborers into slaves and segregated them from their fellow proletarians of European origin. In response to labor unrest, where solidarities were not determined by skin color, the plantation bourgeoisie sought to construct a buffer of poor whites, whose new racial identity would protect them from the enslavement visited upon African Americans. This was the invention of the white race, an act of cruel ingenuity that haunts America to this day. (From the back cover)
For an actual review, I can only direct you to Jeffrey B. Perry's Goodreads review because he says it better than I ever could. Suffice it say, this is one of the best works of Marxist historical analysis and the best studies of the birth of racial oppression in America that I've ever read. Featuring an incredible level of research into primary and secondary sources (the notes pages themselves stretch into the hundreds),it was well worth the time and effort.
For an actual review, I can only direct you to Jeffrey B. Perry's Goodreads review because he says it better than I ever could. Suffice it say, this is one of the best works of Marxist historical analysis and the best studies of the birth of racial oppression in America that I've ever read. Featuring an incredible level of research into primary and secondary sources (the notes pages themselves stretch into the hundreds),it was well worth the time and effort.
December 15, 2012
To see reviewers' comments from scholars and labor, left, and anti-white supremacist activists CLICK HERE
“When the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619, there were no ‘white’ people there; nor, according to the colonial records, would there be for another sixty years.” That arresting statement, printed on the back cover of the first volume of The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen, first published in 1994, reflected the fact that, after twenty-plus years of research in Virginia’s colonial records, he found “no instance of the official use of the word ‘white’ as a token of social status” prior to its appearance in a 1691 law. As he explained, “Others living in the colony at that time were English; they had been English when they left England, and naturally they and their Virginia-born children were English, they were not ‘white.’” “White identity had to be carefully taught, and it would be only after the passage of some six crucial decades” that the word “would appear as a synonym for European-American.”
In this volume Allen elaborates on his findings in order to develop the ground-breaking thesis that the “white race” was invented as a ruling class social control formation in response to labor solidarity as manifested in the later, civil war stages of Bacon's Rebellion (1676-7). To this he adds two important corollaries: 1) the ruling elite, in its own class interest, deliberately instituted a system of racial privileges in order to define and establish the “white race,” and 2) the consequences were not only ruinous to the interests of African-Americans, but was also “disastrous” for the European-American workers.
Allen tells the story of the invention of the “white race” in the late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Anglo-American plantation colonies. His primary focus is on the pattern-setting Virginia colony, and he pays special attention to the reduction of tenants and wage-laborers in the majority English labor force to chattel bond-servants in the 1620s. In so doing, he emphasizes that this was a qualitative break from the condition of laborers in England and from long established English labor law, that it was not a feudal carryover, that it was imposed under capitalism, and that it was an essential precondition of the emergence of the lifetime hereditary chattel bond-servitude imposed upon African-American laborers under the system of racial slavery. Allen describes how, throughout much of the seventeenth century, the status of African-Americans was indeterminate (because it was still being fought out) and he details the similarity of conditions for African-American and European-American laborers and bond-servants. He also documents many significant instances of labor solidarity and unrest, especially during the 1660s and 1670s. Most important is his analysis of the civil war stage of Bacon’s Rebellion when "foure hundred English and Negroes in Arms" fought together demanding freedom from bondage.
It was in the period after Bacon's Rebellion that the “white race” was invented as a ruling-class social control formation. Allen describes systematic ruling-class policies, which conferred “white race” privileges on European-Americans while imposing harsher disabilities on African-Americans resulting in a system of racial slavery, a form of racial oppression that also imposed severe racial proscriptions on free African-Americans. He emphasizes that when African-Americans were deprived of their long-held right to vote in Virginia and Governor William Gooch explained in 1735 that the Virginia Assembly had decided upon this curtailment of the franchise in order "to fix a perpetual Brand upon Free Negros & Mulattos," it was not an "unthinking decision." Rather, it was a deliberate act by the plantation bourgeoisie and was a conscious decision in the process of establishing a system of racial oppression, even though it entailed repealing an electoral principle that had existed in Virginia for more than a century.
With its meticulous primary research, equalitarian motif, emphasis on the class struggle dimension of history, and groundbreaking analysis "The Invention of the White Race" is a recognized "classic." Allen felt that its theory on the origin and nature of the “white race” contains the root of a new and radical approach to United States history. Readers will find that it has profound implications for American History, African-American History, Labor History, American Studies, and “Whiteness” Studies and that it offers important insights in the areas of Caribbean History, Irish History, and African Diaspora Studies. Its influence will continue to grow in the twenty-first century.
To assist individual readers, classes, and study groups this new edition includes a new introduction, some new appendices with background on Allen and his other writings, an expanded index, and a new internal study guide. The internal study guide follows the volume chapter-by-chapter and the index includes entries from Allen's extensive notes based on twenty years of primary research. The "Table of Contents" for the volume is included below, towards the bottom of this column.
Extraordinary praise for this work is offered from such scholars and labor, left, and anti-white supremacist activists as Audrey Smedley, Bill Fletcher, Jr., Tim Wise, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Gene Bruskin, Tami Gold, Muriel Tillinghast, Joe Berry, George Schmidt, Noel Inatiev, Carl Davidson, Mark Solomon, Gerald Horne, Dorothy Salem, Wilson Moses, David Roediger Joe Wilson, Charles Lumpkins, Michael Zweig, Margery Freeman, Michael Goldfield, Spencer Sunshine, Ed Peeples, Russell Dale, Gwen-Midlo Hall, Sam Anderson, Gregory Meyerson, Younes Abouyoub, Peter Bohmer, Dennis O’Neill, Ted Pearson, Juliet Ucelli, Stella Winston, Sean J. Connolly, Vivien Sandlund, Dave Marsh, Russell R. Menard, Jonathan Scott, John D. Brewer, Richard Williams, William L. Vanderburg, Rodney Barker, and Matthew Frye Jacobson. See Here for these comments
“When the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619, there were no ‘white’ people there; nor, according to the colonial records, would there be for another sixty years.” That arresting statement, printed on the back cover of the first volume of The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen, first published in 1994, reflected the fact that, after twenty-plus years of research in Virginia’s colonial records, he found “no instance of the official use of the word ‘white’ as a token of social status” prior to its appearance in a 1691 law. As he explained, “Others living in the colony at that time were English; they had been English when they left England, and naturally they and their Virginia-born children were English, they were not ‘white.’” “White identity had to be carefully taught, and it would be only after the passage of some six crucial decades” that the word “would appear as a synonym for European-American.”
In this volume Allen elaborates on his findings in order to develop the ground-breaking thesis that the “white race” was invented as a ruling class social control formation in response to labor solidarity as manifested in the later, civil war stages of Bacon's Rebellion (1676-7). To this he adds two important corollaries: 1) the ruling elite, in its own class interest, deliberately instituted a system of racial privileges in order to define and establish the “white race,” and 2) the consequences were not only ruinous to the interests of African-Americans, but was also “disastrous” for the European-American workers.
Allen tells the story of the invention of the “white race” in the late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Anglo-American plantation colonies. His primary focus is on the pattern-setting Virginia colony, and he pays special attention to the reduction of tenants and wage-laborers in the majority English labor force to chattel bond-servants in the 1620s. In so doing, he emphasizes that this was a qualitative break from the condition of laborers in England and from long established English labor law, that it was not a feudal carryover, that it was imposed under capitalism, and that it was an essential precondition of the emergence of the lifetime hereditary chattel bond-servitude imposed upon African-American laborers under the system of racial slavery. Allen describes how, throughout much of the seventeenth century, the status of African-Americans was indeterminate (because it was still being fought out) and he details the similarity of conditions for African-American and European-American laborers and bond-servants. He also documents many significant instances of labor solidarity and unrest, especially during the 1660s and 1670s. Most important is his analysis of the civil war stage of Bacon’s Rebellion when "foure hundred English and Negroes in Arms" fought together demanding freedom from bondage.
It was in the period after Bacon's Rebellion that the “white race” was invented as a ruling-class social control formation. Allen describes systematic ruling-class policies, which conferred “white race” privileges on European-Americans while imposing harsher disabilities on African-Americans resulting in a system of racial slavery, a form of racial oppression that also imposed severe racial proscriptions on free African-Americans. He emphasizes that when African-Americans were deprived of their long-held right to vote in Virginia and Governor William Gooch explained in 1735 that the Virginia Assembly had decided upon this curtailment of the franchise in order "to fix a perpetual Brand upon Free Negros & Mulattos," it was not an "unthinking decision." Rather, it was a deliberate act by the plantation bourgeoisie and was a conscious decision in the process of establishing a system of racial oppression, even though it entailed repealing an electoral principle that had existed in Virginia for more than a century.
With its meticulous primary research, equalitarian motif, emphasis on the class struggle dimension of history, and groundbreaking analysis "The Invention of the White Race" is a recognized "classic." Allen felt that its theory on the origin and nature of the “white race” contains the root of a new and radical approach to United States history. Readers will find that it has profound implications for American History, African-American History, Labor History, American Studies, and “Whiteness” Studies and that it offers important insights in the areas of Caribbean History, Irish History, and African Diaspora Studies. Its influence will continue to grow in the twenty-first century.
To assist individual readers, classes, and study groups this new edition includes a new introduction, some new appendices with background on Allen and his other writings, an expanded index, and a new internal study guide. The internal study guide follows the volume chapter-by-chapter and the index includes entries from Allen's extensive notes based on twenty years of primary research. The "Table of Contents" for the volume is included below, towards the bottom of this column.
Extraordinary praise for this work is offered from such scholars and labor, left, and anti-white supremacist activists as Audrey Smedley, Bill Fletcher, Jr., Tim Wise, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Gene Bruskin, Tami Gold, Muriel Tillinghast, Joe Berry, George Schmidt, Noel Inatiev, Carl Davidson, Mark Solomon, Gerald Horne, Dorothy Salem, Wilson Moses, David Roediger Joe Wilson, Charles Lumpkins, Michael Zweig, Margery Freeman, Michael Goldfield, Spencer Sunshine, Ed Peeples, Russell Dale, Gwen-Midlo Hall, Sam Anderson, Gregory Meyerson, Younes Abouyoub, Peter Bohmer, Dennis O’Neill, Ted Pearson, Juliet Ucelli, Stella Winston, Sean J. Connolly, Vivien Sandlund, Dave Marsh, Russell R. Menard, Jonathan Scott, John D. Brewer, Richard Williams, William L. Vanderburg, Rodney Barker, and Matthew Frye Jacobson. See Here for these comments
June 17, 2015
If, from the beginning of the eighteenth century in Anglo-America, the term "negro" meant slave, except when explicitly modified by the word "free," so, under English (Anglo-Norman) thirteenth-century law, the term "hibernicus," Latin for "Irishman," was the legal term for "unfree."If under Anglo-American slavery , "the rape of a female slave was not a crime, but a mere trespass on the master's property,"so, in 1278, two Anglo-Normans, brought into court and charged with raping Margaret O'Rorke were found not guilty because "the said Margaret is an Irishwoman."If a law enacted in Virginia in 1723, provided that, "manslaughter of a slave is not punishable,"so under Anglo-Norman law it sufficed for acquittal to show that the victim in a slaying was Irish. Anglo-Norman priests granted absolution on the grounds that it was "no more sin to kill an Irishman than a dog or any other brute." If African-Americans were obliged to guard closely any document they might have attesting their freedom, so, in Ireland at the beginning of the fourteenth century, letters patent, attesting to a person's Englishness, were cherished by those who might fall under suspicion of trying to "pass." If the Georgia Supreme Court, ruled in 1851 that "the killing of a negro" was not a felony, but upheld an award of damages to the owner of an African-American bond-laborer murdered by another "white" man, so, in 1310 an English court in Ireland freed Robert Walsh, an Anglo-Norman charged with killing John Mac Gilmore, because the victim was "a mere Irishman and not of free blood," it being stipulated that "when the master of the said John shall ask damages for the slaying, he [Walsh] will be ready to answer him as the law may require." If in 1884 the United States Supreme Court, citing much precedent authority, including the Dred Scott decision, declared that Indians were legally like immigrants, and therefore not citizens except by process of individual naturalization; so, for four centuries, until 1613, the Irish were regarded by English law as foreigners in their own land. If the testimony of even free African-Americans was disallowed as uncreditable;so, in Anglo-Norman Ireland, native Irish of the free classes were deprived of legal defense against English abuse because they were not "admitted to English law," and hence had no rights which an Englishman was bound to respect.
June 10, 2022
Volume 2 was somehow even better and more polished than volume 1. You can absolutely tell that this is the accumulation of Theodore W. Allen's life research and even I, someone who is 100% not an academic in any field, let alone one in 17th century colonial government and labor, now feel like I have a cohesive grasp on how 17th century planter class profit margins led to the race-based society that's unfortunately still thriving in the U.S. in the current day. This book was well worth the read.
August 10, 2021
An interesting and important book, but difficult for me to read for a number of reasons. I pretty much skipped the first volume. Here he argues, quite well it seemed, for an exact parallel of racial oppression with the Irish and English as with the Anglo-Americans and African Americans—his point being that skin color is not essential.
While I found his communist vocabulary and polemic tiresome, his arguments (like many of Marx’s) are exhaustively documented and carefully made; and his insights are perceptive and abiding. His central thesis—which I find compelling—is that racism, White supremacy, and racial slavery were neither the natural results of human nature or of social factors, but were a choice, deliberately made and, indeed, created by the ruling class in order to insure social control. His description of a very different solution to the same problem in the Caribbean underlines this point.
While I found his communist vocabulary and polemic tiresome, his arguments (like many of Marx’s) are exhaustively documented and carefully made; and his insights are perceptive and abiding. His central thesis—which I find compelling—is that racism, White supremacy, and racial slavery were neither the natural results of human nature or of social factors, but were a choice, deliberately made and, indeed, created by the ruling class in order to insure social control. His description of a very different solution to the same problem in the Caribbean underlines this point.
February 18, 2018
What is fascinating here is the autodidactic nature of the author, which should be inspiring to all laypeople interested in the world around them.
What is good is the recognition and analysis of complex socio-economic class issues as they intertwined with race in early American history, as well as the detailed look at Virginia in particular.
What is less than ideal is the dryness that sometimes borders on tedium, as well as the personal opinions on the works of other historians that add little to the thesis at hand.
What is good is the recognition and analysis of complex socio-economic class issues as they intertwined with race in early American history, as well as the detailed look at Virginia in particular.
What is less than ideal is the dryness that sometimes borders on tedium, as well as the personal opinions on the works of other historians that add little to the thesis at hand.
Read
September 22, 2010This is actually the second volume of this essential work.
November 19, 2014
good stuff. in the US race poltics arise out of a specific set of class-bound circumstances. fine attention to detail and rigorous presentation.
March 2, 2013
Tremendous validation of the whole theory of white skin privilege, etc. took a lot of work a d research.
July 31, 2015
This is meticulously researched, well-supported, definitely worthwhile, and has many parts that are as dry as unbuttered toast. It's a well-argued history, but it's not really a fun read.
October 14, 2021
To this day, there remains an entire cottage industry perpetuating the idea of "natural racism"; the idea that humanity will forever be cursed to treat others differently due to some inborn or preconditioned "race consciousness." It is simply a fact of human nature, many claim, to have prejudice against those who are different.
At the heart of Allen's work is a categorical rejection of this belief, both as a matter of history and as a philosophical claim about human psychology. Allen instead makes the argument that what's believed to be "natural racism" is largely a function of social formations and economic systems deliberately instituted by the bourgeoisie in an attempt to crush solidarity amongst the working class, an argument he presents in excruciating and convincing historical detail. But the power of this work isn't necessarily in its meticulous unraveling of mainstream narratives about the origin of racialized slavery in the United States, as illuminating as that may be. The power of this work is in demonstrating that we're not forever cursed by human psychology's "natural racism." What is deliberately and socially constructed can also be defeated.
At the heart of Allen's work is a categorical rejection of this belief, both as a matter of history and as a philosophical claim about human psychology. Allen instead makes the argument that what's believed to be "natural racism" is largely a function of social formations and economic systems deliberately instituted by the bourgeoisie in an attempt to crush solidarity amongst the working class, an argument he presents in excruciating and convincing historical detail. But the power of this work isn't necessarily in its meticulous unraveling of mainstream narratives about the origin of racialized slavery in the United States, as illuminating as that may be. The power of this work is in demonstrating that we're not forever cursed by human psychology's "natural racism." What is deliberately and socially constructed can also be defeated.
June 3, 2018
The second volume is a more detailed investigation of the emergence of whiteness as a race in Virginia. This is a long and super detailed read, but it’s super interesting and well worth a read for those who are interested in the material factors that may have shaped racialized identities in the US.
August 4, 2020
...continued from part I.
The latter part of Volume II treats the period right after the Civil War, and how the promise and possibilities embodied in breaking up the plantations and distributing the land to poor whites and former slaves ("forty acres and a mule") were dashed and a new regime of slavery without the name was put in place instead.
The latter part of Volume II treats the period right after the Civil War, and how the promise and possibilities embodied in breaking up the plantations and distributing the land to poor whites and former slaves ("forty acres and a mule") were dashed and a new regime of slavery without the name was put in place instead.
July 31, 2017
Allen proves that wealthy white men holding power increased their wealth and power by inventing racism.
October 8, 2022
Allen’s book has good content and is relevant. However, it is long and drawn out, without any payoff until the very end. It is also inaccessible to most audiences because Allen writes in a very technical way that is more appealing to academia than the average reader. It feels like there is something worth understanding in this book, but for most, the payoff is hardly worth the time and challenge.
The central thesis of Allen’s work is that the term ‘white’, as applied to lighter coloured skin, was invented in the 1700s and 1800s as a way for European-descended Americans to exert social dominance over African-Americans and other ‘non-white’ peoples. The book consists of two volumes, the first explores the origins of racial oppression as a concept, and the second focuses on the racial oppression of African-Americans. Both volumes are necessary for fully understanding Allen’s argument, but his thesis is only really addressed in the second volume.
The first volume examines the history of Great Britain’s oppression of Ireland throughout the renaissance, enlightenment, and colonial periods. The point of this volume is to establish how racial oppression is not historically based on skin colour and how it instead has roots in other attributes that differentiate people groups, such as history, culture, and religion.
The second volume focuses on the development of oppression in the early founding of the United States. Allen goes through the historical record of colonising the continent and finds that no specific racial oppression initially occurred with the earliest colonists' arrival. Instead, there was a need for cheap labour so that the colonies could produce competitively priced goods - without cheap labour the colonies would have failed since they would have otherwise been unprofitable. This need initially drove early colonists to seek labourers (of any skin colour) at a cheap labour price. Eventually, this transformed into lifetime servitude, which set the scene for introducing full-on slavery to the colonies.
The book is accurate in how it recounts history and uses several sources to verify what is fact. Allen is an accomplished historian and author; his work here is very academic and he writes with a tone and preciseness akin to an extended academic research paper. Although not all people will like it, I think anyone wanting to learn more about the history of the United States, especially as it pertains to race issues, should read this book.
Allen writes in a very academic way - he is dry, long-winded, and uses terminology beyond most readers' general understanding. Most readers will find reading this book an act of toil rather than a relaxing enjoyment. I wish the book was written in a more accessible way, there is good content to be found here, but you have to work very hard for it. For most, that work will not be worth the payoff.
The central thesis of Allen’s work is that the term ‘white’, as applied to lighter coloured skin, was invented in the 1700s and 1800s as a way for European-descended Americans to exert social dominance over African-Americans and other ‘non-white’ peoples. The book consists of two volumes, the first explores the origins of racial oppression as a concept, and the second focuses on the racial oppression of African-Americans. Both volumes are necessary for fully understanding Allen’s argument, but his thesis is only really addressed in the second volume.
The first volume examines the history of Great Britain’s oppression of Ireland throughout the renaissance, enlightenment, and colonial periods. The point of this volume is to establish how racial oppression is not historically based on skin colour and how it instead has roots in other attributes that differentiate people groups, such as history, culture, and religion.
The second volume focuses on the development of oppression in the early founding of the United States. Allen goes through the historical record of colonising the continent and finds that no specific racial oppression initially occurred with the earliest colonists' arrival. Instead, there was a need for cheap labour so that the colonies could produce competitively priced goods - without cheap labour the colonies would have failed since they would have otherwise been unprofitable. This need initially drove early colonists to seek labourers (of any skin colour) at a cheap labour price. Eventually, this transformed into lifetime servitude, which set the scene for introducing full-on slavery to the colonies.
The book is accurate in how it recounts history and uses several sources to verify what is fact. Allen is an accomplished historian and author; his work here is very academic and he writes with a tone and preciseness akin to an extended academic research paper. Although not all people will like it, I think anyone wanting to learn more about the history of the United States, especially as it pertains to race issues, should read this book.
Allen writes in a very academic way - he is dry, long-winded, and uses terminology beyond most readers' general understanding. Most readers will find reading this book an act of toil rather than a relaxing enjoyment. I wish the book was written in a more accessible way, there is good content to be found here, but you have to work very hard for it. For most, that work will not be worth the payoff.
October 3, 2019
To my surprise this volume is even better than the first. Allen sure has the capacity to draw the evidence together to let it speak for itself. It is fascinating how the 1600s in America go from where bond laborers of European and African descent could band together to rebel against their upper class masters to where those of European descent began to view themselves as white and therefore above those who were black thereby consenting to be pawns in a regime of social control unprecedented outside of Russian serfdom. Black persons became the serfs, the permanent underclass of America, while to be white was to be in a permanent aristocracy even if you barely had rags on your back or corn in your belly. Great book, well-sourced with primary material.
September 21, 2014
I found this to be a fascinating book. It is dense and a somewhat slow read, but the information has added a deeper understanding (for me) of race in the United States. Allen's examination of Protestant English treatment of native Irish in Ireland was particularly interesting as I had no idea that the racism in place there for so long, was as deeply entrenched and all-encompassing as it was. The parallels he draws between the historic Irish condition in Ireland and the historic African American position in the United States add a new dimension to the story that many of us are told about slavery and race relations in the US.
December 30, 2016
Allen proves his case. It took two volumes, and studying years of history beyond 17th-century Virginia, but it all works out. There is so much information it is hard to know what to say about it, but I feel there is understanding here that is vitally important to how we need to proceed today.
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