Judy Root Aulette- Colonial origins of the concept of race
• Slave Castles in Ghana built by European slave traders
o Transatlantic slave trade
o “Doors of no return” sign
• Now: devastation & subsequent racist treatment remain. Legacy of slavery is racism,
still here
• Ghana:
o Important place slave trade
o Subject state of colonial British power
▪ They created idea of different tribes as tool for controlling
o Therefor birthplace of race & racism
▪ Global scale: slave trade
▪ Local scale: intertribal tensions
• Connection between practice of slavery and ideas of race & racism
o Historically rooted in contact with Europeans and white Americans
Where did the idea of race come from?
• Race doesn’t exist biological, but it is an important social fact. Powerful system that
influences the daily life
So race= idea, practice, sociale institution
• First with contact Europeans on a large scale, associated with early development
slavery during colonisation
• Colonialism= establishment political, economic & cultural control. Usual involving
occupation of the country & exploiting economically
• Edward Said:
o 1800 => The West held 35% of the earth’s surface
o 1874 => 67%
o 1914 => 85%
• Colonist settled as small farmers of on a large scale plantations for commercial
products (cotton, sugar) with huge labor force => racialized system of slavery
• Set up systems of government => submitting colonial settlers + indigenous people
• First: varieties human body & cultures but not seen as race or inferior. Gerenally
positive image
It changed with slavery => capturing and selling people => ideology of race & practice
of racism for justifying slavery, “lesser race”
• Variety of European ethnic populations => single race
• Term “White people”: first used in late 1600s, before 1960: whites were assumed no
race, just humans
• Slave Castles in Ghana built by European slave traders
o Transatlantic slave trade
o “Doors of no return” sign
• Now: devastation & subsequent racist treatment remain. Legacy of slavery is racism,
still here
• Ghana:
o Important place slave trade
o Subject state of colonial British power
▪ They created idea of different tribes as tool for controlling
o Therefor birthplace of race & racism
▪ Global scale: slave trade
▪ Local scale: intertribal tensions
• Connection between practice of slavery and ideas of race & racism
o Historically rooted in contact with Europeans and white Americans
Where did the idea of race come from?
• Race doesn’t exist biological, but it is an important social fact. Powerful system that
influences the daily life
So race= idea, practice, sociale institution
• First with contact Europeans on a large scale, associated with early development
slavery during colonisation
• Colonialism= establishment political, economic & cultural control. Usual involving
occupation of the country & exploiting economically
• Edward Said:
o 1800 => The West held 35% of the earth’s surface
o 1874 => 67%
o 1914 => 85%
• Colonist settled as small farmers of on a large scale plantations for commercial
products (cotton, sugar) with huge labor force => racialized system of slavery
• Set up systems of government => submitting colonial settlers + indigenous people
• First: varieties human body & cultures but not seen as race or inferior. Gerenally
positive image
It changed with slavery => capturing and selling people => ideology of race & practice
of racism for justifying slavery, “lesser race”
• Variety of European ethnic populations => single race
• Term “White people”: first used in late 1600s, before 1960: whites were assumed no
race, just humans
