By Dr Tafataona Mahoso

THE chattel enslavement of Africans in white societies was used to make white supremacy and racism appear to be natural, inevitable and permanent.

In theorisi   ng the unity and solidarity of all oppressed working people against capitalism and imperialism, Marxist ideology tended to under-estimate the lingering effects of the enslavement of Africans against solidarity and co-operation between blacks and whites. 

Put another way, Marxist ideology tended to under-estimate the determination of white supremacist ruling elites; for instance in SA and the US, to prevent the development of solidarity between poor and oppressed whites on one hand and African slaves or former slaves on the other hand. Let us look at the specific examples of these struggles in the US. 

Summary of white ruling class strategies in the US:

The following are some of the strategies used by white supremacists to ensure oppressed whites would be discouraged from co-operating with African slaves.

• First, the status of permanent chattel slavery was reserved for Africans only, while poor whites who suffered conditions identical to those of African slaves were classified legally as ‘indentured servants’, that is, slaves who could look forward to future freedom or redemption or whose children might not have to inherit the status of their parents as in the case of Africans.

• Where poor whites and enslaved Africans were more or less equal, the ruling class, beginning in the early 1700s, began to divide and rule them by offering rewards and benefits to poor whites which were denied to Africans. 

For instance, in 1705, a law was passed requiring white masters to provide poor white males whose period of indenture was coming to an end with 10 bushels of corn, 30 shillings, and a gun; while white women received 15 bushels of corn and 40 shillings. Later, these poor whites were also offered 50 acres of land. 

The thinking was that a former white indentured servant would identify with equally oppressed Africans unless some material tokens were given to him or her in order to try to distinguish blacks from whites. 

• When many cases of joint black/white rebellion against the oppressive plantation system happened, the rulers pardoned the whites while punishing the blacks severely.

Specific cases

In 1640, in Virginia, an African named Emmanuel conspired to escape from slavery and indenture together with four whitemen.

The blackman was branded with a letter ‘R’ for ‘Runaway’ and sentenced to wear shackles for a year.  

He was not given time because he was already a slave for life. The four whites were given light sentences which had closure, meaning they could look forward to complete freedom in a short period.

The next case involved an African called John Punch. He also ran away with two white indentured servants: Victor and James. 

Victor was sentenced to one more year of service and so was James. After the one year, both whitemen became free. Punch, the African, was condemned to remain a slave for the rest of his life. 

Then there was a unique case of a white woman, Hannah Warwick, who worked under an African man’s supervision and broke the law. The court ruled that Hannah had no case to answer because her supervisor was African.

Other laws:

Active, racist and discriminatory registration and other unequal treatment was also used.

For instance, in 1639 in Virginia: “All persons except Negroes (Africans) are to be provided with arms and ammunition or to be fined at the pleasure of the governor if they do not have arms and ammunition.”  

This really meant the creation of a society in which white power and privilege was expressed through the carrying of arms in a population where in many cases Africans outnumbered the whites.  

Therefore, to be an African in such a situation was to clearly remain powerless. 

In 1660, it was noticed that the motive was very high for white indentured servants to run away with Africans before finishing their service of indenture.  

The State decided that since Africans routinely returned to slavery upon their capture, the law should focus on discour

aging solidarity between white and black by forcing all whites joining blacks in running away to serve both their own lost time and the lost time of the blacks.

If running away African slaves were lost to their master for good or killed while running away, the whites trying to run away with them would pay 4 500 pounds of tobacco per African slave lost or for each African slave lost or killed. 

This was to serve as a deterrent against solidarity between black and white.

In Virginia, in 1680, a new pass law was passed against Africans only and they were forbidden to carry any guns, clubs, swords, sticks or anything that could be used as a weapon.

All Africans had to carry written passes with them in which the master specifically allowed them to move from one point to another. This pass system was later copied in SA prior to and during official apartheid.

In 1662, in Virginia, Act XII was passed, declaring that: “Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children got by an Englishman upon a Negro (African) woman should be considering slave or free, be it therefore enacted and declared by this present grand assembly, that all children born in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother and that if any Christian (that is, white person) shall commit fornication with a Negro man or woman, he or she so offending shall pay double the fines imposed by the former Act.”

In other words, at that point, sex outside recognised and legalised relations was to be punished by a fine. But if it was across racial lines, the fine was double.

By 1670, all non-whites imported into 

Virginia were to become slaves for the rest of their lives. 

Moreover, free Africans and Native Americans already living in Virginia were not allowed to employ poor whites as servants or as slaves. They could employ only other blacks or other natives.

More laws were passed to ban sex or marriage across the colour line.  

These were mainly directed against poor white women who had children with free African or Native American males or with African slaves.  

For instance, if the white mother of a black child or white mother of a Native American child was herself still an indentured servant at the time of her pregnancy, she would have to serve her full term with her master first before being sold as a servant again to church wardens of the parish where she got pregnant.

She would then serve the parish as an indentured servant again for five years and the income from her service would be divided as follows: One third to the State, one third to the parish; and one third to the person who reported that she had fallen pregnant by an African or Native American male.

These notes demonstrate a number of important historical facts: 

First, that to some extent, Marxists were correct to suggest that oppressed working people would co-operate, even across racial lines, to try to overthrow their oppressors.

Second, that the ruling elites however, could anticipate such solidarity among the working oppressed people by offering material, moral and legal incentives to one group while denying them to the other, until the two oppressed groups began to feel that they really did not belong together and therefore should not co-operate.

Third, that the system of white supremacy and segregation was step-by-step entrenched within institutions such as the law courts, the legislatures, constitutions as well as church teachings and practices until they were accepted and taken for granted by most common people.

Fourth, that this racial hegemony has endured for more than 400 years and is being strengthened through global racist media which, for instance, would embolden modern day whitemen, such as Donald Trump, to think and speak of building a wall across the border with Mexico, but never across the border with Canada. 

The fact that a large fraction of the US population would even allow Trump to make such a wall an election campaign promise and let him win the election means that white supremacy and racism remain hegemonic in many white communities. 

That is what Professor Bernard Magubane concluded in Race and the Construction of the Dispensable Other.  

The foundations of this white racist hegemony were laid down during slavery.