Slavery Wasn’t Inherited. It Was Invented.

by Rachel Ryan, Enlight Media 

Many of us learn about America’s history of slavery at some point in school. But few are taught how the categories of “Black” and “White” were deliberately created to justify it. The racial divisions we live with today weren’t accidental. They were built.  

A clip from our Patterns in American Racism series explores this moment in sharp focus, beginning with Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676. In the aftermath of the uprising, Virginia’s ruling elite faced a crisis: what happens when poor Black and White workers join forces? Their solution was to create division and to codify it into law. 

Colonial leaders began granting privileges to European colonists while condemning Africans to lifelong, generational slavery. More than just reshaping labor practices, they reshaped identity itself. This was the moment when the concept of “whiteness” took hold in America. Wealthy planters deliberately drew a sharp line between white indentured servants and enslaved Africans, offering white workers a taste of freedom and status, just enough to keep them invested in the system rather than resisting it. 

This wasn't a moral failure passed down from ancient times. It was a business model. A caste system engineered to secure cheap labor and protect power. 

These patterns are not relics of the past. They exist today in the form of racial disparities in wealth, education, housing, incarceration, and beyond. The same economic logic that invented racial division in the 17th century still echoes through our institutions. 

Understanding how race and racism were intentionally constructed helps us see today’s inequities not as random or accidental, but as part of a long-standing design. When we trace these patterns through history, we’re better equipped to challenge them in the present. 

This clip is just one part of a larger conversation. 

To explore the full context and uncover more stories like this, adopt the complete Patterns in American Racism series. Each module connects the past to the present and offers the historical insight we need to inspire lasting change. Learn more at InContextNow.com. 

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Video Transcript 

It's safe to say that wealthy Virginians had invented something utterly new: an institution that ensured access to cheap agricultural labor for generations to come.  

And to ensure its survival, wealthy landowners made as sharp of a distinction as they could between enslaved Africans and the White indentured servants who worked alongside them. White indentured servants continued to be exploited, but they retained the ability to fulfill their obligation to servitude and gain the freedoms associated with membership in society. Rather than advocate for the freedom of their African coworkers, White indentured servants and poor White people focused on laying claim to their newfound status, prioritizing distinguishing themselves from Black people at any cost.  

The planters spot at the top of colonial society was now cemented. Their solution, and the legacy, was an institution that reduced human beings to property, ensuring people of African ancestry occupied that status for centuries to come.