Answer: Race and racial inequality have powerfully shaped American history from its beginnings.
Americans like to think of the founding of the American colonies and, later, the United States, as
driven by the quest for freedom – initially, religious liberty and later political and economic
liberty. Yet, from the start, American society was equally founded on brutal forms of
domination, inequality and oppression which involved the absolute denial of freedom for slaves.
This is one of the great paradoxes of American history – how could the ideals of equality and
freedom coexist with slavery? We live with the ramifications of that paradox even today.
Explanation:
