Historian Mia Bay says that "part of where the idea of race comes from [is] in the tendency for people to see existing power rel
ationships as having some sort of natural quality to them." What does she mean? Why would people of European descent in the late 1600s begin to believe that people of African descent were naturally or biologically inferior to them? What role might economics have played in encouraging this belief? What role might have been played by the insecurity some felt about their social status?
European descent in the late 1600s believed the Africans as inferior based on their race and colour. Europe saw them as fit to do manual work for Europeans. African descent was physically different from Europeans. Africans had a strong body structure which allowed them to work in fields for long hours.
The beginning of the plantation in America changed the structure of the trade and expansion. The Sugar plantation changed colonial societies as the economy based on slaves came into existence. Slavery increased overall elasticity in labour. It was also more productive and made labour a capital asset.
The insecurity some felt about their social status when slaves were put in the lowest class and were forced to work as labour. They were considered as the property of their masters.
