Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become a lightning rod for conservative ire at any discussion of r****m, anti-r****m, or the non-white history of America. Across the country, bills in Republican-controlled legislatures have attempted to prevent the teaching of CRT, even though most of those against CRT struggle to define the term. CRT actually began as a legal theory which held simply that s******c r****m was consciously created, and therefore, must be consciously dismantled. History reveals that the foundation of America, and of s******c r****m, happened at the same time and from the same set of consciously created laws.

Around the 20th of August, 1619, the White Lion, an English ship sailing under a Dutch f**g, docked off Old Point Comfort (near present-day Hampton), in the British colony of Virginia, to barter approximately 20 Africans for much needed food and supplies. The facts of the White Lion's arrival in Virginia, and her human cargo, are generally not in dispute. Whether those first Africans arriving in America were taken by colonists as s***es or as indentured servants is still debated. But by the end of the 17th century, a system of chattel s***ery was in place in colonial America. How America got from uncertainly about the status of Africans, to certainty that they were s***es, is a t***sition that highlights the origins of s******c r****m.

Three arguments have been put forth about whether the first Africans arriving in the colonies were treated as indentured servants or as s***es. One says that European r****m predisposed American colonists to treat these Africans as s***es. Anthony and Isabella, for example, two Africans aboard the White Lion, were acquired by Captain William Tucker and listed at the bottom of his 1624/25 muster (census) entry, just above his real property, but below white indentured servants and native Americans.

A second argument counters that r****m was not, at first, the decisive factor but that the availability of free labor was. "Before the invention of the Negro or the white man or the words and concepts to describe them," historian Lerone Bennett wrote, "the Colonial population consisted largely of a great mass of white and black [and native] bondsmen, who occupied roughly the same economic category and were treated with equal contempt by the lords of the plantations and legislatures."

In this view, s***ery was not born of r****m, but r****m was born of s***ery. Early colonial laws had no provisions distinguishing African from European servants, until those laws began to change toward the middle of the 17th century, when Africans became subject to more brutal treatment than any other group. Proponents of this second argument point to cases like Elizabeth Key in 1656, or Phillip Corven in 1675, Black servants who sued in different court cases against their white masters for keeping them past the end of their indentures. Both Key and Corven won. If s***ery was the law, Key and Corven would have had no standing in court much less any hope of prevailing.

Still, a third group stakes out slightly different ground. Separate Africans into two groups: the first generation that arrived before the middle of the 17th century, and those that arrived after. For the first generations of Africans, English and Dutch colonists had the concept of indefinite, but not inheritable, bondage. For those who came after, colonists applied the concept of lifetime, inheritable bondage. Here, the 1640 case of John Punch, a Black man caught with two other white servants attempting to run away, is often cited. As punishment, all the men received thirty lashes but the white servants had only one-year added to their indentures, while John Punch was ordered to serve his master "for the time of his natural life." For this reason, many consider John Punch the first real s***e in America. Or was he the last Black indentured servant?

Clearly these cases show the ambiguity, or "loopholes," of the system separating servitude from s***ery in early America. What is also clear is that one by one these loopholes were closed through conscious intent of colonial legislatures. In this reduction of ambiguity over the status of Africans, the closure of loopholes between servitude and s***ery, are the roots of s******c r****m.

Maryland enacted a first-of-its-kind law in 1664, specifically tying being Black to being a s***e. "[A]ll Negroes or other s***es already within the Province And all Negroes and other s***es to be hereafter imported into the Province shall serve Durante Vita." Durante Vita is a Latin phrase meaning for the duration of one's life.

Another loophole concerned the status of children. Colonial American law was initially derived from English common law, where the status of child (whether bound or free) followed the status of the father. But adherence to English common law posed problems in colonial America, such as revealed in the 1630 case of Hugh Davis, a white man sentencing to whipping "for abusing himself to the dishonor of God and shame of Christians, by defiling his body in lying with a negro..." Whipping proved no deterrent for such interracial unions between a free European and a bound African. If English common law was followed, then the child of such a liaison would be free. So, in the years following Davis' whipping the legislatures in Maryland and Virginia enacted statutes that the status of the child, whether s***e or free, followed that of the mother.

But closing this loophole assumes that only the sexual exploits of European men needed containing. The famous, and well-documented case of Irish milkmaid, Molly Welsh, who worked off her indentures in Maryland, shows the reverse actually happened as well. Welsh purchased a s***ed named Banna Ka, whom she eventually freed, then married. They had a girl named Mary, who was free. Mary married a runaway s***ed named Thomas, and they had a boy named Benjamin, who was also free. And Benjamin Banneker, a clockmaker, astronomer, mathematician, and surveyor, became an important figure in African American history, having authored a letter to Thomas Jefferson lamenting the lofty ideals of liberty and e******y contained in the nation's founding documents were not extended to all citizens regardless of color.

Closing the religious exemption was another way in which colonial legislatures sought to separate B****s from w****s, and force s***ery only on people of African descent. One of the reasons Elizabeth Key prevailed in court was that she asserted she could not be held in s***ery as a Christian. In fact, there was a widespread belief in early America that Christians holding other Christians in s***ery went against core biblical teachings.

Most first generation Africans in colonial America came from the Angola-Congo region of West Africa, first taken there by the Portuguese. Christianity was well-known, and practiced by Africans in these regions as early as the 15th century. So, many Africans destined for s***ery, or indentured servitude in America, were already baptized, or were christened by priests aboard Portuguese s***e trading vessels.

Colonial legislatures got busy. Maryland updated the 1664 law, cited above, with a 1671 statute that specifically carved out a religious exception for people of African descent. Regardless of whether they had become Christian, or received the sacrament of baptism, they would "hereafter be adjudged, reputed, deemed, and taken to be and remain in servitude and bondage" forever. Acts like this led to a tortured, convoluted American Christianity, developed to support s***ery, and this legacy of r****m within American Christianity continues to this day.

Apprehension of runaway servants and s***es was still another area in which colonial legislatures targeted people of color for differential, oppressive treatment. While granting masters the right to send a posse after runaways, a 1672 Virginia statute called "An act for the apprehension and suppression of runawayes, negroes and s***es," granted immunity to any white person who k**led or wounded a runaway person of color while in pursuit of them. It read:

"Be it enacted by the governour, councell and burgesses of this grand assembly, and by the authority thereof, that if any negroe, molatto, Indian s***e, or servant for life, runaway and shalbe persued by warrant or hue and crye, it shall and may be lawfull for any person who shall endeavour to take them, upon the resistance of such negroe, mollatto, Indian s***e, or servant for life, to k**l or wound him or them soe resisting."

Acts like this became the basis for s***e patrols, and for the police forces that arose from them. Today, we still deal with the consequences of "qualified immunity," stemming from ideas like these enacted in 1672, which shield police from prosecution in cases of violence and brutality, especially against people of color.

Protection of southern rights even found its way into the Constitution. The Second Amendment protects the right of m*****as (a polite term for "s***e patrols") to organize and bear arms. The Fugitive S***e Clause (never repealed) guaranteed southern s***eholders at their s***es apprehended in the North would be returned. Even the Interstate Commerce Clause allowed Southerners traveling North with their s***es assurances those s***es would not automatically become free by setting foot in states that outlawed s***ery.

Though enacted centuries ago, the laws cited above are representative of the many laws that came to define American jurisprudence, and have at their core, the repression and oppression of B***k A******ns, and other people of color. This is why Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, writing for the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857, handed down a 7-2 verdict in the DredScott case, with the words that B****s had "no rights which the white man was bound to respect." This is why critical race theory states that s******c r****m was consciously created, as these laws and their enforcement show they were.

But this is also why Republican legislators and their supporters lump anything and everything having to do with diversity, equity, and inclusion into the box of critical race theory, then try to keep it out of schools and public institutions. They're afraid of Americans being told the t***h: that the foundation of America, and of s******c r****m, happened at the same time and from the same consciously created laws. In this way, these individuals are actually living proof of the validity of critical race theory, because they seek to consciouslyenact laws today which perpetuate the racial ine******y established by laws enacted hundreds of years ago.
https://www.rawstory.com/crt-gop/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=7504&recip_id=473486&list_id=1
Clyde W. Ford is the author of numerous books including Of Blood and Sweat: Black Lives, and the Making of White Power and Wealth, due out next year from HarperCollins.

Black towns??? How about black communities, residential~~? How are the w****s suppressing them?? How are the w****s forcing them to live in despaired homes? Filth everywhere? Crime ridden areas of attacks, gun violence, gangs, drugs, Etc??? No business start ups because those b****s who really want to be true business owners know they will be robbed blind?? Or have tried only to watch their business trashed, robbed etc..Thats not the w****s doing that moldy.. Its their own people doing it!! Look at housing given to the less fortunate... Look at the condition of those homes/apts that are trashed, not taken care of, with people who don’t even care because they don’t own it after all and they feel its not their place to keep it up.. WTH???

I’m sorry but I don’t buy your excuses here...Why have other ethnic minorities succeeded where b****s who have been here much longer do not? They are entitled to every social program put out and yet still don't succeed like the others, WhYyyyyyyy??

When r**ts break out who is it trashing their own black businesses in the area???Robbing, burning and leaving it in rubbles?? Who, Moldy??

Black towns??? How about black communities, residential~~? How are the w****s suppressing them?? How are the w****s forcing them to live in despaired homes? Filth everywhere? Crime ridden areas of attacks, gun violence, gangs, drugs, Etc??? No business start ups because those b****s who really want to be true business owners know they will be robbed blind?? Or have tried only to watch their business trashed, robbed etc..Thats not the w****s doing that moldy.. Its their own people doing it!! Look at housing given to the less fortunate... Look at the condition of those homes/apts that are trashed, not taken care of, with people who don’t even care because they don’t own it after all and they feel its not their place to keep it up.. WTH???

I’m sorry but I don’t buy your excuses here...Why have other ethnic minorities succeeded where b****s who have been here much longer do not? They are entitled to every social program put out and yet still don't succeed like the others, WhYyyyyyyy??

When r**ts break out who is it trashing their own black businesses in the area???Robbing, burning and leaving it in rubbles?? Who, Moldy??

Read all three, each referring to the 1900s to say the 1920s to 1950s coincidentally when r****m was still being challenged and acceptance still living by segregation.. Since that time the housing laws did change, the job market did change and the standards all went to enforce discrimination laws of color..
What didn’t change was the make up of the b****s to excel at their new protections or perhaps in spite of them???

I lived in Chicago for many years and can tell you real estate companies did and still do direct their minority standings people to the well known segregated areas of housing of their same ethnicity.. Those residential areas have in themselves their own stores food,clothing, etc that provide them with all the things of their own culture they could want including people like me that went to the Italian grocery stores for certain items, or the Chinese and Polish stores for wh**ever etc..They thrive just fine.. Their neighborhoods not Raught with horrendous crime, or fear in being in them as a white person shopping etc... They welcome you and all are gracious and accommodating etc.. Actually I enjoyed going to them..

Now,go ahead and think me r****t in this statement... Southside Chicago is a predominately black community that simply is not safe to go to day or night, especially night..Even cops won’t go into the Southside without the r**t squad... Crime and shooting a daily affair.. Look at just this past weekend “ gun spree” as they are calling it.. Can’t get to a job?? Train station goes around the entire city to many a local business segment.. As do buses.. The stores they do have are loaded with bars over windows.. Doors that buzz you in when you ring it..Businesses open and close within a year.. Why?? Crime and gangs that shake down the owner and the few customers they do get..Row homes built back in those 40s 50s your articles refer to razed with all new built yet look at them now, right back to the same rat infested garbage heaps they have become.. Slum lords yes, and some fed up with spending thousands today in repairs for refrigerators, stoves, hell piping yanked out in 6 months~~

Suppressed to stay in those ghetto areas only by they not initiating the desire and Perseverance to get out.. This is not the 1900s to 1950s.. Every social program available and utilized by them but not to the benefit of themselves. The entitlement age is our worst enemy and I feel for every child in school today.. They are taught entitlement, not independence, not self respect, not perseverance and certainly not goals....

I remember as a child having the chore of getting the cows from the pasture when it came time for milking. They usually had already started for the barn, but I would still sit on a fence post and yell, "Come, boss, come!" till the cows came home. There was a cow who would come to the post and allow me to climb on her back for the ride to the barn-very languid, slow moving critters. They know when it is time to get relief by milking-if the farmer is late in starting the milking, the cows will bellow like crazy. Once reason dairy farmers did not like daylight savings time.