From Class to Race in Early America: Northern Post-Emancipation Racial Reconstruction

Abstract

The American Revolution created an immediate break from England's political and economic control. It also marked the beginning of internal evolutionary changes in America. The Revolution began the abolition of slavery in the North, transforming the operation and meaning of class and race. Gradual emancipation strategies preserved unfree black labor just when indentures for European-American workers were disappearing, and this had important consequences for the relationship between poor blacks and poor whites. They were less likely thereafter to share a common condition and, from the perspective of white workers, were more likely to be in competition. Racial tensions were undoubtedly exacerbated as the nation moved toward its first labor surplus in the 1820s with many northern blacks occupying a middle ground of labor, neither slave nor free. A growing racial divide at the bottom of society can be traced through the institution of racially defined political statuses, violent racial conflicts, labor competition, the systematic exclusion of blacks from certain occupations, and the development of an ideology of racial inferiority. Analysis of these changes can deepen our understanding of the role of race and racism in the early republic and of the transformation of race and class.