Anthropology and Slavery at the Dawn of White Supremacy

This volume examines biological and cultural data that debunk a primordial basis for racism. It tracks the ancient history of all social inequity to agricultural and feudal societies. The book then focuses on social and ideological developments in European societies associated with religious justifications for the enslavement of "others." The European Enlightenment built upon those prejudices with ideas about nature and acceptable natural causes of unequal social status for people newly classified into biological races. Nineteenth‑century anthropology is critiqued by African diasporic scholars who are the first Americans to argue that nurture rather than nature is responsible for human variation. The American Civil War brought slavery nearly to an end, but racist science continued to grow as "eugenics" applied to justify otherwise unjustifiable structures of human inequality (such as Jim Crow segregation) as though they are morally sound. In constructing this historical and sociological counternarrative, the author provides a critical new social history that illuminates a tangled and turgid past for contemporary readers, students, and researchers with vital insights for anthropology, sociology, history, cultural studies, philosophy, and American studies.

"Anthropology is inherently interdisciplinary, and is inordinately implicated in the making of race and racism. This means that, as a field, it ends up today with tools able to understand racism and white supremacy and how all of that happened. Michael L. Blakey, in this new work, offers a skillful and panoramic view of how anthropology can add to our understanding of race and racism. This work will offer the opportunity to foster inter‑ and transdisciplinary conversations that aren’t always possible or prioritized. There are not enough books with this kind of ambition and innovation!"
Christopher Driscoll, Associate Professor of Religion, Lehigh University"The methodology of ethnography, alongside the telling of the making of racism through biology and anthropology, is exciting and valuable. Such an approach can help readers to understand the very human implications of choices made and rejected in science. As such, this work by Michael L. Blakey will be useful for university courses on race that explore its production and reproduction in science. It will be especially attractive as a textual resource on Western campuses wherein significant sectors of society and science remain attached to racial determinism. This will make a valuable contribution to the variety of texts on the social construction of race and is a welcome invitation to interdisciplinary conversation."
Jacqueline Battalora, Professor of Sociology, Saint Xavier University in Chicago, author of Birth of a White Nation (Routledge, 2021)"This work by Michael L. Blakey is both timely and will remain of enduring relevance for many years. The persistence of racism and surge of white backlash to efforts to address racial inequality, anti‑Black violence, including and prominently in education, makes this work especially important in the contemporary moment. At the same time, the time‑depth and scope of the book will mean that it maintains relevance for years to come. Taking the volumes together, I know of no single work that addresses and synthesizes the invention of race, the history of racism, and the contemporary dynamics of racism and politics of race, and science about race to the extent that this project does."
Mark Anderson, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz"Many books and articles have been published on the subject of race. Michael L. Blakey’s thoroughness, scholarship, and lived experience makes his three‑volume set stand out from the pack. It is an essential resource for anyone seriously interested in the topic."
Jeffrey C. Long, Professor Emeritus, University of New Mexico"In this monumental synthesis of science, history, philosophy, cultural critique, and autobiography, Professor Blakey has produced a work that nobody else could have. He takes us through the past, present, and future of anthropology as a racial science in a racialized nation; and in particular he examines physical anthropology, as it transitions into a more ethically conscious and reflexive biological anthropology in the 21st century. The highest testimony that any anthropologist can receive is that they will leave anthropology in better intellectual shape than they found it, and Prof. Blakey certainly will. His life and work represent the ultimately successful attempt of a visionary scholar to improve the practice of the science he works in. His scholarship and his perspectives will be a major influence for the next generation of scholars."
Jon Marks, Professor of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Michael L. Blakey, National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Anthropology, Africana Studies, and American Studies and Director of the Institute for Historical Biology, is a leading anthropologist at William & Mary, whose training and productive research career (80 publications in major journals) integrates human biology, history, and culture, including critical writings on the history and philosophy of science. He directed the unparalleled bioarchaeological and interdisciplinary project on the African Burial Ground, today a U.S. National Monument in Manhattan. He is the recipient of many awards, including two President’s Awards of the American Anthropological Association, the Legacy Award of the Association of Black Anthropologists, an Honorary Doctor of Science from CUNY, and the Plumeri Award.

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