White over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812. By Winthrop D. Jordan. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1968.

 Winthrop Jordan published his study on the development of racial attitudes of white Americans towards blacks during one of the most tumultuous periods of race relations ever experienced in the history of this country. Just as his use of terminology dates this book, so too does the exclusion of any historical analysis relating the subject to gender or the developing dominance of a capitalist mentalité. Jordan also fails to incorporate any black “voice” into the discussion of race relations, an omission that signifies a period, rather than any bias on his part. Jordan’s lengthy text charts the transition of Anglo-American/black relations from benign ambivalence to the imposition of legal codes designed to force both free and enslaved blacks to a position of permanent inferiority in American society. The irony of such policies lay in the rejection of philosophical ambitions for which both blacks and whites fought in the Revolutionary War. Indeed it was during the “Revolutionary era [that] Americans … realized for the first time that they had a racial problem on their hands [and] that the institution which their ideology condemned was founded on perceptions of physiological differences which they could do little or nothing about” (p.xi).

The author begins his work by assessing early European reactions to black societies. Realizing that American mores and sensibilities towards race cannot be examined in isolation to those held in the greater Atlantic world, Jordan discusses the predominant views on free black societies held by sixteenth century English, Spanish, and Portuguese seamen. He also directs the attention of the reader to the works of Shakespeare, particularly the play Othello, to illustrate the contradictory views held by Elizabethans in relation to mixed-blood, or black, manhood. The character of Othello initially charms the reader with his skill as a military leader and by his tender regard for his white wife, Desdemona. Yet by the conclusion of the tale his ungovernable passion and irrational behavior (symbolizing the base nature of his race) overwhelm the “civilized” side of his character, suggesting the improbability of any successful and equal connection between two such divergent cultures in real life.

Building upon such assumptions, English and American intellectuals gradually burdened blacks with a series of negative traits directly related to race. It was believed that blacks were particularly libidinous, overly excitable, and that their communities lacked any of the attributes normally associated with contemporary western civilization, such as great artistic movements or manufactures. Their color and physical characteristics largely remained a topic of intellectual and scientific enquiry (the Great Chain of Being and the Linnean system) until the American Revolution, a conflict that forced white Americans to examine notions relating to freedom and national identity.

The last quarter of the eighteenth century saw a significant increase in the number of blacks freed in consideration of rising humanitarian principles. Unfortunately, the number of slave rebellions also grew during this politically conservative period, convincing much of the white populace that both free and enslaved blacks would ultimately join together in an attempt to overthrow the current political and social order. Together with the revival of the cotton economy, and the subsequent need for a large work force, and with knowledge of the system of chattel racial slavery embraced by the English, Spanish and Portuguese, the position of blacks in American society suffered exponentially.

The development of slave codes throughout the country steadily formalized the institution of slavery and strengthened government-sanctioned racial inequality, first detected in the southern colonies in 1640. Both free and enslaved blacks suffered from the enforcement of increasingly restrictive laws and brutal forms of punishment not applied to whites, such as castration.

Was the development of an American slave society formed as the logical product of a racist ideology, or did the economic demands that allowed for the institution of slavery gradually mark blacks as inherently inferior beings biologically suited to a position of permanent subjugation? Jordan argues that racist assumptions relating to color reinforced the institution but did not originally underpin its foundation. In reaching his conclusions, the author studies issues relating to miscegenation, expatriation, and Thomas Jefferson’s views on slavery and race.  At times repetitive, the work cannot otherwise be unduly criticized. A product of its day, White over Black remains useful for students wishing to gain a deeper understanding of the development of notions of race in the early history of the United States. 

Claire Phelan

The topic of race relations, during the 1960s, consumed American society and proved to be a difficult subject to broach due to the social, political, and cultural tensions surrounding the debate of equality and segregation.  Historian Winthrop D. Jordan's Bancroft Prize winning book White Over Black made its debut amid this tumultuous era. His career in academia began at the University of California, Berkeley in 1963 and after serving two decades in the history department he joined the faculty at the University of Mississippi where he holds the William F. Winter chair of history and of African-American studies.  Jordan's contributions to the analysis of race relations and early America includes The White Man's Burden, Tumult and Silence at Second Creek:  An Inquiry Into a Civil War Slave Conspiracy in addition to numerous contributions to professional journals and critiques in leading news periodicals.  White Over Black endeavors to answer pointed questions concerning the development of discrimination against Africans.  The book's five parts seek to explain the initial mindset of Englishmen toward Africans and the evolution of ideologies that subsequently led to chattel slavery in America.

 Jordan's expansive and scholarly work spends a great deal of time analyzing and interpreting the first impressions these "black" and "heathen" people made on Englishmen.  His exhaustive use of primary source material reveals attitudes hinged upon color, religion, and physical constitution.  Various travel journals of voyages to West Africa, made in the sixteenth century, show that Englishmen found the African's skin color to be the most startling difference.  While the 'blackness" of the natives usually remained most noteworthy, religion and apparel also received ample discussion.  Jordan discusses the various beliefs held regarding the evolution of the Africans' skin color.  Some believed that the explanation for Africans' black skin came from the biblical story of the curse on Ham for seeing his father Noah naked.  The story states that Ham's son Canaan would be a "servant of servants unto his brothers."  Jordan argues that the story certainly retains relevance in future support of slavery, but nowhere does it mention color and therefore it remains perplexing as to why this particular account retained such meaning in accounting for the color of Africans (17-18).  Other beliefs portended that their blackness resulted from the proximity to the sun. Many initially believed that if the Africans were moved to a colder climate they would become whiter.  This false hypothesis proved what many had suspected, the complexion of the African was innate.  Jordan then addresses the difference of religion between the two races.

 The author's query into why the English initially failed to see the Africans as souls to convert to Christianity raises a thought provoking analysis.  Jordan argues that "to eradicate the point of distinction which Englishmen found most familiar and most readily comprehensible" would have resulted in a psychological imbalance (21).  The Englishmen were not able to distinguish African heathenism from his other characteristics, namely, savagery, lasciviousness, and animal-like.  Therefore the Englishmen chose indifference and did not actively pursue converting the souls of Africans until the eighteenth century (21).

 The second part of White Over Black addresses what Jordan labels the "provincial decades."  He discusses the development of oppression and its reasoning.  First, he addresses the necessities of the New World.  The vast resource of land redefined the social and economic systems in this different environment. Jordan defines the fine line between English servitude and slavery and asserts that over time the need for time limited servitude in the New World lapsed into an undesirable and unnnecessary role.

 Next, he examines the ideologies and actions of the Portuguese and Spaniards in the slave system and the influence they had on English slavery. Jordan points to the evidence that shows Portuguese and Spanish traders enslaved Negroes and Indians for the duration of their life.  The English realized the lucrative business in supplying the Spanish and Portuguese with Negroes. Once the economic need presented itself in the New World Jordan argues that the English modeled their system after the Spanish and Portuguese.

 Last, Jordan analyzes the development of chattel slavery in the New World.  He plays particular attention to the New England area and then the colonies of Virginia and Maryland. Slavery in the southern colonies developed differently than their northern counterparts due to "geographic conditions" (71).  The settlers realized the great potential of the fertile land and merely lacked the necessary workers to develop a strong agricultural foundation.  The relatively small number of Negro slaves being used gave way to a rapid importation of African slaves and by 1705 Virginia adopted codified laws regulating slaves.

 While Jordan steers clear of absolving the English for the creation of a harsh labor system whose foundation lay with the perpetual bondage of human beings and their offspring, his chapter titled "Unthinking Decision" somehow eludes to the possibility that the English unintentionally produced a system that stripped this race of all natural rights.  The American slave system in the early tobacco colonies, as Jordan sees it, developed slowly as a result of several factors.  Some being the mimicry of foreigners, information gleaned from books, and English "reaction to Negroes" (72).  While all of these factors assisted in the system's creation, the fact remains that the central piece to the puzzle rested in the Negroes' color and perceived inferiority as a human.  For Jordan to imply that the English were "unthinking" in their desire for economic prosperity at the hands of slaves fails to make color and prejudice the lodestones of chattel slavery.

 Part three examines the impact of the American Revolution on slavery.  At the end of the French and Indian War the social, cultural, and political ideologies in the New World revealed a society that had evolved into a fusion of English and immigrant mores.  This fusion created a people that were no longer completely English, but rather American.  Jordan discusses the ramifications due these new perceptions and the subsequent political upheaval.  The colonists' assertion that "all men were created equal" forced the evaluation of the treatment of blacks.  In their effort to gain independence from England, the conscience of whites piqued and slaves imagined hopes of a better future.  The theory of natural rights and "religious affirmations of equality" which stirred this self-scrutiny forced colonies like Virginia to secularize the ideology of equality (293-294).  The large system of slave labor created an atmosphere of fear among the slaveholders.  The fear was not just of losing their economic stability, but possibly more important the loss of social status and possible retaliation from the slaves.

 The final two parts address society and thought from 1793-1812.  Jordan analyzes the formation of a national identity.  He examines the development of this identity and its effect on slaves.  Jordan argues that the three-fifths compromise "was a practical resolution of political interests, but it embodied more logic than has been commonly been supposed.  For the slave was, by social definition, both property and man, simultaneously partaking of the qualities of both" (322). This argument presents an ideological imbalance.  The slave was a man insofar as it suited the social, political, and economic needs of the slaveholder and political players.  He in no way enjoyed the freedoms or pursuit of happiness invoked by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence.  The slaves' manhood rested solely on the physical attributes of two arms, two legs, fingers and a God-given soul.

 The second half of White Over Black lacks the succinct analysis of the first half.  He becomes repetitive and unnecessarily tires the reader.  Despite this divergence, the book addresses important themes, mindsets, and developments concerning slavery and the issue of race in America.  Jordan's analysis reveals the development of a white man's world and his issues with prejudice and race.

Liz Nichols