| 1492 |
Indigenous people in the Americas total at least 70 million. By 1650 they will be reduced to 3.5 million. |
| 1500's |
By the end of this century, sugar has become the most valuable agricultural product in international trade. Fuels the slave trade. |
| 1537 |
Pope Paul III announces that "American savages" are human and can be invited to join the church. |
| 1619 |
First shipment of "negars" to the British colonies debarks in Virginia. |
| 1640 |
Africans are subjected to the twin, unique characteristics of U.S. slavery - lifetime servitude and inherited slave status. |
| 1661 |
First recognition of permanent slave status (found in Virginia's legal code). |
| 1664 |
Some colonies enact laws declaring that Christian baptism can not affect the status of slaves or require their manumission. |
| 1671 |
The British encourage the naturalization of Scots, Welsh and Irish to enjoy "all such liberties, privileges, immunities whatsoever, as a natural borne Englishman." |
| 1676 |
Bacon's Rebellion unites servants of European and African heritage. After the rebellion - slavery becomes the permanent condition for Africans. "White" will soon be established as legal concept. |
| 1684 |
Race, as a category primarily denoting skin color, is first employed as a means of classifying human bodies by Francois Bernier, a French physician. |
| 1691 |
The first time the term "white" is used to designate a member of a specific group. Previously people were referred to by country of origin (Spanish, English, Irish, etc.). |
| 1700's |
At the beginning of this century the idea of race begins to supplant the designation of "Christians" and "heathens" as the fundamental division of the world. |
| 1735 |
Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, divides humankind into four varieties "Europaeus, Americanus, Asiaticus, and Africanus" in his book Natural Systems |
| 1775 |
Johann Blumenbach, German professor of medicine, redefines Linnaeus' system into five human varieties: Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, American, and Malay. He promotes the idea of degeneration from the white European ideal. At the same time, he upholds the view that "boundaries between races were not determinable because of the plethora of criteria to be considered." |
| 1792 |
Invention of cotton gin ushers in cotton as new cash crop. |
| 1794 |
The Brown Fellowship is established, admitting members of mixed heritage. In New Orleans the Blue Vein Society is for those with skin color so light that the blue veins could be seen. The term "colored" is used by the house servant children of white and black forebears to distinguish themselves from African field workers. |
| 1808 |
Abolition movement succeeds in abolishing the international slave trade. |
| 1830's |
The term "colored" is more common in black leadership circles partly in response to the American Colonization Society, which want to send free blacks back to Africa. Integrationism and nationalism begin to rise over African identification. |
| 1836 |
President Jackson orders "Trail of Tears," forced march of Cherokees from Georgia to Oklahoma. |
| 1845 |
The U.S. annexes Texas and provokes a war with Mexico by claiming territory to the Rio Grande. Mexican-Americans quickly become an underclass. |
| 1850's |
Paul Broca, French scholar, pairs three races with head forms: Dolicocephalic (narrow-headed) characterizing the Negroid; Bracycephalic (broad-headed) characterizing the Mongoloid; and Mesocephalic (middle-headed) characterizing the Caucasoid. |
| 1859 |
John Brown leads foiled attack on Harper's Ferry. |
| 1859 |
Darwin's book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection . . . is published and has obvious attraction for those who believe that some races have a more exalted destiny than others. |
| 1871 |
Darwin's book The Descent of Man espouses that nature will eliminate the "negro," noting that "civilized races will exterminate the savage races throughout the world." |
| 1882 |
Organized labor turns against Chinese workers and Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act. |
| 1910 |
Only 222,000 Native Americans are left in the U.S., population has been reduced by two-thirds in only 100 years. |
| 1914 |
Europe controls 80% of the globe: 283 million Europeans rule 900 million non-European peoples. |
| 1919 |
Birth control movement leader, Margaret Sanger states, "More children from the fit, less from the unfit - that is the chief issue of birth control." |
| 1920's |
Black militancy increases with an international focus: W.E.B. Du Bois calls a Pan-African Congress, Marcus Garvey promotes Pan-Africanism with his Universal Negro Improvement Association and the Harlem Renaissance brings an unprecedented cultural resurgence. |
| 1939-45 |
During World War II the plasma of Negro blood is stored separately from that of Caucasian blood, although the two are chemically and every other way identical. |
| 1952 |
The Immigration and Nationality Act makes legal the naturalization of any person regardless of race. For the first time, immigrants from Japan, Korea and other parts of Asia are eligible for service. |
| 1964 |
Ashley Montagu, an anthropologist at Rutgers University, proposes that there is no such thing as race. |
| 1992 |
The nation's fastest-growing groups reject racial designations. Chinese, Japanese and Koreans chose to emphasize their separate national identities rather than evoke a common heritage. |
