Enslaved Labor and Strategies of Subjugation

The Indigenous lands appropriated by Angloamerican settlers could be made profitable only by a large force of low-cost labor. Toward this end, both American Indians and Africans were enslaved, and the settlers developed strategies of subjugation to control them and to maximize profits. These included the construction of persons as property, and their control through racialization, forced reproduction, spatial containment, and social control through violence and terror. Understanding this history allows us to see how these functions continue to be reflected in contemporary forms of structural racism.