Key terms
Key concepts
Readings
Activities
Discussion questions/points
Applying the Science of Society: The Civil War in the United States
Key terms
Base / superstructure
Productive forces
Productive relations
Property relations
Objective / subjective
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Key concepts
The discovery of the Americas by Europeans truly heralded a new world: the expansion and transformation of the world economy, the shifting of the economic center of gravity from the Mediterranean and the East to Europe and the Americas, the rise of new political formations, new centers of political dominance and new ideas to justify and facilitate the development of the capitalism system.
The African slave was vital to the entire process. Racial ideology -- linked first to nation and then to color - became a pivotal aspect of capitalist development.
In The German Ideology, Marx and Engels wrote that "The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas...[They] are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas."
By using the Marxist method we can understand that the ideology of race is in no way "natural" but rather is in fact an expression of "the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas."
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Activities
Think in terms of world history! Look at the process of economic competition between the different empires of the world. An historical atlas such as, The Times Atlas of World Exploration (1991) and The Times Concise Atlas of World History (1982), provide maps and materials which show the economic competition that drove the voyages of discovery and conquest.
Look at the development of Europe, the shifting of world economic focus with the discovery and conquest of the Americas and the development of ideas that reflected this.
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Readings
Brooke Heagerty and Nelson Peery, Moving Onward: From racial division to class unity, pp. 1-11.
"The African Slave Trade, Capitalism and the Ideology of Race: concepts review" (Institute resource paper #7).
"The world prior to 1492" (Institute resource paper #8).
M. Solomon, Marxism and Art, excerpts from writings of K. Marx and F. Engels.
Further readings
The selections below can used either as resources for the activities listed above or for further study.
Eduardo Galeano, Memory of Fire: Genesis
This first of Galeano's trilogy recounting Latin American history provides short and readable vignettes of the process of conquest of the Americas, the impact of enslavement on its history and development and moving accounts of the resistance that arose as a result.
Eric Williams, From Columbus to Castro, pp. 111 - 156.
The pages selected will provide the facilitator with a brief background of the second stage of conquest, the growth of sugar plantations, the acceleration of African slave trade and the dazzling profits which resulted for the ruling classes of the various nations.
Howard Zinn, The People's History of the United States, pp. 23-58
These chapters provide greater detail of the relations between black slaves and white indentured servants briefly outlined in the pamphlet. Since he also quotes other sources which have researched into this topic, you will find additional resources to go to if you are interested.
James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me, pp. 37-74; 171-200.
A key resource. The first chapter, '1493: The true meaning of Christopher Columbus' provides more background on the creation of a 'European' and 'white' identity, shows how much of the world was known prior to Columbus and describes the impact of conquest on the lives of indiginous peoples as well as on the configuration of world power.
Ivan Hannaford, "The Idiocy of Race', Wilson Quarterly, Spring 1994.
This article provides more background for the sections in the pamphlet on the development of the ideas of nation and race. See also Hannaford’s book, Race: History of an idea in the West.
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Discussion questions/points
1. Discuss the role the slave trade played in the development of capitalism and how the ideology of race advanced both.
2. Use the historical timeline to discuss the relationship between the objective (the development of the means of production/productive forces) and the formation and restructuring of society around these productive forces, or in other words, the relationship between subjective and objective.
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