Early in both the text and in her talk, Alexander points to a largely forgotten, dimly understood yet seminal event in this budding republic’s history, Bacon’s Rebellion, which set the whole “racial” concept in motion. In 1675-76, rich white land owners instituted what Alexander calls America’s first “racial bribe.” To wit, in order to keep poor European American and African American indentured servants from uniting against them, the planters offered the European indentureds a chance at “freedom” based solely on their “whiteness” – a freedom which came “due” once their terms of “service” were completed and included a plot of land, tools, clothing, seed and foodstuffs.
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