Race and space in colonial Mosquitia, 1600-1787

Abstract

This text analyzes how in the late seventeenth century, British colonists in the West Indies began to model new notions of race to explain differences and justify white privilege. Older European categories that classified people as Christian or pagan gave way to associations of class characteristics, culture and physical appearance: inherited differences that had hierarchical significance. This transformation was based on the rise of plantation agriculture based on slavery, which took effect in the greater Caribbean region under British rule at the end of the 17th century.