Race and Class in Britain and America, 17th-19th centuries

This conference will question how developing discourses of race came to structure the societies of Britain and America in the early modern period. It hopes to explore the way discourses of race and class interacted with each other, and how the vocabulary of social strata overlapped with the language of race. How were the bodies and minds of the upper ranks considered to differ from those of other people during these periods? How important indeed was the idea of the physical body in rank distinction, and how did this square with the notions of pure blood that underpinned both “race” and hereditary privilege? In what ways were some groups “naturally” privileged or “naturally” excluded? Were social minorities like indigents or women marginalized or stigmatized similarly to Africans or Native Americans