Knights of St. Peter Claver (1909- )

The Knights of Peter Claver organization was founded in 1909 in Mobile, Alabama. It is the largest African American Catholic lay organization in the United States. The organization was founded by the Josephites, a Catholic order whose mission was to serve Catholic African Americans. Josephite … Read MoreKnights of St. Peter Claver (1909- )

Sistema de Castas (1500s-ca. 1829)

Sistema de Castas (or Society of Castes) was a porous racial classification system in colonial New Spain (present-day Mexico). It was a “hierarchal ordering of racial groups according to their proportion of Spanish blood.” In this system, notable categories with significant meaning were español (Spaniard), … Read MoreSistema de Castas (1500s-ca. 1829)

Roman Slavery and the Question of Race

Most historians of the Roman world have decoupled the concepts of bondage and race that are central to the arguments justifying the enslavement of millions of people in the United States and other modern western nations. Instead they argued that those enslaved by the Romans … Read MoreRoman Slavery and the Question of Race