To start with, Jordan portrays and associates African with evils in America simply because of their skin color. He relates his work to Elizabeth’s belief whereby according to Elizabeth. blackness is portrayed to have a negative meaning of being ugly, dirty as well as the symbol of the devil and evil. Further, he notes that Elizabeth’s beliefs are also associated with those of Shakespeare who also associates blackness to devilish actions in the society.
Secondly, Jordan argues that chauvinism in color made Black men fit to be slaves, poor, farmers and low class people making them inferior as compared to the rest of common white men. As a result, the blacks were treated as slaves because of their low status in the society, and are perceived to have originated from an ape and a human being (Jordan, 1974). These are beliefs of Caucasians as Jordan indicates in his book that make black people more inferior because they are compared to apes like monkeys and gorillas. Additionally, this belief of Africans’ origin from apes is strengthened by the belief that African or black men are sexually aggressive just like apes.
Thirdly, Jordan notes the various theories about the history of racism as perceived by different communities in America, for example, the Quakers. In America, Quakers were powerful abolitionist who opposed slavery in the country, but they also argued that whatever a white man owned should never be taken away from their ownership. They did this by quoting verses from the bible to justify that blacks were to be slaves and never own any property. Their justifications include. in the beginning, God created all human races white, blacks were created black as a curse from God. Second, blacks were black as a dangerous disease called leprosy attacked them. Their last justification is that of the climate in Africa being of brilliant sunlight, and once Africans moved to reasonable temperatures,