What does this research mean for the field?

In 19th-century Anglophone discourse, the combination of biblical justifications and the secular concept of race served to reify and dehumanize Africans, thereby legitimizing colonial slavery and exploitation. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.SYNTHESIS. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To examine how nineteenth-century Anglophone colonial literature and philosophical thought constructed racial categories to justify the enslavement and exploitation of Africans.

August 29, 2026Open Access

Anglophone Discourses on Race in the 19th Century: British and African Perspectives

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To examine how nineteenth-century Anglophone colonial literature and philosophical thought constructed racial categories to justify the enslavement and exploitation of Africans.
Conducted a historical and textual discourse analysis of seventeenth- to nineteenth-century colonial, travel, and philosophical writings.
Tracked ideological shifts from biblical rationalizations of servitude toward secularized scientific theories of human difference.
Colonial travel and administrative literature continuously repurposed biblical rhetoric, specifically referencing 'hewers of wood and drawers of water,' to normalize the reification and exploitation of African laborers.
The transition toward secular definitions of race in the late seventeenth century institutionalized a false hierarchy that degraded Africans while systematically elevating European identity.
The expansion of the plantation complex after 1650 necessitated increasingly rigid racialized frameworks to defend the growing cruelties of chattel slavery against late-eighteenth-century abolitionist critique.

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Implication

Historical discourse analysis traces racialized rhetoric in nineteenth-century colonial literature, highlighting how secularized concepts of race and biblical tropes legitimized transatlantic slavery.

Cite This Study

Arno Sonderegger (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a9298aa8e5d7d1fc0c1074b https://doi.org/10.25365/phaidra.1057_03

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Anglophone Discourses on Race in the 19th Century: British and African Perspectives

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Discussion

Implication

Cite This Study

Anglophone Discourses on Race in the 19th Century: British and African Perspectives

Key Points

Discussion

Implication

Cite This Study

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