The first example of racism within the criminal justice system is seen during slavery. Originally, African American slaves were predominately ruled by slave codes, which were conscious efforts to “regulate slave life from cradle to grave” through setting strict punishments, such as being beheaded for killing a white man, and a strict social and racial hierarchy (Russell-Brown, 2009, p. 35). The harshest punishments were related to anything that undermined slavery and roaming slave patrols were in place to ensure compliance, as well as the first known example of the now controversial stop and frisk (Russell-Brown, 2009, p. 35).
Many of the punishments were both paternalistic and ritualistic in nature, being passed down from one generation of slave owners to another, as a way of maintaining social control (Joyner, 1986, p. 2). When slaves were convicted of a crime, they were tried in separate courts from whites, or not in courts at all, falling victim to “plantation justice” where slave owners could punish as they saw fit (Russell-Brown, 2009, p. 41). Plantation justice is one example of slaves being treated as property, providing a justification for their harsh treatment (Russell-Brown, 2009, p. 41). Even from the earliest days, racism caused blacks to be treated differently within the criminal justice system.
Not only were slaves treated unfairly, but they were treated this way due to many justifications. Some of these justifications included:
- Scientific racism and “distorted biblical interpretations” (Seabrook & Wyatt-Nichol, 2016, p. 22)
- Planter elite class exploiting the slaves to maintain their own economic way of life (Tonry, 2010, p. 280)
- Scapegoating the slaves for society’s problems (Tonry, 2010, p. 280)
There is a question, however, over whether slaves were necessary for the economy. From 1807 to 1860 as the price of slaves tripled, cotton prices also rose, creating a negative relationship between the price of slaves and the price of cotton, one of the most important goods slaves produced (Drescher & Engerman, 1998, p. 402). This negative correlation can be interpreted as slaves being costlier than they were worth, and did not add overall value to the economy, thus questioning what some historians refers to as the “relative nonessentiality of slavery” (Drescher & Engerman, 1998, p. 401). What the correlation fails to take into consideration is not just the cost of slaves, but also the competitive market place for labor that slaves created. The unique aspect of the American slavery system when compared to other slavery systems around the globe was that the American south also had a class of white tenant farmers (Drescher & Engerman, 1998, p. 401). This unique situation of both tenant farmers for hire and slaves created a competitive market for labor, which as Tonry (2010) argues created a need for systematic racism to protect poor white’s interest. This systematic racism, propelled by economic tensions and white’s desire for self-preservation, sets the precedent for the future of race relations in the United States.
