White supremacy, over time, became a religion of sorts. Faith in the idea that people of the African race were bestial, that whites were inherently superior, and that slav ery was, in fact, for blacks’ own good, served to alleviate the white conscience and reconcile the tension between slav ery and the dem o cratic ideals espoused by whites in the so-called New World.
This deep faith in white supremacy not only justifi ed an economic and political system in which plantation owners acquired land and great wealth through the brutality, torture, and coercion of other human beings; it also endured, like most articles of faith, long after the historical circumstances that gave rise to the religion passed away. After the death of slavery, the idea of race lived on.
In Wacquant’s words: “Racial division was a consequence, not a precondition of slav ery, but once it was instituted it became detached from its initial function and acquired a social potency all its own.” 10