Caste: Pillar Number Three Summary & Analysis

Endogamy, or restricting marriage to people within the same caste, is a measure that’s been taken in every major caste system the world has seen: India, the U.S., and Nazi Germany. Under the edicts of endogamy, intermarriage between castes is prohibited—but so too is any sexual congress or even the expression of romantic interest. On a practical level, this reduces empathy or any sense of commonality between the castes, and it reinforces the idea that the subordinate caste is a threat or menace to the dominant one.

In 1630, a colonist named Hugh Davis was publicly whipped after “lying with a Negro” (having sex with a Black woman). His public humiliation wasn’t just a warning to members of the dominant caste, but to those of the subordinate one as well. The lower caste could be exploited—white men had (often nonconsensual) sexual relations with African women throughout U.S. colonial history. But despite their affiliation with upper-caste men, lower-caste women could not approach anything close to equality. Legal prohibitions of intermarriage—first signed into law in 1691 in Virginia—were not officially overturned until 1967. In Alabama, the law was not repealed until 2000.

Through endogamy laws, the state could create and enforce race. Dominant-caste men could essentially have their way with lower-caste women without facing consequences for much of American history. But any lower-caste men who were even suspected of making advances toward upper-caste women were made to pay dearly, often with their lives. In December of 1943, a 15-year-old subordinate-caste boy, Willie James Howard, signed a Christmas card to his coworker at a local dime store—a dominant-caste girl—“with L,” meaning “love.” The girl’s father and two other white men captured Willie James, dragged him to a nearby river, hog-tied him, and forced him to jump in and drown while his father watched. The boy’s murderers were never charged or indicted.