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Do Events Shape Race? A Comparative-Historical Examination of the Catholic Irish in 17th-Century Barbados and Montserrat

ISBN: 978-1-83797-584-6, eISBN: 978-1-83797-583-9

Publication date: 28 November 2024

Abstract

Ethnoracial categories and classifications can change over time, sometimes leading to increased social mobility for marginalized groups or nonelites. These ethnoracial changes are often attributed to emulation, where nonelites adopt the elite's social, cultural, and political characteristics and values. In some cases, however, nonelites experience ethnoracial shifts and upward mobility without emulating elites, which events can help explain. I argue that the type of event, whether endogenous or exogenous, affects the ability of elites to enforce their preferred ethnoracial hierarchy because it will determine the strategy – either insulation or absorption – they can pursue to maintain their power. I examine this phenomenon by comparing the cases of Irish social mobility in 17th-century Barbados and Montserrat. Findings suggest that endogenous events allow elites to reinforce their preferred ethnoracial hierarchy through insulation, whereas exogenous events constrain elites to employ absorption, which maintains their power but results in hierarchical shifts. Events are thus critical factors in ethnoracial shifts.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank Dr Noelle Chaddock for encouraging me to investigate the racialization of the Irish and Dr Clayton Fordahl for guiding me through the first iterations of this research. I owe a special thanks to Dr Rebecca Jean Emigh and my fellow Emights for reading and providing constructive feedback on multiple versions of this work. I would also like to thank Dr Dylan Riley for providing invaluable feedback on this chapter. Finally, I thank Sarah Collins, M.A., who was my sounding board throughout my project.

Citation

Reilly, C.V. (2024), "Do Events Shape Race? A Comparative-Historical Examination of the Catholic Irish in 17th-Century Barbados and Montserrat", Emigh, R.J. and Riley, D. (Ed.) Elites, Nonelites, and Power (Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 41), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 211-238. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0198-871920240000041008

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited