ABSTRACT
American capitalism had its origins in settler colonialism-the extermination or enslavement of the native population of the colonies-and white supremacy-the colonialist version of modern racism. Marx, in the chapters of Capital dealing with primitive accumulation, argued that capital comes into the world “dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt” and summarized as follows the results of the birth of capitalism in the colonies:
The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement, and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black-skins, signalized the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production.1
