An incomplete timeline of the circumstances that influenced the emergence—and evolution—of White racial identity

Chattel slavery era USA 1600 – 1865

Indentured servitude practices active USA 1600 – 1776

Hudson’s Bay Company active as colonial power and land holder Canada 1670 – 1990

Race science emerges—early competing theories of “human races” not yet well established General 1684 – 1783

Scientific racism well established General 1784 – 1854

Early treaty era Canada 1733 – 1853

Abolitionist movements USA 1830 – 1870

Trail of Tears USA 1830 – 1850

Scientific racism dominates Western law and thought General 1854 – 1956

Reconstruction era USA 1865 – 1877

Jim Crow era USA 1877 – 1964

Numbered Treaty era Canada 1870 – 1921

Decline of scientific racism General 1956 – 2000

Rise of Whiteness studies General 1981 – 2021

Rise of the alt-right General 2010 – 2023

Truth and Reconciliation era Canada 2017 – 2023

1550–1600 “White” emerges as a niche term to denote selected upper-class English women. More ›

Jamestown, the first British North American settlement, founded in the British colony of Virginia. More ›

First permanent European settlement established in what is now known as Canada, in present-day Québec City. More ›

First enslaved Africans arrive in the British colony of Virginia. More ›

In the Mid-1660’s Colonists begin using “White” to distinguish colonizers from enslaved people and Indigenous populations. More ›

Hudson’s Bay Company founded. More ›

Bacon’s Rebellion saw poor White labourers ally with African-descended people in rebellion against colonial elites. More ›

Jamaica is granted limited self-government, enacts the first laws to reference White people, distinguishing servants from enslaved people by skin colour. More ›

“A New Division of the Earth, According to the Different Species or Races of Men Who Inhabit It” published, the first known attempt to scientifically define separate human “races”. More ›

Final Virginia Laws enacted, with first North American use of the legal term “White,” used in reference to outlawing intermarriage. More ›

Johann Winckelmann publishes “Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums (The History of the Art of Antiquity),” establishing the discipline of art history and establishing White skin as a beauty standard. More ›

United States Declaration of Independence. More ›

Mid-1700s–early 1800s: Casta paintings produced across Mexico to document racial mixing between Spanish-descended, Indigenous, and Black populations. More ›

The Naturalization Act establishes the United States as White ethno-state. More ›

Johann Blumenbach describes a skull from Georgia, in the Caucasus region, as the most beautiful, popularizes the term “Caucasian”. More ›

Samuel Morton publishes Crania Americana, stating that “The Caucasian Race…attains the highest intellectual endowments”. More ›

Anti-Catholic Philadelphia Nativist Riot. More ›

“Types of Mankind” published. More ›

“English Traits” published. More ›

“On the Origin of Species” published. More ›

Thirteenth Amendment outlaws slavery. More ›

Ku Klux Klan founded. More ›

Dominion of Canada founded. More ›

Rupert’s Land, one-third of present-day Canada, sold by HBC. More ›

White League attempts coup of Louisiana (monument not dismantled until 2017). More ›

The North-West Resistance: Métis and Cree resistance to the authority of the Dominion of Canada. More ›

Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The White Man’s Burden” introduces new terminology for the mission to “civilize” colonized people. More ›

US Federal Court rules that Syrians and Armenians are White. More ›

Birth of a Nation released, KKK deemed “reborn” and gains strength in the USA and Canada. More ›

Dominion Elections Act allows provinces to restrict the right to vote based on race. More ›

United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind results in “White” being legally defined through “common sense” rather than science. More ›

National headquarters of the Canadian KKK established in Toronto. More ›

Third Reich established in Germany. More ›

Mosaic: The Making of a Northern Nation published, presenting an argument for the benefit of Canadian identity consisting of diverse European cultures. More ›

Explicitly racist criteria removed from Canadian immigration policy. More ›

American Civil Rights Act passed in USA, barring racial discrimination in public spaces. More ›

American Voting Rights Act passed in USA, prohibiting voting practices and procedures that discriminate on the basis of race. More ›

Canadian Multiculturalism Act promotes the protection of ethnic, racial, linguistic, and religious diversity within Canadian society. More ›

“White Genocide Manifesto” published. More ›

Emergence of the “alt-right”. More ›

“Le Grand Remplacement” published. More ›

“White Fragility” published. More ›

Idle No more. More ›

Black Lives Matter founded. More ›

January 6 insurrection. More ›