In a country whose economic growth and territorial expansion required appropriating the land of one non-White group (Native Americans), exploiting the labor of another (enslaved Africans), and annexing much of a nation defined as non-White (Mexico), it was inevitable that nationhood would acquire a powerful racial dimension.

No, those are not my words. Nor are they the words of Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan or the late Malcolm X. That's a direct quote from Eric Foner, a highly-respected history professor at Columbia University and president of the American Historical Association.

Any serious discussion of race relations in the U. S. must begin with an examination of slavery and its enduring impact on people of African descent. Foner's 26-page synopsis of America's "peculiar institution" was filed in connection with efforts to rebuff challenges to the University of Michigan's affirmative action programs and can be found on the Web site, www.umich.edu/~urel/admissions/legal/expert/foner.html.

Foner notes that of the approximately 12.5 million persons who crossed the Atlantic to live in the western hemisphere between 1500 and 1820, roughly 10 million were African slaves. Even in the colonies that later became the United States, which attracted a high percentage of free immigrants, the numbers were still staggering. Of approximately 800,000 people who arrived in the American colonies between 1607 and the American Revolution, more than a third -- 300,000 -- were African slaves.

"Slaves, of course, experienced the institutions of politics and the law quite differently from White Americans," he writes. "Before the law, slaves were property who had virtually not legal rights. They could be bought, sold, leased, and seized to satisfy an owner's debt, their family ties had no legal standing, and they could not leave the plantation or hold meetings without the permission of their owner.

"Masters had almost complete discretion in inflicting punishment, and rare was the slave who went through his or her life without experiencing a whipping. The entire system of southern justice, from the state militia and courts to slave patrols in each locality, was committed to enforcing the master's control over his human property, and no aspect of their lives, no matter how intimate, was beyond the reach of his interference."

Though slavery is old as civilization itself, Foner observes, the slave system that arose in the western hemisphere was unique.

"First, it was a plantation system, in which large concentrations of slave laborers produced goods - sugar, tobacco, rice, and later cotton - for the world market. Second, it was a racial system, in which all Black persons, slave or free, bore the stigma of bondage. Rather than a peripheral institution or minor presence, slavery was indispensable to the settlement and development of the New World."

During the early colonial period, the African slave experience was not unlike that of White indentured servants. But the rise of plantation agriculture in the South was accompanied by a far harsher era of slavery.

"In the southern colonies, the consolidation of plantation agriculture in the late 17th and early 18th centuries and the achievement of political dominance by the planter class inaugurated a new and far harsher era of slavery, in which avenues to freedom were effectively curtailed," Foner explains.

The American Revolution prompted widespread public debate on the slavery issue. Britain offered freedom to slaves who joined their cause and nearly 100,000 Blacks accepted the offer. Thousands more enlisted in the Revolutionary Army. By the end of the 19th century, all Northern states had provided for the gradual emancipation of slaves. By contrast, no Southern state followed suit and "In the end, slavery not only survived the Revolution but in some ways emerged from it strengthened," Foner points out.

It wasn't until the Union's victory in the Civil War that equality was considered a birthright of all Americans regardless of race. During the Reconstruction Era that followed the Civil War, the federal government sought to defend the rights of African-Americans. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was passed. That same year, Congress approved the 14th Amendment, establishing equal rights for all Americans (it was ratified two years later). In 1870, the 15th Amendment to the Constitution was passed, barring states from using race as a qualification for voting.

"Reconstruction lasted only a little more than a decade," Foner recalls. "By 1877, White supremacy had returned to the South and the federal government soon abandoned the responsibility for protecting the rights of Black citizens...Beginning with Mississippi in 1890, every southern state amended its laws or constitution to disenfranchise the Black population."

Foner concludes, "Since the earliest days of colonial settlement, race has been a crucial line in the division in American society. For two and a half centuries, the large majority of African-Americans were held in slavery, and even after emancipation were subjected to discrimination in every aspect of their lives. Other minority groups have suffered severe inequities as well. Today, while the nation has made great progress in eradicating the 'color line,' the legacy of slavery and segregation remains alive in numerous aspects of American society."