Whitaker, Cord J. "Where were the Black people in the Middle Ages?" Throughlines. www.throughlines.org/suite-content/black-people-in-the-middle-ages. [Date accessed].

Where were the Black people in the Middle Ages?

Cord J. Whitaker draws attention to a racially diverse and cosmopolitan medieval Europe.

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Cord J. Whitaker
Wellesley College

One of the barriers to teaching race in the European Middle Ages is the predominant cultural image of the period as racially, religiously, and ethnically homogenous. However, records and texts from the period offer insight into a rich and cosmopolitan period, where there were not only Black people in Europe, but they held positions of power and prestige. Cord J. Whitaker explains the vibrant landscape of the European Middle Ages. 

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Blackness as metaphor

The history of racial construction is long and non-linear. Unpacking Blackness within medieval epics, and examining how Black characters are treated in these stories allow us to see how medieval Europe used Blackness as a rhetorical tool.

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