Quigley Paul
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199735488
- eISBN:
- 9780199918584
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199735488.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter traces the road to secession. Most white southerners came to support secession not because of a positive embrace of southern nationalism, but rather because their attachment to the Union ...
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This chapter traces the road to secession. Most white southerners came to support secession not because of a positive embrace of southern nationalism, but rather because their attachment to the Union could not withstand the pressures generated by northern opposition to slavery. Most white southerners were conditional unionists: they wished to remain in the United States, but only if slavery and the rights of the South were protected within it. By the winter of 1860—61 the conditional unionism of the majority had dissolved. This dissolution was caused most directly by the political conflict over the expansion of slavery, but was also driven by perceptions that an American national community that had been imagined in affective terms was being destroyed by northern betrayals. Up to and beyond secession, many white southerners continued to feel strong loyalty to the United States.Less
This chapter traces the road to secession. Most white southerners came to support secession not because of a positive embrace of southern nationalism, but rather because their attachment to the Union could not withstand the pressures generated by northern opposition to slavery. Most white southerners were conditional unionists: they wished to remain in the United States, but only if slavery and the rights of the South were protected within it. By the winter of 1860—61 the conditional unionism of the majority had dissolved. This dissolution was caused most directly by the political conflict over the expansion of slavery, but was also driven by perceptions that an American national community that had been imagined in affective terms was being destroyed by northern betrayals. Up to and beyond secession, many white southerners continued to feel strong loyalty to the United States.
Elizabeth Gillespie McRae
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195177862
- eISBN:
- 9780199870189
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195177862.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter draws on traditional constructions of maternal responsibilities in constructing a public role as defender of white supremacy. It argues that women had a duty to campaign against racial ...
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This chapter draws on traditional constructions of maternal responsibilities in constructing a public role as defender of white supremacy. It argues that women had a duty to campaign against racial integration in order to protect the welfare of current and future generations of white southerners. It notes that this increased public activism on the part of white southern women was by implication a criticism of the incompetence of the male power structure. It shows that white women served more than a rhetorical purpose for the segregationist cause as passive victims in need of male protection.Less
This chapter draws on traditional constructions of maternal responsibilities in constructing a public role as defender of white supremacy. It argues that women had a duty to campaign against racial integration in order to protect the welfare of current and future generations of white southerners. It notes that this increased public activism on the part of white southern women was by implication a criticism of the incompetence of the male power structure. It shows that white women served more than a rhetorical purpose for the segregationist cause as passive victims in need of male protection.
Michael J. Klarman
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195177862
- eISBN:
- 9780199870189
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195177862.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter assesses how the forces of massive resistance overwhelmed more liberal opinion on racial integration. It stresses that those white southerners who were opposed to the Brown decision were ...
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This chapter assesses how the forces of massive resistance overwhelmed more liberal opinion on racial integration. It stresses that those white southerners who were opposed to the Brown decision were more politically committed than were those who accepted or supported it. It adds that die-hard segregationists used the apparatus of local and state government to destroy political dissent among the southern whites. It highlights the importance of legislative malapportionment, which provided disproportionate political power to rural districts where white racism was most virulent. It shows a dramatic picture of the southern states in the grip of reactionary racial politics.Less
This chapter assesses how the forces of massive resistance overwhelmed more liberal opinion on racial integration. It stresses that those white southerners who were opposed to the Brown decision were more politically committed than were those who accepted or supported it. It adds that die-hard segregationists used the apparatus of local and state government to destroy political dissent among the southern whites. It highlights the importance of legislative malapportionment, which provided disproportionate political power to rural districts where white racism was most virulent. It shows a dramatic picture of the southern states in the grip of reactionary racial politics.
Jeff Strickland
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813060798
- eISBN:
- 9780813050867
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813060798.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
Charleston, South Carolina, was a cosmopolitan city during the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Germans, Irish, and a host of European and Latin American immigrants shared the same workplaces, ...
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Charleston, South Carolina, was a cosmopolitan city during the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Germans, Irish, and a host of European and Latin American immigrants shared the same workplaces, neighborhoods, streets, residences, and even households. Charleston was a slave society, and its economy relied on the forced labor of thousands of slaves. Immigrants also worked as entrepreneurs, skilled artisans, and laborers. Immigrants and African Americans interacted on a daily basis, and their relations were often positive. White southerners found those positive relations threatening, and nativist sentiments prevailed during the 1850s. Slaveholding meant economic and political power, and although some immigrants owned slaves many found it objectionable. The Civil War presented slaveholding immigrants, and those that aspired to it, the opportunity to side with the Confederacy. While many German and Irish immigrants enlisted in the fight to preserve slavery, others avoided the conflict. Following the Civil War, German immigrants that had continued to operate their businesses during the war led efforts to rebuild the city. Reconstruction afforded German and Irish immigrants and African Americans political opportunities previously limited or denied. The majority of European immigrants supported the Democratic Party, the party of white supremacy, and African Americans chose the Republican Party.Less
Charleston, South Carolina, was a cosmopolitan city during the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Germans, Irish, and a host of European and Latin American immigrants shared the same workplaces, neighborhoods, streets, residences, and even households. Charleston was a slave society, and its economy relied on the forced labor of thousands of slaves. Immigrants also worked as entrepreneurs, skilled artisans, and laborers. Immigrants and African Americans interacted on a daily basis, and their relations were often positive. White southerners found those positive relations threatening, and nativist sentiments prevailed during the 1850s. Slaveholding meant economic and political power, and although some immigrants owned slaves many found it objectionable. The Civil War presented slaveholding immigrants, and those that aspired to it, the opportunity to side with the Confederacy. While many German and Irish immigrants enlisted in the fight to preserve slavery, others avoided the conflict. Following the Civil War, German immigrants that had continued to operate their businesses during the war led efforts to rebuild the city. Reconstruction afforded German and Irish immigrants and African Americans political opportunities previously limited or denied. The majority of European immigrants supported the Democratic Party, the party of white supremacy, and African Americans chose the Republican Party.
Jane Dailey
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195177862
- eISBN:
- 9780199870189
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195177862.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter asserts that segregationists were motivated by their fear of miscegenation to seek divine sanction for the separation of the races. It explains that in their reading of the Bible, ...
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This chapter asserts that segregationists were motivated by their fear of miscegenation to seek divine sanction for the separation of the races. It explains that in their reading of the Bible, segregationists make theological justification for their opposition to the atheistic Supreme Court decision. It adds that many of the ordinary white southerners who quoted Holy Scripture in support of segregation were women.Less
This chapter asserts that segregationists were motivated by their fear of miscegenation to seek divine sanction for the separation of the races. It explains that in their reading of the Bible, segregationists make theological justification for their opposition to the atheistic Supreme Court decision. It adds that many of the ordinary white southerners who quoted Holy Scripture in support of segregation were women.
Jeff Strickland
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813060798
- eISBN:
- 9780813050867
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813060798.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
Germans, Irish, and African Americans profoundly influenced municipal politics during the Reconstruction period. African Americans, Germans, and Irish immigrants took advantage of universal suffrage ...
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Germans, Irish, and African Americans profoundly influenced municipal politics during the Reconstruction period. African Americans, Germans, and Irish immigrants took advantage of universal suffrage to run for political office and exercise their right to vote. The majority of African Americans voted Republican, but a small minority moved toward the Democratic Party. The Germans were primarily Democrats, but some Germans supported the Republican Party and several even served as Republican Party officials. When German immigrants took control of the Democratic nomination conventions in Charleston during the 1870s, it caused considerable conflict with conservative white southerners and African American Republicans. The 1871, 1873, and 1875 municipal elections revealed significant ethnic divisions in both the Democratic and Republican parties that often led to violence. In 1871, a municipal riot occurred in which African Americans assaulted German shopkeepers and destroyed their property, which highlighted the growing tension between both groups. By the mid-1870s, first-generation German immigrants and second-generation German Southerners had become more middle class than ever before, and most Germans decided to support the Democratic Party even though it had returned to a white supremacist platform by 1876.Less
Germans, Irish, and African Americans profoundly influenced municipal politics during the Reconstruction period. African Americans, Germans, and Irish immigrants took advantage of universal suffrage to run for political office and exercise their right to vote. The majority of African Americans voted Republican, but a small minority moved toward the Democratic Party. The Germans were primarily Democrats, but some Germans supported the Republican Party and several even served as Republican Party officials. When German immigrants took control of the Democratic nomination conventions in Charleston during the 1870s, it caused considerable conflict with conservative white southerners and African American Republicans. The 1871, 1873, and 1875 municipal elections revealed significant ethnic divisions in both the Democratic and Republican parties that often led to violence. In 1871, a municipal riot occurred in which African Americans assaulted German shopkeepers and destroyed their property, which highlighted the growing tension between both groups. By the mid-1870s, first-generation German immigrants and second-generation German Southerners had become more middle class than ever before, and most Germans decided to support the Democratic Party even though it had returned to a white supremacist platform by 1876.
Kristina DuRocher
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813130019
- eISBN:
- 9780813135571
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813130019.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Social History
The emergence of the New South after the Civil War brought forth some innovative ideas about education and schooling in the region. White southerners refocused their education system by formalizing ...
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The emergence of the New South after the Civil War brought forth some innovative ideas about education and schooling in the region. White southerners refocused their education system by formalizing teacher training and creating an educational bureaucracy that allowed the creation of textbooks and reading materials that idealized the antebellum South, especially regarding race and gender roles. In these books, African American men were portrayed as either a “Coon,” “Sambo” or “Uncle Tom” – all three stereotypes represent black men as lazy, easily frightened, inarticulate, and unintelligent. On the other hand, adult black women played the role of “Mammy,” a maternal figure who cared faithfully for her white family and, in doing so, sacrificed her sexuality. Nowhere in these books was there ever any mention of the achievements of any African Americans. To prevent “improper” literature from reaching white children's hands, the school boards in the South created a suggested purchase list for public schools. Thus, schools became agents of socialization, and their choices reinforced the dominant cultural values of white society. There are a few novels, however, that offered counternarratives that humanize African Americans, pointed out the ironies of Jim Crow race relations, and illustrated how, by subtle ruses, an underling could gain a measure of power. While the works of Mark Twain and Joel Chandler Harris on the surface appear to reinforce white supremacy, a careful analysis would reveal an alternative discourse that could open the eyes of both white and black children to dissenting narratives about race within the plantation genre.Less
The emergence of the New South after the Civil War brought forth some innovative ideas about education and schooling in the region. White southerners refocused their education system by formalizing teacher training and creating an educational bureaucracy that allowed the creation of textbooks and reading materials that idealized the antebellum South, especially regarding race and gender roles. In these books, African American men were portrayed as either a “Coon,” “Sambo” or “Uncle Tom” – all three stereotypes represent black men as lazy, easily frightened, inarticulate, and unintelligent. On the other hand, adult black women played the role of “Mammy,” a maternal figure who cared faithfully for her white family and, in doing so, sacrificed her sexuality. Nowhere in these books was there ever any mention of the achievements of any African Americans. To prevent “improper” literature from reaching white children's hands, the school boards in the South created a suggested purchase list for public schools. Thus, schools became agents of socialization, and their choices reinforced the dominant cultural values of white society. There are a few novels, however, that offered counternarratives that humanize African Americans, pointed out the ironies of Jim Crow race relations, and illustrated how, by subtle ruses, an underling could gain a measure of power. While the works of Mark Twain and Joel Chandler Harris on the surface appear to reinforce white supremacy, a careful analysis would reveal an alternative discourse that could open the eyes of both white and black children to dissenting narratives about race within the plantation genre.
Kristina DuRocher
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813130019
- eISBN:
- 9780813135571
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813130019.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Social History
White southerners took advantage of the emergence of mass culture in the early twentieth century to reiterate their justifications for white dominance over African Americans and impart to their ...
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White southerners took advantage of the emergence of mass culture in the early twentieth century to reiterate their justifications for white dominance over African Americans and impart to their children a distorted version of southern history. National advertisement campaigns made use of evocative images of the South to reinforce the idealized racial roles of southern antebellum society that were also portrayed in public-school instructional materials. Much like southern history books, many toys portrayed African Americans as entertainment, reinforcing the idea that blacks enjoyed subserviently performing for whites. Mechanical toys encouraged male dominance and rewarded aggression, placing white boys in control of stereotypical figurines of black bodies. Even in the chants and rhymes that children recited during games and playground amusements, African Americans are often referred to in a derogatory manner or as deserving of some form of violence. Parents also encouraged their children to participate in school plays and become members of youth organizations, such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Children of the Confederacy, to prepare them for their future racial and gender roles.Less
White southerners took advantage of the emergence of mass culture in the early twentieth century to reiterate their justifications for white dominance over African Americans and impart to their children a distorted version of southern history. National advertisement campaigns made use of evocative images of the South to reinforce the idealized racial roles of southern antebellum society that were also portrayed in public-school instructional materials. Much like southern history books, many toys portrayed African Americans as entertainment, reinforcing the idea that blacks enjoyed subserviently performing for whites. Mechanical toys encouraged male dominance and rewarded aggression, placing white boys in control of stereotypical figurines of black bodies. Even in the chants and rhymes that children recited during games and playground amusements, African Americans are often referred to in a derogatory manner or as deserving of some form of violence. Parents also encouraged their children to participate in school plays and become members of youth organizations, such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Children of the Confederacy, to prepare them for their future racial and gender roles.
Kristina DuRocher
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813130019
- eISBN:
- 9780813135571
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813130019.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Social History
During the Jim Crow era, white southerners struggled to maintain cultural, political, and economic control as African Americans and reformers began to gain ground in their fight to eliminate ...
More
During the Jim Crow era, white southerners struggled to maintain cultural, political, and economic control as African Americans and reformers began to gain ground in their fight to eliminate segregation. With the absence of slavery, white adults feared that their children would grow up not knowing their proper racial and gender roles. Hence, southern adults focused on socializing white children into their racial beliefs by replicating and perpetuating the ideology and practices of white supremacy. The white community strengthened the race-related lessons learned at home as white youth attended segregated public schools and their newly published southern texts presented an idealized image of race relations and gender roles carefully crafted to reflect the concepts of white adults deemed appropriate for their children. White adults also took advantage of the emerging mass culture of youth, including advertising, toys, and games, to create an idealized image of white power by perpetuating racial caricatures of black bodies and suggestions that African Americans enjoyed their subservient roles. Because of their successful indoctrination into the mores of segregation and white supremacy, many white boys readily accepted mass mob lynching rituals and, at times, actively participated in them. White girls capitalized on their idealized image of passive, protected females to gain some measure of social power. The violent enforcement of segregation in the Jim Crow era began to fade in the early twentieth century and during World War II as African Americans succeeded in bringing the problem to national attention. Many white southerners stopped attempting to enforce white supremacy in 1939, and with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, they no longer had unchallenged exclusive access to southern institutions and society became increasingly intolerant of open examples of extralegal violence.Less
During the Jim Crow era, white southerners struggled to maintain cultural, political, and economic control as African Americans and reformers began to gain ground in their fight to eliminate segregation. With the absence of slavery, white adults feared that their children would grow up not knowing their proper racial and gender roles. Hence, southern adults focused on socializing white children into their racial beliefs by replicating and perpetuating the ideology and practices of white supremacy. The white community strengthened the race-related lessons learned at home as white youth attended segregated public schools and their newly published southern texts presented an idealized image of race relations and gender roles carefully crafted to reflect the concepts of white adults deemed appropriate for their children. White adults also took advantage of the emerging mass culture of youth, including advertising, toys, and games, to create an idealized image of white power by perpetuating racial caricatures of black bodies and suggestions that African Americans enjoyed their subservient roles. Because of their successful indoctrination into the mores of segregation and white supremacy, many white boys readily accepted mass mob lynching rituals and, at times, actively participated in them. White girls capitalized on their idealized image of passive, protected females to gain some measure of social power. The violent enforcement of segregation in the Jim Crow era began to fade in the early twentieth century and during World War II as African Americans succeeded in bringing the problem to national attention. Many white southerners stopped attempting to enforce white supremacy in 1939, and with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, they no longer had unchallenged exclusive access to southern institutions and society became increasingly intolerant of open examples of extralegal violence.
Andrew L. Slap
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823227099
- eISBN:
- 9780823234998
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823227099.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Political History
This chapter discusses the liberal republicans' goals for Reconstruction—restoring republican government, incorporating freed slaves into Southern society with basic ...
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This chapter discusses the liberal republicans' goals for Reconstruction—restoring republican government, incorporating freed slaves into Southern society with basic protections, and changing the basis of that society—and the reasons they failed to implement their program fully. The liberal republicans had a dilemma: How was it possible to have the strong federal government necessary for implementing Reconstruction without destroying the republican institutions they considered so essential? How could they institute changes and create republican institutions without using the strong-armed tactics that they opposed? In the end, the intransigence of President Andrew Johnson and white Southerners generally in the face of attempts at change led liberal republicans to support a more extensive Reconstruction that made it necessary to use seemingly tyrannical power. Ultimately, they concluded that the South had been reconstructed as much as it could be without destroying republican government in the country, and the compromise they reached was unsatisfying.Less
This chapter discusses the liberal republicans' goals for Reconstruction—restoring republican government, incorporating freed slaves into Southern society with basic protections, and changing the basis of that society—and the reasons they failed to implement their program fully. The liberal republicans had a dilemma: How was it possible to have the strong federal government necessary for implementing Reconstruction without destroying the republican institutions they considered so essential? How could they institute changes and create republican institutions without using the strong-armed tactics that they opposed? In the end, the intransigence of President Andrew Johnson and white Southerners generally in the face of attempts at change led liberal republicans to support a more extensive Reconstruction that made it necessary to use seemingly tyrannical power. Ultimately, they concluded that the South had been reconstructed as much as it could be without destroying republican government in the country, and the compromise they reached was unsatisfying.
Jeff Strickland
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813060798
- eISBN:
- 9780813050867
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813060798.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
German and Irish immigrants interacted with slaves and free blacks in Charleston on a daily basis and in a variety of social and economic contexts. The brutality of urban slavery was unmistakable as ...
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German and Irish immigrants interacted with slaves and free blacks in Charleston on a daily basis and in a variety of social and economic contexts. The brutality of urban slavery was unmistakable as public punishment of slaves and free blacks by city authorities, mainly at the work house, was a common occurrence. German petty entrepreneurs were middlemen minorities that served as a buffer between African Americans and native-born whites. Germans owned and operated successful groceries and wholesale firms, and they often purchased property in the form of two-or three-story houses with stores on the ground level. Germans owned slaves at a rate consistent with their population numbers in 1850. Irish immigrants who could afford slaves purchased them with regularity. German men with few marital prospects among the native-born white population kept enslaved women as concubines. German and Irish petty shopkeepers undermined the slave system when they sold liquor to slaves and traded with slaves for property requisitioned from their masters. White Southerners disapproved of German and Irish shopkeepers who challenged their authority, and they reorganized the police force to better enforce the slave code.Less
German and Irish immigrants interacted with slaves and free blacks in Charleston on a daily basis and in a variety of social and economic contexts. The brutality of urban slavery was unmistakable as public punishment of slaves and free blacks by city authorities, mainly at the work house, was a common occurrence. German petty entrepreneurs were middlemen minorities that served as a buffer between African Americans and native-born whites. Germans owned and operated successful groceries and wholesale firms, and they often purchased property in the form of two-or three-story houses with stores on the ground level. Germans owned slaves at a rate consistent with their population numbers in 1850. Irish immigrants who could afford slaves purchased them with regularity. German men with few marital prospects among the native-born white population kept enslaved women as concubines. German and Irish petty shopkeepers undermined the slave system when they sold liquor to slaves and traded with slaves for property requisitioned from their masters. White Southerners disapproved of German and Irish shopkeepers who challenged their authority, and they reorganized the police force to better enforce the slave code.
Angie Maxwell
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781469611648
- eISBN:
- 9781469614519
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469611648.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This introductory chapter sets out the book’s purpose, which is to re-examine distinct groups of white southerners that were impacted by the media spotlight via the lens of inferiority. It ...
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This introductory chapter sets out the book’s purpose, which is to re-examine distinct groups of white southerners that were impacted by the media spotlight via the lens of inferiority. It demonstrates how public criticism and a common experience of inferiority contributed to white southern conservatism and homogeneity, which has survived and prospered with dogged perseverance. The chapter also discusses the roots of inferiority; the process of public criticism; the mutually constructive relationship of individual, regional, and national identities; and the overdetermination of southern whiteness.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the book’s purpose, which is to re-examine distinct groups of white southerners that were impacted by the media spotlight via the lens of inferiority. It demonstrates how public criticism and a common experience of inferiority contributed to white southern conservatism and homogeneity, which has survived and prospered with dogged perseverance. The chapter also discusses the roots of inferiority; the process of public criticism; the mutually constructive relationship of individual, regional, and national identities; and the overdetermination of southern whiteness.
Jeff Strickland
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780813060798
- eISBN:
- 9780813050867
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813060798.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
The interaction of German and Irish immigrants, enslaved and free African Americans, and white Southerners defined the social, economic and political developments in Civil War–era Charleston. Slavery ...
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The interaction of German and Irish immigrants, enslaved and free African Americans, and white Southerners defined the social, economic and political developments in Civil War–era Charleston. Slavery and emancipation profoundly influenced relations between European immigrants and black and white Southerners. Immigrant artisans and entrepreneurs occupied a middle tier on a racial and ethnic hierarchy, often acting as a buffer between white Southerners and African Americans and alleviating tensions between the castes. The introduction discusses sources, historiography, and details the contents of each chapter.Less
The interaction of German and Irish immigrants, enslaved and free African Americans, and white Southerners defined the social, economic and political developments in Civil War–era Charleston. Slavery and emancipation profoundly influenced relations between European immigrants and black and white Southerners. Immigrant artisans and entrepreneurs occupied a middle tier on a racial and ethnic hierarchy, often acting as a buffer between white Southerners and African Americans and alleviating tensions between the castes. The introduction discusses sources, historiography, and details the contents of each chapter.
Jason Morgan Ward
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807835135
- eISBN:
- 9781469602547
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807869222_ward
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
After the Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional in 1954, southern white backlash seemed to explode overnight. Journalists profiled the rise of a segregationist movement committed to ...
More
After the Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional in 1954, southern white backlash seemed to explode overnight. Journalists profiled the rise of a segregationist movement committed to preserving the “southern way of life” through a campaign of massive resistance. This book reconsiders the origins of this white resistance, arguing that southern conservatives began mobilizing against civil rights some years earlier, in the era before World War II, when the New Deal politics of the mid-1930s threatened the monopoly on power that whites held in the South. As it shows, years before “segregationist” became a badge of honor for civil rights opponents, many white southerners resisted racial change at every turn—launching a preemptive campaign aimed at preserving a social order that they saw as under siege. By the time of the Brown decision, segregationists had amassed an arsenal of tested tactics and arguments to deploy against the civil rights movement in the coming battles. Connecting the racial controversies of the New Deal era to the more familiar confrontations of the 1950s and 1960s, the book uncovers a parallel history of segregationist opposition that mirrors the new focus on the long civil rights movement and raises troubling questions about the enduring influence of segregation's defenders.Less
After the Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional in 1954, southern white backlash seemed to explode overnight. Journalists profiled the rise of a segregationist movement committed to preserving the “southern way of life” through a campaign of massive resistance. This book reconsiders the origins of this white resistance, arguing that southern conservatives began mobilizing against civil rights some years earlier, in the era before World War II, when the New Deal politics of the mid-1930s threatened the monopoly on power that whites held in the South. As it shows, years before “segregationist” became a badge of honor for civil rights opponents, many white southerners resisted racial change at every turn—launching a preemptive campaign aimed at preserving a social order that they saw as under siege. By the time of the Brown decision, segregationists had amassed an arsenal of tested tactics and arguments to deploy against the civil rights movement in the coming battles. Connecting the racial controversies of the New Deal era to the more familiar confrontations of the 1950s and 1960s, the book uncovers a parallel history of segregationist opposition that mirrors the new focus on the long civil rights movement and raises troubling questions about the enduring influence of segregation's defenders.
Lacy K. Ford,
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195118094
- eISBN:
- 9780199870936
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195118094.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
A major contribution to our understanding of slavery in the early republic, this book illuminates the white South's twisted and tortured efforts to justify slavery, focusing on the period from the ...
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A major contribution to our understanding of slavery in the early republic, this book illuminates the white South's twisted and tortured efforts to justify slavery, focusing on the period from the drafting of the federal constitution in 1787 through the age of Jackson. Drawing on primary sources, including newspapers, government documents, legislative records, pamphlets, and speeches, this book recaptures the varied and sometimes contradictory ideas and attitudes held by groups of white southerners as they debated the slavery question. The book conveys the political, intellectual, economic, and social thought of leading white southerners, vividly recreating the mental world of the varied actors. The book also shows that there was not one antebellum South but many, and not one southern white mindset but several, with the debates over slavery in the upper South quite different in substance from those in the deep South.Less
A major contribution to our understanding of slavery in the early republic, this book illuminates the white South's twisted and tortured efforts to justify slavery, focusing on the period from the drafting of the federal constitution in 1787 through the age of Jackson. Drawing on primary sources, including newspapers, government documents, legislative records, pamphlets, and speeches, this book recaptures the varied and sometimes contradictory ideas and attitudes held by groups of white southerners as they debated the slavery question. The book conveys the political, intellectual, economic, and social thought of leading white southerners, vividly recreating the mental world of the varied actors. The book also shows that there was not one antebellum South but many, and not one southern white mindset but several, with the debates over slavery in the upper South quite different in substance from those in the deep South.
Anne Sarah Rubin
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807829288
- eISBN:
- 9781469604831
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807888957_rubin
- Subject:
- History, American History: Civil War
Historians often assert that Confederate nationalism had its origins in pre-Civil War sectional conflict with the North, reached its apex at the start of the war, and then dropped off quickly after ...
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Historians often assert that Confederate nationalism had its origins in pre-Civil War sectional conflict with the North, reached its apex at the start of the war, and then dropped off quickly after the end of hostilities. This book argues instead that white Southerners did not actually begin to formulate a national identity until it became evident that the Confederacy was destined to fight a lengthy war against the Union. It also demonstrates that an attachment to a symbolic or sentimental Confederacy existed independent of the political Confederacy and was therefore able to persist well after the collapse of the Confederate state. White Southerners redefined symbols and figures of the failed state as emotional touchstones and political rallying points in the struggle to retain local (and racial) control, even as former Confederates took the loyalty oath and applied for pardons in droves. Exploring the creation, maintenance, and transformation of Confederate identity during the tumultuous years of the Civil War and Reconstruction, the book sheds light on the ways in which Confederates felt connected to their national creation, and provides an example of what happens when a nation disintegrates and leaves its people behind to forge a new identity.Less
Historians often assert that Confederate nationalism had its origins in pre-Civil War sectional conflict with the North, reached its apex at the start of the war, and then dropped off quickly after the end of hostilities. This book argues instead that white Southerners did not actually begin to formulate a national identity until it became evident that the Confederacy was destined to fight a lengthy war against the Union. It also demonstrates that an attachment to a symbolic or sentimental Confederacy existed independent of the political Confederacy and was therefore able to persist well after the collapse of the Confederate state. White Southerners redefined symbols and figures of the failed state as emotional touchstones and political rallying points in the struggle to retain local (and racial) control, even as former Confederates took the loyalty oath and applied for pardons in droves. Exploring the creation, maintenance, and transformation of Confederate identity during the tumultuous years of the Civil War and Reconstruction, the book sheds light on the ways in which Confederates felt connected to their national creation, and provides an example of what happens when a nation disintegrates and leaves its people behind to forge a new identity.
Robert E., Jr. Luckett
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781496802699
- eISBN:
- 9781496802736
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496802699.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
As Mississippi's attorney general from 1956 to 1969, Joe T. Patterson led the legal defense for Jim Crow in the state. He was inaugurated for his first term two months before the launch of the ...
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As Mississippi's attorney general from 1956 to 1969, Joe T. Patterson led the legal defense for Jim Crow in the state. He was inaugurated for his first term two months before the launch of the Sovereignty Commission. Patterson supported the organization's mission from the start and served as an ex-officio leader on its board for the rest of his life. He was also a card-carrying member of the segregationist Citizens' Council. Few ever doubted his Jim Crow credentials. That is until September 1962 and the integration of the University of Mississippi by James Meredith. Patterson stepped out of his entrenchment by defying a circle of white power brokers, but only to a point. His seeming acquiescence came at the height of the biggest crisis for Mississippi's racist order. Yet even after the U.S. Supreme Court decreed that Meredith must enter the university, Patterson opposed any further desegregation and despised the federal intervention. Still he faced a dilemma that confronted all white southerners: how to maintain an artificially elevated position for whites in southern society without resorting to violence or intimidation. Once the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Meredith v. Fair, the state attorney general walked a strategic tightrope, looking to temper the ruling's impact without inciting the mob and without retreating any further. Patterson and others sought pragmatic answers to the dilemma of white southerners, to offer a more durable version of white power.Less
As Mississippi's attorney general from 1956 to 1969, Joe T. Patterson led the legal defense for Jim Crow in the state. He was inaugurated for his first term two months before the launch of the Sovereignty Commission. Patterson supported the organization's mission from the start and served as an ex-officio leader on its board for the rest of his life. He was also a card-carrying member of the segregationist Citizens' Council. Few ever doubted his Jim Crow credentials. That is until September 1962 and the integration of the University of Mississippi by James Meredith. Patterson stepped out of his entrenchment by defying a circle of white power brokers, but only to a point. His seeming acquiescence came at the height of the biggest crisis for Mississippi's racist order. Yet even after the U.S. Supreme Court decreed that Meredith must enter the university, Patterson opposed any further desegregation and despised the federal intervention. Still he faced a dilemma that confronted all white southerners: how to maintain an artificially elevated position for whites in southern society without resorting to violence or intimidation. Once the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Meredith v. Fair, the state attorney general walked a strategic tightrope, looking to temper the ruling's impact without inciting the mob and without retreating any further. Patterson and others sought pragmatic answers to the dilemma of white southerners, to offer a more durable version of white power.
Angie Maxwell
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781469611648
- eISBN:
- 9781469614519
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469611648.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter focuses on journalist H. L. Mencken, attorney Clarence Darrow, and politician and activist William Jennings Bryan, whose interactions contributed to a collective regional identity for ...
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This chapter focuses on journalist H. L. Mencken, attorney Clarence Darrow, and politician and activist William Jennings Bryan, whose interactions contributed to a collective regional identity for white southerners. The Scopes Evolution Trial transformed the three men into regional symbols of competing cultural and political values that remain relevant today. Darrow and Mencken (and the larger body of journalists that he represented) would be demonized as liberal skeptics, embracing modernism and the debauchery and chaos that would surely follow. Bryan would come to represent the cause of religious fundamentalism and states’ rights.Less
This chapter focuses on journalist H. L. Mencken, attorney Clarence Darrow, and politician and activist William Jennings Bryan, whose interactions contributed to a collective regional identity for white southerners. The Scopes Evolution Trial transformed the three men into regional symbols of competing cultural and political values that remain relevant today. Darrow and Mencken (and the larger body of journalists that he represented) would be demonized as liberal skeptics, embracing modernism and the debauchery and chaos that would surely follow. Bryan would come to represent the cause of religious fundamentalism and states’ rights.
Paul Yandle
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807832226
- eISBN:
- 9781469601649
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807837269_escott.11
- Subject:
- History, American History: Civil War
This chapter focuses on Paul Gaston's The New South Creed, in which he notes the unanimity with which white southerners saw themselves as the protectors of African Americans in a segregated society ...
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This chapter focuses on Paul Gaston's The New South Creed, in which he notes the unanimity with which white southerners saw themselves as the protectors of African Americans in a segregated society after the postwar amendments to the Constitution provided the slaves with freedom and United States citizenship. Gaston's work is probably the most recognizable of those covering the development of a “New South” philosophy in newspaper and magazine articles and lectures written and given between the 1860s and 1890s. Gaston presents an array of newspaper editors and southern men of letters who provided the public with pictures of an industrialized, self-sufficient, segregated South that allowed politicians and jurists to undo the gains African Americans had made during Reconstruction and to move toward Jim Crow.Less
This chapter focuses on Paul Gaston's The New South Creed, in which he notes the unanimity with which white southerners saw themselves as the protectors of African Americans in a segregated society after the postwar amendments to the Constitution provided the slaves with freedom and United States citizenship. Gaston's work is probably the most recognizable of those covering the development of a “New South” philosophy in newspaper and magazine articles and lectures written and given between the 1860s and 1890s. Gaston presents an array of newspaper editors and southern men of letters who provided the public with pictures of an industrialized, self-sufficient, segregated South that allowed politicians and jurists to undo the gains African Americans had made during Reconstruction and to move toward Jim Crow.
Angie Maxwell
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781469611648
- eISBN:
- 9781469614519
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469611648.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter discusses how southern communities that perceived themselves to be under siege retreated physically, artistically, or politically and established a new defiant reality. They also ...
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This chapter discusses how southern communities that perceived themselves to be under siege retreated physically, artistically, or politically and established a new defiant reality. They also grounded this reality in the textual authority of the Bible, the literary work, or the Constitution, respectively. This alternate sense of authority acted as an anchor, to which these white southerners held tightly, in a storm of change and uncertainty.Less
This chapter discusses how southern communities that perceived themselves to be under siege retreated physically, artistically, or politically and established a new defiant reality. They also grounded this reality in the textual authority of the Bible, the literary work, or the Constitution, respectively. This alternate sense of authority acted as an anchor, to which these white southerners held tightly, in a storm of change and uncertainty.
