DOCSLIB.ORG

African American Men, Family, and Labor in Post-Emancipation Georgia

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
African American Men, Family, and Labor in Post-Emancipation Georgia Railroading Black Families: African American Men, Family, and Labor in Post-Emancipation Georgia by CaVar Reid A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (American Culture) in The University of Michigan 2016 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Stephen Berrey, Chair Assistant Professor Brandi S. Hughes Professor Martha S. Jones Professor Regina Morantz- Sanchez Professor Alford A. Young Jr. Daniel prayed and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are His: And He changeth the times and the seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings: He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: He revealeth the deep and secret things: He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him. I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king's matter. Daniel 2: 20-23 © CaVar Reid 2016 ii Dedication This work is dedicated to the memory of Sister Veronica Mullings, one of my favorite teammates and ministry partners. She was a tall, statuesque, singer/teacher/preacher, with broad shoulders, a bright smile and a big voice. She had a baker’s touch, stood with perfect posture, and spoke with almost flawless diction. Sis. Mullings was one of the finest Christians I’ve ever known. iii Acknowledgements I am so grateful that the Lord has given me the grace to complete this project. He gave me peace, joy, and creative ideas when all I had was anxiety, vague dissertation thoughts, and a blank, untitled word document. Along this journey, He sent people to challenge me, nurture me, and advocate for me. He blessed me with fine mentors, helpful colleagues, a host of workout partners, and a supportive church family. God is so good to me. My parents, Courton and Claudette Reid, were my loudest cheerleaders and my most constant encouragers throughout this process. They made sure our family home was a place I could study, cry, pray, and laugh. They made sure I never felt alone and helped to bear my burdens. I am so grateful for them. I cannot say enough about my brothers either. Over the past five years, Caryl and Caraun have graduated, started careers, scored touchdowns, and received promotions and accolades, yet they haven’t forgotten me. They’ve selflessly given me their time, food, clothes, words of advice, and many jokes. Mommy always says that our family is a team; I certainly couldn’t have made it without my team. I have a number of wonderful faculty members to thank as well. Dr. Alford Young Jr. is my mentor, but calling him a mentor does not even begin to describe the scope of the role he has played in my life. He’s been an ally, a role model, confidant, employer, teacher, and a sounding board. Daddy always tells me, “Great people need to know how to walk with kings but not lose the common touch.” To me, Dr. Young embodies this standard. I pattern so much of my mentoring approach after his example. I am proud to be his mentee. I met Dr. Claire Potter nine years ago when I was a freshman at Wesleyan University. What started as a university assigned faculty-student connection has blossomed into a decade long mentorship. She was the first faculty member to ever tell me I was smart. That was huge for me, a black kid from the Bronx attending a predominantly white institution. She took the time to help me develop my research and writing iv skills. She encouraged me to apply to graduate school. And, when my dissertation was in shambles and my career vision was muddy, she offered timely advice and a listening ear. She has been critical to my success. When folks ask how I finished the Ph.D. in five years, I often tell them it’s because Prof. Stephen Berry and I are the perfect dissertation chair-graduate student pairing. We’re both punctual, professional, and personable. I liked working with firm deadlines and he was good at holding me accountable to them. Our meetings were always productive; He always came with timely, critical, and well thought out feedback. And, at the end of this process, when I just wanted to get the dissertation done, he pushed me to make sure it was well done. I really mean it when I say, he is the best kept secret in the American Culture Department. I am grateful for Prof. Gina Morantz- Sanchez, my intellectual godmother. She trained to me think critically about masculinity, manhood, gender, and class. She’s also the toughest teacher and editor I’ve ever worked with. I am a better thinker and reader because of our time together. I am also thankful for Prof. Martha Jones and Prof. Brandi Hughes who were vital members of committee. Anyone who attended my dissertation defense knows just how brilliant these women are and how they demand excellence from their students. Outside of the classroom, a host of family members and friends came alongside me and help me run this race. Thank you to my Auntie Adlin who made all my Michigan residences look like something out of HGTV. We Palmers certainly know style! She also housed, chauffeured, and fed me while I was conducting research in Georgia. Auntie Jennifer and Bro. Lee also welcomed me into their home while I mined the archives in D.C. and Maryland. Thank you for helping me combine research and pleasure! I would have burned out if you all weren’t willing to take me bowling, golfing, and fishing. I needed that. I received immense support from my Wesleyan University sisters. They’ve believed in me ever since I had the thought of going to graduate school. Sisters, all our “Colored Conferences,” long conversations at Usdan, and Facebook posts about Switched at Birth and have resulted in something wonderful! Let me specially mention my sisters Carolyn Sinclair McCalla and Angela Dixon. Thanks for being true friends. You are the best. My Mom’s grandmother used to say, “If you have more friends than you can count on one hand, you have too many.” She’d definitely say I have too many. I’ve made quite a few meaningful relationships while in Michigan that I’d like to honor. During my first year of graduate school, I happened upon an elite group of athletes who meet three days a week to play basketball at the North Campus Gym. Over the years, many of these men have become like family to me— like cool, adopted uncles. v I am grateful for the environment they cultivated in which I could hear and make jokes, burn calories, and get my mind off my academic pressures. Antonio “Abuelo” McCormack Ramirez, Kyera Singleton, Tamarie Macon, Elder Austin McCoy, and Lloyd Danny Barba are my closest graduate student friends. When I needed to vent, go to Buffalo Wild Wings, get out of town, figure out how to format the dissertation, or craft a cover letter, these were my people! My relationship with each of them goes beyond academia and I am thankful for their presence in my life. Pastor Eddie Marcum and the brethren from the River of Life Assembly of God in Belleville, Michigan received me into their church community. There, I wasn’t a visiting graduate student; They embraced me as a brother who wanted to serve the Lord, serve the church, and serve people. At times, my scholarship seemed like the most important thing in the world. The church helped keep me spiritually grounded and eternally minded. I’d like to specially mention a few of my friends and co-laborers in the ministry: The Marcum Families and the Hall Family. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. Thank you. Lastly, I want to honor the members and friends of my home church, the City of Faith Church of God in Bronx, New York. Ever since I was a child, the saints here have been speaking greatness and possibility into my life. By faith, they called those things that were not as though they were. All along this tedious journey, they interceded for me and believed with me. I am grateful for the church. This is dissertation will forever stand as a testimony that we Holiness Pentecostal folks aren’t just very saved; we’re very smart too. We can spend long hours at the altar and at the library. We can victory over our flesh and over our textbooks. Thank you for every prayer, sincere word of encouragement, and every “God Bless You.” Though our vision tarried it has come to pass. vi Table of Contents Dedication ...................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... iii Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Black Fathers, Families, and White Labor Interests from Slavery to Southern Reconstruction ............................................................................................................ 31 Chapter 2: “He was Master Now”: Work-Family Dynamics in Black Sharecropping Households ................................................................................................................................. 73 Chapter 3: Bond, Free, and Temporary: Georgia’s Black Railroad Laborers, 1850-1914 .......... 119 Chapter 4: Derailing White Manhood: Georgia’s Black Locomotive Firemen, 1880-1914 ....... 150 Chapter 5: Hammer in the Hand, Home on the Heart: Negotiating Relational and Work Identity in Black Railroad Work Songs ........................................................................... 204 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 239 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 245 1 Introduction Workin’ on de railroad, fifty cents a day. De boss at de comp’ny sto sign all I makes Away. Mammy po’ly write, “Please sen’ money, Son.” But I ain’t got no ready made money! But I ain’t go no ready made money, my God Damn black soul I can’t send her none Not long after Civil War hostilities came to an end General Clinton B.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Professor Russell Duncan CV [email protected] Personal
    INSTITUT FOR ENGELSK , GERMANSK OG ROMANS K KØBENHAVNS UNIVERSIT ET Professor Russell Duncan CV [email protected] Personal: 01.JULY 2011 Citizenship: USA Resident Status: Denmark (since 1998) Home Address: Skaboeshusevænget 1, 5800 Nyborg, Denmark NJALSGADE 130 Born: 30 May 1951, Statesboro, Georgia, USA 2300 COPENHAGEN S DIR 35328577 Education: 1988 Ph.D. History, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA [email protected] 1984 M.A. History, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA 1975 M.S. Sociology, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, Georgia, USA 1973 B.S. Political Science (emphasis on Criminal Justice), Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia, USA Employment: 2004- Professor of History and Social Studies in the English-Speaking World, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 1998-03 Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 1997-98 Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway 1996-97 Associate Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway 1993-96 Associate Professor, John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA 1989-93 Assistant Professor, John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA 1988-89 Assistant Professor, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA 1982-88 M.A. and PhD. Student, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA 1975-82 Flight Instructor/Captain, RF4-C reconnaissance aircraft, United States Air Force, Zweibrücken, Germany 1973-75 Special Agent, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Atlanta, Georgia, USA Publications: SIDE 2 AF 16 Books: Contemporary America (with Joseph Goddard). 3rd Edition. Contemporary States and Societies Series. London: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2009. Beijing: Renmin University Press, 2009. Bucharest: University of Bucharest Press, 2010. Transnational America: Contours of Modern US Culture (ed. with Clara Juncker), Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen/Museum Tusculanum Press, 2004.
    [Show full text]
  • Varieties of Familialism: Comparing Four Southern European and East Asian Welfare Regimes
    A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Saraceno, Chiara Article — Published Version Varieties of familialism: Comparing four southern European and East Asian welfare regimes Journal of european social policy Provided in Cooperation with: WZB Berlin Social Science Center Suggested Citation: Saraceno, Chiara (2016) : Varieties of familialism: Comparing four southern European and East Asian welfare regimes, Journal of european social policy, ISSN 1461-7269, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, Vol. 26, Iss. 4, pp. 314–326, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0958928716657275 This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/171966 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. www.econstor.eu ESP0010.1177/0958928716657275Journal of European Social PolicySaraceno 657275research-article2016 Journal Of European Article Social Policy Journal of European Social Policy 2016, Vol.
    [Show full text]
  • Value All Care, Value Every Family
    Value All Care, Value Every Family familyvaluesatwork.org Value All Care, Value Every Family More and more people of all political persuasions acknowledge that paid leave is an issue whose time has come. As we enter the “not if but when” stage of creating public policy, we need to make sure the program values all care and values every family. Parents urgently need paid time to welcome a new child into their homes. But more than three-quarters of those who take unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act do so to care for a loved one or for their own serious illness. Our paid leave program cannot leave them out. The stories in this booklet come from people across the country. Each of them faced an unexpected injury or illness, like most of us do at some point. And like us, they just want to take care of themselves and their loved ones without falling off an economic cliff. It would be very difficult to cure or prevent all the ailments described in this booklet. But it should not be difficult to reach bipartisan agreement on a paid leave plan that is accessible for all kinds of care and affordable to every family. familyvaluesatwork.org • The Impact of Our Wins Caring For Yourself familyvaluesatwork.org • Value All Care, Value Every Family Caring For Yourself Janet Valencia, Tucson, Arizona everal years ago when I was a single mom I worked as a registered nurse in Tucson, often through an agency with no paid leave. I did this so that I could arrange to work and also take care of my children.
    [Show full text]
  • Twin Cities Public Television, Slavery by Another Name
    Narrative Section of a Successful Application The attached document contains the grant narrative and selected portions of a previously funded grant application. It is not intended to serve as a model, but to give you a sense of how a successful application may be crafted. Every successful application is different, and each applicant is urged to prepare a proposal that reflects its unique project and aspirations. Prospective applicants should consult the Public Programs application guidelines at http://www.neh.gov/grants/public/americas-media-makers-production-grants for instructions. Applicants are also strongly encouraged to consult with the NEH Division of Public Programs staff well before a grant deadline. Note: The attachment only contains the grant narrative and selected portions, not the entire funded application. In addition, certain portions may have been redacted to protect the privacy interests of an individual and/or to protect confidential commercial and financial information and/or to protect copyrighted materials. Project Title: Slavery By Another Name Institution: Twin Cities Public Television, Inc. Project Director: Catherine Allan Grant Program: America’s Media Makers: Production Grants 1100 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Rm. 426, Washington, D.C. 20506 P 202.606.8269 F 202.606.8557 E [email protected] www.neh.gov SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME NARRATIVE A. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION Twin Cities Public Television requests a production grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for a multi-platform initiative entitled Slavery by Another Name based upon the 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning book written by Wall Street Journal reporter Douglas Blackmon. Slavery by Another Name recounts how in the years following the Civil War, insidious new forms of forced labor emerged in the American South, keeping hundreds of thousands of African Americans in bondage, trapping them in a brutal system that would persist until the onset of World War II.
    [Show full text]
  • The New Right
    W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 1984 The New Right Elizabeth Julia Reiley College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Reiley, Elizabeth Julia, "The New Right" (1984). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539625286. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-mnnb-at94 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE NEW RIGHT 'f A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Sociology The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Elizabeth Reiley 1984 This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Elizabeth Approved, May 1984 Edwin H . Rhyn< Satoshi Ito Dedicated to Pat Thanks, brother, for sharing your love, your life, and for making us laugh. We feel you with us still. Presente! iii. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................... v ABSTRACT.................................... vi INTRODUCTION ................................ s 1 CHAPTER I. THE NEW RIGHT . '............ 6 CHAPTER II. THE 1980 ELECTIONS . 52 CHAPTER III. THE PRO-FAMILY COALITION . 69 CHAPTER IV. THE NEW RIGHT: BEYOND 1980 95 CHAPTER V. CONCLUSION ............... 114 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................. 130 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writer wishes to express her appreciation to all the members of her committee for the time they gave to the reading and criticism of the manuscript, especially Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • The Art and Science of Framing an Issue
    MAPThe Art and Science of Framing an Issue Authors Contributing Editors © January 2008, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the Movement Advancement Project (MAP). All rights reserved. “Ideas are a medium of exchange and a mode of influence even more powerful than money, votes and guns. … Ideas are at the center of all political conflict.” —Deborah Stone, Policy Process Scholar, 2002 The Art and Science of 1 Framing an Issue an Issue and Science of Framing Art The The Battle Over Ideas 2 Understanding How People Think 2 What Is Framing? 4 Levels of Framing 5 Tying to Values 6 Why Should I Spend Resources on Framing? 6 How Do I Frame My Issue? 7 Step 1. Understand the Mindset of Your Target Audience 7 Step 2. Know When Your Current Frames Aren’t Working 7 Step 3. Know the Elements of a Frame 7 Step 4. Speak to People’s Core Values 9 Step 5. Avoid Using Opponents’ Frames, Even to Dispute Them 9 Step 6. Keep Your Tone Reasonable 10 Step 7. Avoid Partisan Cues 10 Step 8. Build a New Frame 10 Step 9. Stick With Your Message 11 “Ideas are a medium of exchange and a mode of influence even more powerful than money, votes and guns. … Ideas are at the center of all political conflict.” —Deborah Stone, Policy Process Scholar, 2002 2 The Battle Over Ideas Are we exploring for oil that’s desperately needed to drive our economy and sustain our nation? Or are we Think back to when you were 10 years old, staring at destroying delicate ecological systems and natural your dinner plate, empty except for a pile of soggy– lands that are a legacy to our grandchildren? These looking green vegetables.
    [Show full text]
  • 'They Made Gullah': Modernist Primitivists and The
    “ ‘They Made Gullah’: Modernist Primitivists and the Discovery and Creation of Sapelo Island, Georgia’s Gullah Community, 1915-1991” By Melissa L. Cooper A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in History written under the direction of Dr. Mia Bay and approved by New Brunswick, New Jersey January 2012 2012 Melissa L. Cooper ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION “ ‘They Made Gullah’: Modernist Primitivists and the Discovery and Creation of Sapelo Island, Georgia’s Gullah Community, 1915-1991” by Melissa L. Cooper Dissertation Director: Dr. Mia Bay ABSTRACT: The history of Sapelo Islanders in published works reveals a complex cast of characters, each one working through ideas about racial distinction and inheritance; African culture and spirituality; and the legacy of slavery during the most turbulent years in America’s race-making history. Feuding social scientists, adventure seeking journalists, amateur folklorists, and other writers, initiated and shaped the perception of Sapelo Islanders’ distinct connection to Africa during the 1920s and 1930s, and labeled them “Gullah.” These researchers characterized the “Gullah,” as being uniquely connected to their African past, and as a population among whom African “survivals” were readily observable. This dissertation argues that the popular view of Sapelo Islanders’ “uniqueness” was the product of changing formulations about race and racial distinction in America. Consequently, the “discovery” of Sapelo Island’s Gullah folk was more a sign of times than an anthropological discovery. This dissertation interrogates the intellectual motives of the researchers and writers who have explored Sapelo Islanders in their works, and argues that the advent of American Modernism, the development of new social scientific theories and popular cultural works during the 1920s and 1930s, and other trends shaped their depictions.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Cincinnati
    UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date:_December 13, 2006_ I, James Michael Rhyne______________________________________, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: Doctor of Philosophy in: History It is entitled: Rehearsal for Redemption: The Politics of Post-Emancipation Violence in Kentucky’s Bluegrass Region This work and its defense approved by: Chair: _Wayne K. Durrill_____________ _Christopher Phillips_________ _Wendy Kline__________________ _Linda Przybyszewski__________ Rehearsal for Redemption: The Politics of Post-Emancipation Violence in Kentucky’s Bluegrass Region A Dissertation submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in the Department of History of the College of Arts and Sciences 2006 By James Michael Rhyne M.A., Western Carolina University, 1997 M-Div., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1989 B.A., Wake Forest University, 1982 Committee Chair: Professor Wayne K. Durrill Abstract Rehearsal for Redemption: The Politics of Post-Emancipation Violence in Kentucky’s Bluegrass Region By James Michael Rhyne In the late antebellum period, changing economic and social realities fostered conflicts among Kentuckians as tension built over a number of issues, especially the future of slavery. Local clashes matured into widespread, violent confrontations during the Civil War, as an ugly guerrilla war raged through much of the state. Additionally, African Americans engaged in a wartime contest over the meaning of freedom. Nowhere were these interconnected conflicts more clearly evidenced than in the Bluegrass Region. Though Kentucky had never seceded, the Freedmen’s Bureau established a branch in the Commonwealth after the war.
    [Show full text]
  • Family and Intimate Relationships: a Review of the Sociological Research
    Families Family and Intimate Relationships: A Review of the Sociological Research Val Gillies Families & Social Capital ESRC Research Group South Bank University 103 Borough Road London SE1 0AA June 2003 Published by South Bank University © Families & Social Capital ESRC Research Group ISBN 1-874418-33-0 Families & Social Capital ESRC Research Group Working Paper No. 2 FAMILY AND INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS: A REVIEW OF THE SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH Val Gillies Page Introduction 2 Models of Families, Kinship and Change 3 From Social Obligations to Negotiated Change 9 Breakdown, Democratisation or Continuity 15 Intimacy as Social Capital 16 Researching Intimate Relationships 18 References 19 1 Introduction The phrase ‘intimate relationship’ is a broad and fluid term, in that it can encompass numerous different associations between friends, sexual partners, family and kin. This working paper examines how sociological constructions of family and intimate relations have shifted over the years, exploring how particular bodies of literature have documented and shaped understandings of social connectedness. It will be argued that there are three major sociological perspectives on contemporary personal relations, with theorists emphasising breakdown, democratisation or continuity. Having reviewed the available research and outlined each perspective, this paper moves on to contextualise the three different interpretations, relating them to current debates around the concept of social capital. As Lynn Jamieson (1998) notes, the word ‘intimacy’ has come to replace what would previously have been termed ‘primary relationships’, signifying a new focus on the quality as opposed to the structure of such relationships. Within the field of sociology the term intimacy has taken on a particular significance, describing a theoretical stance that has emerged and colonised topics of interest that were previously viewed from the perspectives of family or community studies.
    [Show full text]
  • The Politics and Culture of Literacy in Georgia, 1800-1920
    THE POLITICS AND CULTURE OF LITERACY IN GEORGIA, 1800-1920 Bruce Fort Atlanta, Georgia B. A., Georgetown University, 1985 M.A., University of Virginia, 1989 A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Corcoran Department of History University of Virginia August 1999 © Copyright by Bruce Fort All Rights Reserved August 1999 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the uses and meanings of reading in the nineteenth­ century American South. In a region where social relations were largely defined by slavery and its aftermath, contests over education were tense, unpredictable, and frequently bloody. Literacy figured centrally in many of the region's major struggles: the relationship between slaveowners and slaves, the competing efforts to create and constrain black freedom following emancipation, and the disfranchisement of black voters at the turn of the century. Education signified piety and propriety, self-culture and self-control, all virtues carefully cultivated and highly prized in nineteenth-century America. Early advocates of public schooling argued that education and citizenship were indissociable, a sentiment that was refined and reshaped over the course of the nineteenth century. The effort to define this relationship, throughout the century a leitmotif of American public life, bubbled to the surface in the South at critical moments: during the early national period, as Americans sought to put the nation's founding principles into motion; during the 1830s, as insurrectionists and abolitionists sought to undermine slavery; during Reconstruction, with the institution of black male citizenship; and at last, during the disfranchisement movement of the 1890s and 1900s, with the imposition of literacy tests.
    [Show full text]
  • Additional Reading: Black Reconstruction
    Name:____________________________________________________________ Class Period:_____ Additional Reading: Black Reconstruction Source: Black Reconstruction - THE INITIAL STAGES, BLACK POLITICAL POWER, THE END OF RECONSTRUCTION, LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR FUTURE RESISTANCE - JRank Articles http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6010/Black-Reconstruction.html#ixzz2Br7mauZI Directions: Read the article. Highlight your cues (main ideas & significant proper nouns… people and events), then write your thesis in response to the prompt. The term Black Reconstruction refers to the actions and activities of both black and white Americans in the period immediately after the Civil War. It involved the transformation of Southern political, economic, and social institutions in a manner consistent with the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, which collectively established black freedom and equality. Many historians define Black Reconstruction as spanning the years from 1863 (the year of the Emancipation Proclamation, which made possible widespread black military participation in the Civil War) through 1877 (the year of the national political agreement to remove federal troops from the South). However, significant political and other Reconstruction activity by African Americans continued at the local and state levels beyond 1877. The rebuilding of Southern society and the political reintegration of the South into the nation after the Civil War is referred to more generally simply as Reconstruction. Unfortunately, for the first half of the twentieth century, scholarly and historical attention focused almost exclusively on the actions of whites, both in the South and in the North, and ignored the immense contributions of African Americans. Moreover, to the extent that white historians considered the activities of African Americans at all, for much of the twentieth century they adopted the white supremacist views that Columbia University professor William Dunning and his followers held at the turn of the nineteenth century.
    [Show full text]
  • Robert Purdy, 3Rd WV Inf/6Th WV Cav & Potomac
    ROBERT PURDY, CIVIL WAR SOLDIER FROM MARSHALL COUNTY Written by Linda Cunningham Fluharty, May 21, 2012 Eric McFadden sent a file (which follows) about Civil War soldier, Robert C. Purdy, of Moundsville, Marshall County. Purdy had some connection to the President Lincoln Conspiracy-Assassination trials and Eric's records are from that proceeding. At first, it seemed that the Robert Purdy was the man in the 3rd West Virginia that subsequently became the 6th West Virginia Cavalry, but evidence now indicates that the Robert C. Purdy related to the Assassination Trial enlisted in the 2nd Maryland Cavalry and was transferred to Company "M" of the Maryland 1st Regiment Potomac Home Brigade. Since only one Robert C. Purdy has been found, perhaps the same man was in both organizations. Service Records of Robert C. Purdy exist for both regiments. Robert C. Purdy in Company "I" of the 3rd Infanty/6th Cavalry was 41 when he enlisted 11 Dec 1861 in the 3rd Infantry. He was born in West Chester, NY. He received a Medical Discharge 11 July 1863. This is his family in the 1860 Census of Marshall County: PURDY (551) Robt. C...39-wm...painter...NY Minerva...38-wf...OH William...20-wm...VA Mary E...18-wf...VA Henrietta M...16-wf...OH Martha N...12-wf...OH Robert C Purdy - "alias Ashley," according to the Service Record - in Company "M" of the 1st Regiment Potomac Home Brigade, Maryland was 23 years old (one page says 33), 5'10" tall, born in Marshall County, when he enlisted 9 Sep 1864 at Cumberland, MD to serve two years.
    [Show full text]