DOCSLIB.ORG

Black Attitudes Toward Immigrant Labor in the South 1865 1910

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Black Attitudes Toward Immigrant Labor in the South 1865 1910 THE FILSON CLUB HISTORY QUARTERLY VOL. 54 LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, APRIL, 1980 NO. 2 BLACK ATTITUDES TOWARD IMMIGRANT LABOR IN THE SOUTH, 1865-1910 BY DAVID J. HELLWIG* Black jubilation at release from bondage clashed with the im- pact of slavery on them and on southern whites. The slave heritage, especially the dearth of education and capital, eroded the freed- men's capacity to secure the economic and social benefits of their new legal status. Whites, taught to perceive blacks as subordinates, were equally crippled by the past. They had little inclination to treat them as equals much less to transfer resources to the former bondsmen. Some sought to resurrect the traditional social struc- ture; others dreamed of a "new" South. Few wanted blacks to occupy positions of power in post-bellum society. One manifestation of white disdain for freedmen was the con- viction that the South could not rely on their labor. Various as- sumptions and fears supported the notion and accounted for its persistence in the half-century following the Civil War. Some whites used the Negro as a scapegoat to explain defeat and were eager to be rid of them. Those not touched by vindictiveness were often positive that ex-slaves lacked the self-discipline and initiative to function in a free labor system. Some contended that a low birth rate meant there would eventually be insufficient black labor. The reputation of the free Negro as a drifter, enforced by the westward and urban migration of blacks in the South, worried others.1 •DAvro J. H•LWIO, Ph.D., teaches at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota. 1Nero York rimes, JUly 5, 1868, p. 5; May 7, 1869, p. 5; November 3. 1888, p. 3; April 12, 1893, p. 2; April 14, 1883 p. 3; Robert H. Woody, "The Labor and Immigration Problem of South Carolina During Reconstruction," Mis•.ssippt Vailed/ Historical Review, 18 (Sep- tember, 1931), 195-96; Joseph F, Steelman, "The Immigration Movement in North Carolina, 1865-1890" (M.A. thesis, University of North Carolina, 1947), pp. 11-18, 22-23, 42; Row- l•-nd T. Berthoff, "Southern Attitudes Toward Immigration, 1865-1914," Jol•rna! o• SOUthern History, 17 (August, 1951), 329-31; Bert J. Loewenberg, "Efforts of the South to En. courage Immigration, 1865-1900," South Atlantic Quarterly, 33 (October. 1934), 365-67; James L. Roark, Masters WithOUt 8laves: Southera Planters in the Civt• War and Reccrn- $tructto• (New York: Norton, 1977), pp. 157-64. 151 152 The Filson Club History Quarterly [Vol. 54 The Black Codes of the immediate post-war years and the subse- quent systems of sharecropping, tenantry, peonage, and convict labor were designed in part to ease the black labor "problem." Singularly and in conjunction, they failed to relieve anxieties re- garding the labor force. The quest for able and abundant labor and the determination to control black workers led to repeated and largely unsuccessful efforts to secure laborers from outside the area. The movement was strongest in the decade following Appomattox and at the turn of the twentieth century. Some whites viewed newcomers as a supplement to the traditional labor force; others wanted to rid the South of the "Negro problem" and stimulate economic growth through an entirely new labor supply. Schemes to secure immigrants blossomed throughout the South in the late 1860s. Some planters worked independently; others joined immigration societies. Entrepreneurs anticipated quick and easy profits from transporting migrants from Europe, Asia, and the North to the cotton fields, mines, and railroad camps of the South. Railroads, land developers, and speculators of all kinds participated. Even plans for cooperation on a regional basis were made. State governments established agencies to promote and facilitate the flow of foreigners. So eager were some white South- erners for new workers that they were not particular about their origins. Most preferred northerners or European immigrants. But when neither source delivered, Chinese "coolies" were solicited.2 Records of the black response to the possibility of large scale immigration to the South during Reconstruction are scarce. Fur- thermore, they do not reflect a cross-section of the Afro-American community. The largely unlettered population left little in the way of written statements, and few black periodicals existed. 2 For diSCussions of southern interest in immigration following the Civil War, see Woody, 185-212; Steelman. passim; Berthoff. 328-60; Loewenberg, 363.85; C. U. Bellssary, "Tennes- see and Immigration, 1865-1880," Tennessee Histor•aZ Quarterl•, 7 (September, 1948), 229-48; Roberta S. Turney, "The Encouragement of Immigration in West Virginia, 1863- 1871," West Virginia HLsto•, 12 (October, 1950), 46-60; Robert Gllmottr, '"the Other Emancipation: Studies in the Society and Economy of Alabama Whites During Recon° structlon.'* (Ph.D. dissertation, Johns Hopkins Unlverslty, 1972), pp. 32-43; E. RUSS Wil° liams, "Loulslana's Public and Private Immigration Endeavors: 1866°1893," Loui•ana Himo tov• 15 (Spring, 1974), 153-73: George E. Pozzetta. "Foreigners in Florida: A Study of Immigration Promotion, 1865-1910." Florida Historlcal Quartedy, 53 (October. 1974), 164- 80; Henry M. Booker. "Efforts of the South to Attract Immigrants. 1860-1800." (Ph.D. dissertation, University of West Virginia, 1965); Etta B. Peabody, "Effort of the South to Import Chinese Coolies, 1865-1870." (M.A. thesis, Baylor University, 1867); Roark, Master8 Without Slaves. pp. 165-68; Robert F. Futre11, "Efforts of Mlssls•Ipplans to En- courage Immigratlon, 1865-1880," Jo•vna! o• JV/i.•ssippl History. 20 (April, 1958), S9°70. These studies devote little, if any, attention to the responses of Afro-Americans to the attempts to secure immigrant labor or to the Immlgrants, 1980] Blacks and Immigrant Labor 153 Many possible sources were not collected. But from the scattered records, the observations of white sojourners in the South, and the small but zealous black press it is possible to indicate how many felt. Clearly, blacks recognized that plans to recruit Northern and alien workers directly affected them. Most interpreted the move- ment as a potential threat to their newly acquired political power and to their traditional economic role. As early as November, 1865, for example, a black political convention meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, reacted to talk of immigration. In an address to whites, the delegates protested the desire "to bring foreigners into the country, the clear intent of which is to thrust us out, or reduce us to a serfdom intolerable....-3 The anxiety of South Carolina blacks persisted into the 1870s. White travellers commented on the "selfishness" of Afro-Ameri- cans who opposed the arrival of newcomers to aid in the develop- ment of the state. The material interests of South Carolina clearly demanded immigration, wrote the conservative northern journalist James S. Pike in 1874. But politics led the Negro to resist im- migration. According to Pike, blacks were preparing to fight what they believed to be an effort to crowd them out.4 An English visitor Edward King also reported little black enthusiasm for immigration. "The negro is not especially anxious to see immigra- tion come in," he commented. "The spirit of race is strong within him. He is desirous of seeing the lands in the commonwealth in the hands of his own people before the rest of the world's poor are invited to partake. He is impressed with the idea that South Carolina should be in some measure a black man's government, and is jealous of white intervention.''5 Black spokesmen were especially disturbed about plans to recruit Chinese. Such proposals convinced them that the white South had not yet accepted abolition. Chinese were sought to replace blacks as slaves or to reduce freedmen to semi-servitude. "An American 3 "Addre• of the State Convention to the White Inlmbltants of South Carolina," reprinted in Herbert Aptheker, ed,, A DocuTnentary Hf•t•r• o! the Negro People • the United •;tate8 (2 vols.; New York: Citadel Press, 1951}, II, 546. 4James S. Pike, 2"he Prostrate South.: Sou•h Carolina Under Negro Goverament (1874; reprinted New york: Harper and F,ow, 1968), p, 55. 5Edward King. The Great Sou•h (2 vols.; 1875; reprinted New York: Bur• Franklin, 1969), II, 452-53. Blacks in other states also feared the immigrant, Lawrence D. Rice, The Negro • Texas, 1574-1900 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univer•ty Pre•s, 1971). p. 160; E. Merton Coulter, Civil War and Readjustment tn Kentucky (Chapel Hill: University o• North Carolina Press, 1926), p. 346. 154 The Filson Club History Quarterly [Vol. 54 motive" derived from "pride, bitterness, and revenge," warned Frederick Douglass, was behind Chinese immigration. Southern leaders continued to cling to rule by the white aristocracy, the plantation system, and a subservient labor force. "They believed in slavery and they believe in it still," he reported. The same motives that led to the African slave trade inspired interest in the "coolie trade." The South preferred laborers who would work for nothing, but since the Afro-American refused, it turned to Chinese who would toil for next to nothing. Should the plans succeed, abolition would be a blessing for the white South since it would then possess both independence from blacks and a cheap, dependent labor force,s John M. Langston, professor of law at Howard University, agreed. "Designing persons, partially enslav- ing" sought to make Chinese the rival and competitor of freedmen, he noted,v These fears prompted conventions of Afro-Americans meeting in Baton Rouge and elsewhere in 1869 to consider means of preventing the introduction of Chinese workers into the nation,s While not opposed to Chinese or Europeans as such, blacks vigorously objected to foreigners recruited to drive them out or compel them to accept whatever conditions planters offered.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Negro Press and the Image of Success: 1920-19391 Ronald G
    the negro press and the image of success: 1920-19391 ronald g. waiters For all the talk of a "New Negro," that period between the first two world wars of this century produced many different Negroes, just some of them "new." Neither in life nor in art was there a single figure in whose image the whole race stood or fell; only in the minds of most Whites could all Blacks be lumped together. Chasms separated W. E. B. DuBois, icy, intellectual and increasingly radical, from Jesse Binga, prosperous banker, philanthropist and Roman Catholic. Both of these had little enough in common with the sharecropper, illiterate and bur­ dened with debt, perhaps dreaming of a North where—rumor had it—a man could make a better living and gain a margin of respect. There was Marcus Garvey, costumes and oratory fantastic, wooing the Black masses with visions of Africa and race glory while Father Divine promised them a bi-racial heaven presided over by a Black god. Yet no history of the time should leave out that apostle of occupational training and booster of business, Robert Russa Moton. And perhaps a place should be made for William S. Braithwaite, an aesthete so anonymously genteel that few of his White readers realized he was Black. These were men very different from Langston Hughes and the other Harlem poets who were finding music in their heritage while rejecting capitalistic America (whose chil­ dren and refugees they were). And, in this confusion of voices, who was there to speak for the broken and degraded like the pitiful old man, born in slavery ninety-two years before, paraded by a Mississippi chap­ ter of the American Legion in front of the national convention of 1923 with a sign identifying him as the "Champeen Chicken Thief of the Con­ federate Army"?2 In this cacaphony, and through these decades of alternate boom and bust, one particular voice retained a consistent message, though condi­ tions might prove the message itself to be inconsistent.
    [Show full text]
  • Fair Treatment? African-American Presence at International Expositions in the South, 1884 – 1902
    FAIR TREATMENT? AFRICAN-AMERICAN PRESENCE AT INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITIONS IN THE SOUTH, 1884 – 1902 BY SARA S. CROMWELL A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN LIBERAL STUDIES December 2010 Winston-Salem, North Carolina Approved By: Anthony S. Parent, Ph.D., Advisor Jeanne M. Simonelli, Ph.D., Chair John Hayes, Ph.D. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many thanks to my friends, family, and coworkers for their support, encouragement, and patience as I worked on my thesis. A special thank you to the Interlibrary Loan Department of the Z. Smith Reynolds Library for their invaluable assistance in my research. And finally, thanks to Dr. Parent, Dr. Simonelli, and Dr. Hayes for their helpful advice throughout the process. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................... iv ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... v INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER ONE WORLD‘S INDUSTRIAL AND COTTON CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION AT NEW ORLEANS, 1884-85 .............................................................................. 17 CHAPTER TWO A DECADE OF CHANGES .................................................................................. 40 CHAPTER THREE COTTON STATES AND INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION
    [Show full text]
  • Building Networks: Cooperation and Communication Among African Americans in the Urban Midwest, 1860-1910
    Building Networks: Cooperation and Communication Among African Americans in the Urban Midwest, 1860-1910 Jack S. Blocker Jr.* In the dramatic narrative of African-American history, the story of the post-Emancipation years begins in the rural South, where the rights won through postwar constitutional amendments gradually yield to the overwhelming forces of segregation and disfranchisement. During the First World War, the scene shifts to the metropolitan North, where many members of the rapidly growing southern-born migrant population develop a new, militant consciousness. Behind this primary narrative, however, lies another story. An earlier, smaller migration flow from South to North had already established the institutional and cultural foundations for the emergence of a national racial consciousness in postbellum America. Much of this crucial work took place in small and mid-size towns and cities. Some interpreters have seen the creation of a national racial consciousness as a natural and normal product of African heritage. This view, however, neglects the diverse origins and experiences of African Americans during the slavery years. “Alternatively,”writes historian Harold Forsythe, “we should consider that a distinctive national community developed from local roots during emancipation. Local associations of freedpeople, organized in families, neighborhood groupings, churches, [and] benevolent and fraternal orders, slowly developed into regional, statewide, and ultimately national consociations. This process of unification involved not only consciousness, but [also] institutional and power connections. It matured between 1909 and about 1925.”’The process of community-building can be seen clearly in the three states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, which I call the Lower Midwest. On the eve of the Civil War, about 56,000 African Americans lived in the Lower Midwest.
    [Show full text]
  • Africana Collection    
    Africana Collection SPECIAL COLLECTIONS RESEARCH CENTER Sunday School, St. Mary's Church, 1907. From the Foggy Bottom Collection. A Guide to Africana Resources in the Special Collections Research Center Special Collections Research Center Gelman Library, Suite 704 Phone: 202-994-7549 Email: [email protected] http://www.gelman.gwu.edu/collections/SCRC This and other bibliographies can be accessed online at http://www.gelman.gwu.edu/collections/SCRC/research-tools/bibliographies-1 AFRICANA 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY ............................................................. 3 ART & MUSIC ...................................................................................................... 4 BLACK ELITE ........................................................................................................ 5 CIVIL RIGHTS ...................................................................................................... 6 EDUCATION ....................................................................................................... 7 EMPLOYMENT .................................................................................................. 11 FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ................................................................................. 14 FOGGY BOTTOM /GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY ............................ 15 GENEALOGY .................................................................................................... 16 GENERAL HISTORY..........................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • JUMPING SHIP: the DECLINE of BLACK REPUBLICANISM in the ERA of THEODORE ROOSEVELT, 1901—1908 a Thesis Presented to the Graduat
    JUMPING SHIP: THE DECLINE OF BLACK REPUBLICANISM IN THE ERA OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT, 1901—1908 A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Mark T. Tomecko August, 2012 JUMPING SHIP: THE DECLINE OF BLACK REPUBLICANISM IN THE ERA OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT, 1901—1908 Mark T. Tomecko Thesis Approved: Accepted: _______________________________ ______________________________ Advisor Dean of the College Dr. Tracey Jean Boisseau Dr. Chand Midha _______________________________ ______________________________ Department Chair Dean of the Graduate School Dr. Martin Wainwright Dr. George Newkome ______________________________ Date ii ABSTRACT Most analysts of black voting patterns in the United States have assumed that the first substantive abandonment of the Republican party by black voters occurred in the 1930s, when the majority of black voters embraced Franklin Roosevelt‘s New Deal. A closer examination, however, of another Roosevelt presidency – that of Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) – demonstrates the degree to which black voters were already growing disenchanted with the Republicans in the face of what they viewed as uneven support and contradictory messages from the highest ranking Republican in the land. Though the perception of Theodore Roosevelt‘s relationship to black Americans has been dominated by his historic invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine with him at the White House in 1901, in fact even this event had assorted and complex meanings for Roosevelt‘s relationship to the black community. More importantly, his dismissal of black troops following a controversial shooting in southern Texas in 1906 – an event known as the Brownsville affair – set off a firestorm of bitter protest from the black press, black intellectuals, and black voters.
    [Show full text]
  • For Neoes on Newspapers
    Careers For Neoes On Newspapers * What's Happening, * What the Jobs Are r * How Jobs Can Be Found nerican Newspaper Guild (AFL-CIO, CLC) AMERICAN NEWSPAPER GUILD (AFL-CIO, CLC) Philip Murray Building * 1126 16th Street N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 PRESIDENT: ARTHUR ROSENSTOCK EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT: WILLIAM J. FARSON SECRETARY-TREASURER: CHARLES A. PERLIK, JR REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENTS Region 1 DANIEL A. McLAUGHLIN, North Jersey Region 4 ROBERT J. HICKEY, Son Jose Region 2 RICHARD LANE, Memphis Region 5 EDWARD EASTON, JR., New York Region 3 JAMES B. WOODS, St. Louis Region 6 WILLIAM H. McLEMAN, Vancouver VICE PRESIDENTS AT LARGE JACK DOBSON, Toronto MARSHALL W. SCHIEWE, Chicago GEORGE MULDOWNEY, Wire Service NOEL WICAL, Cleveland KENNETH RIEGER, Toledo HARVEY H. WING, San Francisco-Oakland . Ws.. - Ad-AA1964 , s\>tr'id., ofo} +tw~ i 7 I0Nle0 Our newspapers, which daily report the rising winds of the fight for equal rights of minority groups, must now take a first hand active part in that fight as it affects the hiring, promotion, and upgrading of newspaper employes In order to improve the circumstances of an increas- ing number of minority-group people, who are now turned aside as "unqualified" for employment and pro- motion, we seek . a realistic, down-to-earth meaning- ful program, which will include not merely the hiring of those now qualified without discrimination as to race, age, sex, creed, color, national origin or ancestry, but also efforts through apprenticeship training and other means to improve and upgrade their qualifications. Human Rights Report American Newspaper Guild Convention Philadelphia, July 8 to 12, 1963 RELATIONSorLIS"WY JUL 23196 OF CALFORNIA UHI4Rt5!y*SELY NEWSPAPER jobs in the United States are opening to Negroes for the first time.
    [Show full text]
  • In Search of Helen Maria Chesnutt (1880-1969), Black Latinist
    New England Classical Journal Volume 48 Issue 1 Pages 110-121 5-14-2021 In Search of Helen Maria Chesnutt (1880-1969), Black Latinist Michele Valerie Ronnick Wayne State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://crossworks.holycross.edu/necj Part of the Classics Commons Recommended Citation Ronnick, Michele Valerie (2021) "In Search of Helen Maria Chesnutt (1880-1969), Black Latinist," New England Classical Journal: Vol. 48 : Iss. 1 , 110-121. https://doi.org/10.52284/NECJ/48.1/article/ronnick This Announcement is brought to you for free and open access by CrossWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in New England Classical Journal by an authorized editor of CrossWorks. In Search of Helen Maria Chesnutt (1880-1969), Black Latinist MICHELE VALERIE RONNICK Abstract: Classical scholars have begun to delineate the dynamic pattern of black classicism. This new subfield of the classical tradition involves the analysis of the creative response to classical antiquity by artists as well as the history of the professional training in classics of scholars, teachers and students in high schools, colleges and universities. To the first group belongs Helen Maria Chesnutt (1880-1969). Born in Fayetteville, NC, Chesnutt was the second daughter of acclaimed African American novelist, Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932). She earned her B.A. from Smith College in 1902 and her M.A. in Latin from Columbia University in 1925. She was a member of the American Philological Association and the Classical Association of the Middle West and South. Her life was spent teaching Latin at Central High School in Cleveland, OH.
    [Show full text]
  • Archival Expert Assignment Sheet
    Melissa Range Lawrence University [email protected] Archival expert assignment sheet This term, you will be in charge of leading one class as the “archival expert.” Your assignment is simple: I want you to read nineteenth century newspapers published by African American editors. Using two of the library’s electronic databases—African American Newspapers and/or Accessible Archives—you will make use of digital archives to provide historical context for the day’s reading. Here’s what to do for prep work, step by step: • On the date you’re signed up to be the archival expert, look at when the writer published their works. (So, for example: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper published Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects in 1855.) • Determine a location that is relevant to the writer, if possible. For Harper, this could be Baltimore (where she grew up), Philadelphia (where she lived and worked as an adult), or Boston (where she frequently lectured). • Now choose a newspaper that is relevant to the date and the location of the poet. If you want to get even more specific, you can (for example, you could look at an abolitionist newspaper for Harper). If you can find one, you can also choose a newspaper where the writer published. • Select an issue of the newspaper and read the whole thing: news, editorials, poetry, even the advertisements. (Be forewarned, the print is tiny and there’s a lot of text.) As you read, make note of anything at all—newspaper poems, news items, even weather—that you feel gives interesting context to the work the class will be discussing.
    [Show full text]
  • African Americans Confront Lynching: Strategies of Resistance from The
    African Americans Confront Lynching Strategies of Resistance from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Era Christopher Waldrep StrategiesofResistance.indd 1 9/30/08 11:52:02 AM African Americans Confront Lynching The African American History Series Series Editors: Jacqueline M. Moore, Austin College Nina Mjagkij, Ball State University Traditionally, history books tend to fall into two categories: books academics write for each other, and books written for popular audiences. Historians often claim that many of the popu- lar authors do not have the proper training to interpret and evaluate the historical evidence. Yet, popular audiences complain that most historical monographs are inaccessible because they are too narrow in scope or lack an engaging style. This series, which will take both chronolog- ical and thematic approaches to topics and individuals crucial to an understanding of the African American experience, is an attempt to address that problem. The books in this series, written in lively prose by established scholars, are aimed primarily at nonspecialists. They fo- cus on topics in African American history that have broad significance and place them in their historical context. While presenting sophisticated interpretations based on primary sources and the latest scholarship, the authors tell their stories in a succinct manner, avoiding jargon and obscure language. They include selected documents that allow readers to judge the evidence for themselves and to evaluate the authors’ conclusions. Bridging the gap between popular and academic history, these books bring the African American story to life. Volumes Published Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, and the Struggle for Racial Uplift Jacqueline M.
    [Show full text]
  • 262671234.Pdf
    Out of Sight Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff University Press of Mississippi / Jackson OutOut ofofOut of Sight Sight Sight The Rise of African American Popular Music – American Made Music Series Advisory Board David Evans, General Editor Barry Jean Ancelet Edward A. Berlin Joyce J. Bolden Rob Bowman Susan C. Cook Curtis Ellison William Ferris Michael Harris John Edward Hasse Kip Lornell Frank McArthur W. K. McNeil Bill Malone Eddie S. Meadows Manuel H. Peña David Sanjek Wayne D. Shirley Robert Walser Charles Wolfe www.upress.state.ms.us Copyright © 2002 by University Press of Mississippi All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 4 3 2 ϱ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Abbott, Lynn, 1946– Out of Sight: the rise of African American popular music, 1889–1895 / Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff. p. cm. — (American made music series) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 1-57806-499-6 (cloth: alk. paper) 1. African Americans—Music—Hisory and criticism. 2. Popular music—United States—To 1901—History and criticism. I. Seroff, Doug. II. Title. III. Series ML3479 .A2 2003 781.64Ј089Ј96073—dc21 2002007819 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available Contents Acknowledgments ϳ Introduction ϳ Chapter 1. 1889 • Frederick J. Loudin’s Fisk Jubilee Singers and Their Australasian Auditors, 1886–1889 ϳ 3 • “Same”—The Maori and the Fisk Jubilee Singers ϳ 12 • Australasian Music Appreciation ϳ 13 • Minstrelsy and Loudin’s Fisk Jubilee Singers ϳ 19 • The Slippery Slope of Variety and Comedy ϳ 21 • Mean Judge Williams ϳ 24 • A “Black Patti” for the Ages: The Tennessee Jubilee Singers and Matilda Sissieretta Jones, 1889–1891 ϳ 27 • Other “Colored Pattis” and “Queens of Song,” 1889 ϳ 40 • Other Jubilee Singers, 1889 ϳ 42 • Rev.
    [Show full text]
  • Infantile Specimens”: Showing Babies in Nineteenth-Century America
    SECTION II CHILDREN AND CHILDHOOD “INFANTILE SPECIMENS”: SHOWING BABIES IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA By Susan J. Pearson Northwestern University In October 1854 the prominent Unitarian minister Theodore Parker wrote to a friend that on a recent trip to the Midwest he had witnessed what he thought to be the first baby contest: “There has been a great Baby Show in Ohio; 127 babies were offered for prizes.” What Parker described was indeed the nation’s first baby contest, held at the Clark County Fair in Springfield, Ohio. Designed to increase attendance at the fair, the Ohio baby show was an all-star affair and an object of news attention across the country. Author Fanny Fern, newspaperman Horace Greeley, and abolitionist-feminist Lucretia Mott had all been invited to serve as judges. None came, but all sent letters of regret that were read aloud at the contest and widely reprinted in newspapers. “This,” noted the Daily Cleveland Herald “is a new feature in Agriculture shows.”1 Novelty, however, was no barrier to popularity. Soon after the Clark County fair, baby shows spread to a wide range of venues both rural and urban. By the end of the century they were a commonplace form of entertainment at both agricultural and mechanics’ fairs, urban theaters, exhibition halls, and fundraising events; and well before women competed for the crown of Miss America there, Atlantic City played host to an annual baby show on its boardwalk. Baby shows were also exported abroad to London, Paris, and Milan where the notion of “exhibiting humanity in long clothes” was regarded as a distinctly American, if slightly vulgar, novelty.2 While extremely popular, baby shows were also controversial.
    [Show full text]
  • White Plague, White City: Landscape and the Racialization of Tuberculosis in Washington, D.C
    W&M ScholarWorks Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 4-2019 White Plague, White City: Landscape and the Racialization of Tuberculosis in Washington, D.C. from 1846 to 1960 Ivie Orobaton Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses Part of the African American Studies Commons, Social History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Orobaton, Ivie, "White Plague, White City: Landscape and the Racialization of Tuberculosis in Washington, D.C. from 1846 to 1960" (2019). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 1378. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1378 This Honors 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 Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction: Why Tuberculosis? Why Washington, D.C.?......................................................3-7 Chapter 1: The Landscape of Washington, D.C. and the Emergence of Tuberculosis in the City …………………………………………………………………………………………………8-21 Chapter 2: Practical Responses to the Tuberculosis Issue (1846-1910)…………………….22-37 Chapter 3: Ideological Debates Around the Practical Responses to Tuberculosis (1890-1930) …….………………………………………………………………………………………….38-56 Conclusion: The Passing of the Debate and the End of Tuberculosis in the City (1930-1960) ………………………………………….…………………………………………………….57-58
    [Show full text]