University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations December 2016 Rail: African & African American Labor and the Ties That Bind in the Atlantic World Benjamin David Wendorf University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the African History Commons, and the Other International and Area Studies Commons Recommended Citation Wendorf, Benjamin David, "Rail: African & African American Labor and the Ties That Bind in the Atlantic World" (2016). Theses and Dissertations. 1427. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/1427 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. RAIL: AFRICAN & AFRICAN AMERICAN LABOR AND THE TIES THAT BIND IN THE ATLANTIC WORLD by Benjamin Wendorf A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Africology at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee December 2016 i ABSTRACT RAIL: AFRICAN & AFRICAN AMERICAN LABOR AND THE TIES THAT BIND IN THE ATLANTIC WORLD by Benjamin Wendorf The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2016 Under the Supervision of Professor Jeffrey Sommers As was intended, the construction of railways transformed the landscape and societies of the Atlantic World. Great fortunes and forces emerged in the directions of the tracks, sufficient to create structures of economy and organize communities in ways that persisted long after a railway’s use had diminished. In this dissertation, the author argues that the connections and reorganization effected by railway construction created new economic paths in the American South, Panama, and Gold Coast West Africa; the transformations were marked by struggles for power along racial lines, enslavement and coercion in labor, and the interchange between communities and their existing markets and a largely foreign, imperial order. Using sources from African Americans, Afro-Caribbean, and West Africans who comprised the bulk of the labor, as well as the communities where the railways were constructed, the author combines these with geographical and statistical data to portray an environment where whole societies were in flux. While the African Americans in the South experienced a retrenchment of racism in the form of segregation – often following railroad tracks – Afro-Caribbean laborers dug a Panamanian thoroughfare that bolstered European trade, and West Africans laid the tracks for gold and cocoa to the Atlantic Coast. The author concludes that, in addition to the power and persistence ii conferred by railways, they grant us the opportunity to realize the importance of connections created by communities, and how they were affected by the tracks that ran through them or passed them by. Connections can also provide a refreshing focus in historical methodology; in their persistence, how they are readily revealed by a multitude of sources, and how they amply represent human movement and interaction rather than typical historical emphasis on spatial entities provides a template for exploring reflexive, illustrative approaches to history. iii To my parents, Who supported me wherever my mind wandered, And my wife, Who brought me home. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………..ii List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………………vi List of Tables………………………………………………………………………………..….viii Chapters Introduction: History on the Tracks……………………………………………………….1 Part I: A Comparative History of Rail Chapter One: Railways & Revolution…………………………………………...35 Chapter Two: Building the American South…………………………………….44 Chapter Three: The Tracks That Made the Canal…………………………….….72 Chapter Four: Constructing the Colony………………………………………...101 Chapter Five: Connectivity in American South, Panama, and Gold Coast Rail-Building……………………………………………….……142 Part II: Carrying Connectivity Forward Chapter Six: Historiography and Connectivity…………………………………162 Chapter Seven: Development and Connectivity in the 20th Century…………...175 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...196 References……………………………………………………………………………………...200 Appendices……………………………………………………………………………...……...220 Appendix A: United States Statistical Tables…………………………………………..220 Appendix B: Panama Statistical Tables………………………………………………...222 Appendix C: Panama Railroad Company Agreement with Nueva Granada, 1849…….225 Appendix D: Gold Coast Statistical Tables…………………………………………….226 Curriculum Vitae…………………………………………………………….................235 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Rail fences in central Virginia, 1870s…………………………………………………54 Figure 2. Charleston and Hamburg Railroad, with inset for detail, 1829………………………..59 Figure 3. African American laborers mending tracks for the Union, c. 1863…………………...60 Figure 4. Railways and residential segregation in Atlanta, 2010………………………………..68 Figure 5. Panama’s changing political borders, 1717-1858……………………………………..75 Figure 6. Spanish colonial trails in Panama……………………………………………………...76 Figure 7. Panoramic picture of Panama Canal cut, 1913………………………………………...97 Figure 8. Map of Panama Canal, 1923…………………………………………………………..97 Figure 9. What Prempeh would have seen in Kumase, 1924…………………………………..101 Figure 10. Odumase village in Asante, c. 1890s……………………………………………….103 Figure 11. Halls of Justice Palace in Kumase, c. 1890s………………………………………..103 Figure 12. Map of major African trade routes, pre-Asante Empire…………………………….107 Figure 13. Asante “Great Roads” system in early 19th century………………………………...109 Figure 14. Selected major market sites in late 19th-early 20th century Gold Coast…………….112 Figure 15. Gold Coast railways in 1922, with regional exports………………………………..123 Figure 16. Imports and exports from Prempeh’s exile to return………………………………..124 Figure 17. Revenue from Prempeh’s exile to return……………………………………………125 Figure 18. Balance of Gold Coast Colony & Protectorates, 1896-1924………………………..125 Figure 19. Proportion of expenditure for public works and railways, 1896-1924……………...126 Figure 20. Railway expansion in the Gold Coast & Protectorates, 1903-1924………………...127 Figure 21. The changing structure of Accra, 1826 to 1954…………………………………….128 vi Figure 22. Comparison of share of Gold Coast port trade, 1896-1910…………………………130 Figure 23. Stills from 1930 British Pathé film “The Harbor”…………………………………..134 Figure 24. Road and railway mileage in the Gold Coast, 1902-1935…………………………..137 Figure 25. A taxi and tro tro station in Accra, c. 1961…………………………………………138 Figure 26. Ghana’s contemporary railways…………………………………………………….140 Figure 27. Growth of railways and cotton production in the United States, 1790 to 1860…….147 Figure 28. Growth of Panama railway earnings, 1852 to 1880………………………………...148 Figure 29. Growth of cocoa and gold exports from Gold Coast………………………………..148 Figure 30. Change in Gold Coast & Protectorates trade flow, 1895 to 1910…………………..151 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Transport Mileage Saved by Isthmus Route……………………………………………95 Table 2. Top Areas of Gold Coast Colony Expenditure, Selected Years 1897-1924…………..126 Table 3. Rank in Trade Among Three Major Gold Coast Ports, Selected Years 1897-1924…..129 Table 4. Revised Top Areas of Gold Coast Colony Expenditure, Selected Years 1897-1924…169 viii Introduction: History on the Tracks Take this hammer, uh Take it to the captain, uh Take it to the captain, uh Tell him I’m gone. - African American work song1 The building of railroads in the 19th and early 20th century was notoriously difficult labor, in part due to logical conundrums: rail transportation required sculpted paths in areas that often lacked the infrastructure necessary to support large excavation equipment. Strenuous manual labor was the agonizing solution. The work was immensely difficult; in fact, an overview of railroad labor from its beginning to the mid-20th century is often a story of poor, itinerant, or oppressed populations…and sometimes all three. When Amiri Baraka (then LeRoi Jones) observed African American work songs in Blues People, he set aside a particular category of music for those developed in hard labor, noting: …songs recorded by Negro convicts working in the South—laying railroad ties, felling trees, breaking rocks, take their impetus from the work being done, and the form of the singing itself is dictated by the work. These workers for the most part do not sing blues. The labor is central to the song: not only is the recurring grunt or moan of these work songs some kind of metrical and rhythmical insistence, it is the very catalyst for the song.2 “Take This Hammer” above was a case in point; each “uh” was punctuated by the blow of a hammer. The song might carry for hours. By the same token, this work not only gave us glimpses into railroad labor and its reflection and influence on culture, but also its structural reproduction of society. Railroad tracks reflected existing power dynamics in political and socioeconomic spheres, but they also created 1 LeRoi Jones, Blues People: Negro Music in White America (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1963), 67. 2 Jones, Blues People, 67-68. 1 new or increasingly efficient paths of commerce and communications. Focusing on three major projects - the use of rail in constructing the American South, the trans-isthmus railroad in Panama, and the construction of rail in Gold Coast West Africa – we can better explore a variety of regions in the Atlantic World by encircling it with our comparative examples and focusing