The Strange Career of Jim Crow

1827 Words4 Pages

The ante-bellum south is referred to as the Old South; south of the Cotton Kingdom and plantation slavery. The Old South did not last long but received the term, ‘Old’ in order to distinguish the Old South from the New South. Slavery in the Old South was practiced by the white man to assure subordination of the Negro’s and to determine their status, or ‘place’. The white supremacy view of life, along with the injustices of exploitation can be traced back to the old pro-slavery argument, developed by the Anglo-Saxon (Woodward, 11). Slavery in the Old South required daily interracial contact from both sides of the races such as, supervision, maintenance of order, and physical and medical care of slaves. House servants were a prime example of this type of interracial contact. Bonds of intimacy and affection were also present between races due to house servants living in the same home, attending the same church, and sharing in the family’s conversation (Woodward, 12). House servants were the only slaves to receive this type of association, which overall consisted of a very small proportion. The field hands, however, received the harsher side of slavery. Slavery in the Old South was a ‘system’ in which segregation would only pose an issue, or inconvenience. There also were a few hundred thousand Negroes within the slave states who were free, or quasi-free; not established by slavery. These Negroes received treatment relatively close to slavery, foreshadowing segregation (Woodward, 13). The urban life or a Negro included several types of discrimination and even excluded by some towns entirely. If Negroes were tolerated in Hospitals, jails, and public buildings they were still regularly separated. The city life of African Americans d... ... middle of paper ... ... was a series of Supreme Court rulings which sanctioned separation. During 1898 in Pressy v. Ferguson ‘separate but equal’ rights were considered constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. These rights gave Southern states the leniency to physical separate different races in schools and public places(Woodward,71). Proscription, segregation, and disfranchisement were completed due to William v. Mississippi in 1898. This Mississippi plan approved by the U.S. Supreme Court deprived Negro’s of the franchise(Woodward,71). The ‘Jim Crow’ system was a time in history in which laws of segregation emerged. Woodward suggests that the Jim Crow system was not a result of slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, or Redemption. The chaotic and disorganization of Southern whites during the nineteenth century, however, turned Southern history by developing the Jim Crow System.

Sectionalism Versus Nationalism and the Era of Good Feelings
627 Words | 2 Pages
After the war of 1812, there was a strong sense of nationalism since the young United States had won a war against the powerful British Army. However, the loss of thousands of southern slaves and the British embargo led both the north and the south to lament over the cost of the war. The time period from 1815 – 1825 that some historians call the era of good feelings was not as positive a time period as the title implies; factions ran rampant on the verge of causing an implosion for our country’s political system.
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Book Review of The Strange Career of Jim Crow
2071 Words | 5 Pages
Woodward’s The Strange Career of Jim Crow immediately became an influential work both in the academic and real worlds because of the dramatic events that coincided with the book’s publication and subsequent revisions. It was inspired from a series of lectures that Woodward delivered at the University of Virginia in 1954 on the Jim Crow policies that the South had reverted to in order to deal with the dynamics of its Negro population. The original publication debuted in 1955, just prior to the explosive events that would occur as part of the civil rights movement climax. Because of these developments in less than a decade, the book’s topic and audience had drastically changed in regard to the times surrounding it. Woodward, realizing the fluidity of history in context with the age, printed a second edition of the book in 1966 to “take advantage of the new perspective the additional years provide” and “to add a brief account of the main developments in ...
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Vann Woodward's The Strange Career of Jim Crow
2031 Words | 5 Pages
The original edition of The Strange Career of Jim Crow had as its thesis that segregation and Jim Crow Laws were a relative late comer in race relations in the South only dating to the late 1880s and early 1890s. Also part of that thesis is that race relations in the South were not static, that a great deal of change has occurred in the dynamics of race relations. Woodward presents a clear argument that segregation in the South did not really start forming until the 1890s. One of the key components of his argument is the close contact of the races during slavery and the Reconstruction period. During slavery the two races while not living harmoniously with each other did have constant contact with each other in the South. This c...
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The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward
1056 Words | 3 Pages
... newspaper article shown by Woodward gave a picture of how new the idea of segregation was in the South. Woodward put it best when he stated, “The policies of proscription, segregation, and disfranchisement that are often described as the immutable ‘folkways’ of the South, impervious alike to legislative reform and armed intervention, are of a more recent origin.” (65) He wanted to show how the roots of the system were not integrated with slavery. Jim Crow laws and slavery were both horrible institutions, but they existed as two seperate entities. Woodward does not claim the South to be picturesque, because the Jim Crow laws were not established in the region. The South established Jim Crow laws and made them worse than found in the North. Woodward’s goal was not to protect the South’s legacy, but to give a clearer picture of the facts regarding the Jim Crow laws.
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The Sectionalism of the 19th Century
1108 Words | 3 Pages
The North was based on industrialism and the South on agriculture. Perhaps one of the greatest issues ever faced by the United States was that of slavery. The South had become extremely content with their way of life with slaves and the North were very against it. This caused many disagreements between the two regions and ultimately was one of the main causes of the Civil War. They also had different views on tariffs due to the difference in the economies. The North was booming with industrialization and they didn’t like competing with the goods being imported. The tariffs provided protection for the northern industries and in turn had a negative impact they had on the southern economy. This only amplified the uneasy feeling that the South felt about the Union. They feared the Union would grow too powerful and the people would eventually lose their voice. It was the Missouri Compromise of 1820 that opened the door and unleashed the beast that was sectionalism in the nation. After the compromise the North and South had a hard time agreeing on anything.
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Nationalism and Sectionalism
515 Words | 2 Pages
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Slavery in America between 1800 and 1860
724 Words | 2 Pages
Between 1800 and 1860 slavery in the American South had become a ‘peculiar institution’ during these times. Although it may have seemed that the worst was over when it came to slavery, it had just begun. The time gap within 1800 and 1860 had slavery at an all time high from what it looks like. As soon as the cotton production had become a long staple trade source it gave more reason for slavery to exist. Varieties of slavery were instituted as well, especially once international slave trading was banned in America after 1808, they had to think of a way to keep it going – which they did. Nonetheless, slavery in the American South had never declined; it may have just come to a halt for a long while, but during this time between 1800 and 1860, it shows it could have been at an all time high.
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Nationalism Dbq
630 Words | 2 Pages
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Inequality for African Americans
1853 Words | 4 Pages
Toward the end of the Progressive Era American social inequality had stripped African Americans of their rights on a local and national level. In the 1896 Supreme Court case of Plessey vs. Ferguson, the Supreme Court sided with a Louisiana state law declaring segregation constitutional as long as facilities remain separate but equal. Segregation increased as legal discriminatory laws became enacted by each state but segregated facilities for whites were far superior to those provided for blacks; especially prevalent in the South were discriminatory laws known as Jim Crow laws which surged after the ruling. Such laws allowed for segregation in places such as restaurants, hospitals, parks, recreational areas, bathrooms, schools, transportation, housing, hotels, etc. Measures were taken to disenfranchise African Americans by using intimidation, violence, putting poll taxes, and literacy tests. This nearly eliminated the black vote and its political interests as 90% of the nine million blacks in America lived in the South and 1/3 were illiterate as shown in Ray Stannard Baker’s Following the Color Line (Bailey 667). For example, in Louisiana 130,334 black voters registered in 1896 but that number drastically decreased to a mere 1,342 in 1904—a 99 percent decline (Newman ). Other laws prevented black...
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The Civil Rights Act of 1964
1836 Words | 4 Pages
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611 Words | 2 Pages
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Jim Crow Essay
610 Words | 2 Pages
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868 Words | 2 Pages
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760 Words | 2 Pages
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American Nationalism
542 Words | 2 Pages
American nationalism was the greatest by-product of the War of 1812 and became very important in U.S. politics as well as American social life between 1815 and 1836. American nationalism manifested itself in many different ways that was unlike the nationalism found in Europe. America has always been very much of a melting pot of different cultures in contrast to Europe. American nationalism was founded in everything from social to economic and political issues.
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The Strange Career of Jim Crow

Sectionalism Versus Nationalism and the Era of Good Feelings

Book Review of The Strange Career of Jim Crow

Vann Woodward's The Strange Career of Jim Crow