Chapters 8 and 9 quotes

Noelle Roberts

March 9, 2017

AFAM 2100: The New Jim Crow

Professor Young

Chapter 8: A Summer of Trials, 1903:

1. “Grogan was accused of arresting an African American woman named Emma Pearson on a bogus charge of vagrancy and then selling her to Eliza Turner, the brother of Fletch Turner, who managed the family’s limestone quarry in Calcis.”

This quote shows an example of black codes which was a system that allowed police to arrest black people over petty crimes, and one of them was vagrancy. Since black people could not get jobs and could not afford to pay of their depts., they were resold back into slavery, to pay it off which was called convict leasing.

2. “He said that while the charges against the Cosby men were technically termed peonage, the case was in fact about slavery—the overt buying and selling of humans, and holding them in a condition of coerced forced labor.”

Once again, this shows how police knew these charges were ridiculous and still forced black people into labor to pay off debts they would not be able to pay since they had no jobs or any source of income.

3. “Swanson testified he was never paid for any work on the Cosby plantation and was held under guard seven days a week, and locked in at night.” “G.R. Shaffer, of Dadeville, one of the men who made bond for the Cosbys, urged them to plead guilty and had gathered scored of signatures in Tal- lapoosa County on a petition asking for clemency.”

This explains that even when white people would sign contracts in court saying they would pay black people for the work they did, they still would not, and they would treat black people like prisoners under guard, locked away, in harsh conditions. It then proves that other white people would go out of their way to save money, or gather signatures to help each other because they all knew what they were ding was wrong and thought that they could change the judge’s mind. They plead guilty to forty-five counts of peonage and conspiracy to hold blacks in slavery but later tried to say they did not know that what they were doing was against the law and protested the allegations against them. Judge Jones, the judge who was dealing with this case said that they knew what thy were doing was wrong especially since these black people didn’t commit any real crime and sentenced them to one year and a day in federal penitentiary in Atlanta.

4. “Ignoring the claims of extreme abuse and homicide committed on the Turner farm, the attorney’s argued that the men’s behavior might constitute a form of slavery but that no federal statute made slavery a crime.”

This quotes just shows the ways of how there is always a way to get around the law. Local law and federal law are different and for them to be charged, the case would have to be brought in a state court by local officials under Alabama’s law against false pretense, and no one acknowledged this. They had a valid argument.

5. “The Civil Rights Act of 1866, passed in the wake of the war to formalize the ending of slavery, simply declared all persons born in the United States to be full-fledged citizens with the right to vote regardless of race or previous “conditions of slavery or involuntary servitude.” But it did not clearly state that the holding of slaves was a crime, and the disparate treatment of former slaves was made only a misdemeanor, carrying a maximum penalty of one year in jail.”

Even after The Civil Rights Act of 1866 whites took the law literally and found ways to work around it. They knew holding black people as slaves was a crime but since the act did not clearly, blatantly state that then they thought they could  get away with it. We all know that white people did not just hold slaves though, they held them and kept them under guard at all times and locked away because they knew that if one got away they would tell and get the whole plantation shut down. They still found a way around this and got a lower sentence.

Chapter 9: A River Of Anger:

1. “While the Turner trial was under was, a frenzied mob in Scottsboro, Alabama, gunned down the town sheriff in front of his family as he refused to turn over a black teenager who had allegedly “attempted criminal assault” on a nineteen-year old white girl. Once the sheriff was dead, the black man was seized from his cell and hanged from a telegraph pole that nigh.”

This shows how once white people realized that they were going to get in trouble for what they were doing they started taking matters into their own hands. They even went as far as going against law enforcement and killing them to do what they thought was right and just. This also shows how black men were portrayed as rapists and once a white girl called out rape, no one asked any questions since he was a black man that already had a stereotype against him.

2. “Their expectations of compensation radically altered the economics of southern agriculture. And even among the most ardent abolitionists, few white Americans in any region were truly prepared to accept black men and women, with their seemingly inexplicable dialects, mannerisms, and supposedly narrow skills, as true social equals.”

This quotes explains that even when black people were making progress, and showed white people now that they had the chance to that they had manners, they were educated because now they could attend school, had talents and much more that white people still saw black people as inferior to them because of the color of their skin.

3. “Before the publication of Darwin’s landmark On the Origin of Species in 1859, virtually all Americans viewed the presumed higher and lower racial order of whites, blacks, and native Indian tribes as mandated by God”

White people tried to justify slavery and their actions by using God and the Bible. There was much controversy over this because even whites and blacks are linked in their humanity and that God demanded some measure of moral consideration and compassion for all. So even when white people tried to use the Bible to justify their actions, they were wrong.

4. “The rule that had no exception was that one drop of Negro blood makes a negro.”

White people believed that if you had any black blood in you that you were impure and cursed. They hated black people but if you were mixed they hated you even more because they viewed you as a traitor, even though you can’t choose how you are born. They believed that if you had nay black in you that you tainted your white blood with dirty blood.

5. “The negro is monkey-like; has no sympathy for his fellow-man; has no regard for the truth, and when the truth would answer his purpose the best, he will lie. He is without gratitude or appreciation of anything done for him; is a natural born thief, --will steal anything, no matter how worthless, He has no morals.”

This was said about black people but if you look back in history and how white people acted, t actually describes them more than anything or anyone else. This also shows how these stereotypes and labels were put on black people and whites told and taught their young this which created a cognitive bias and cognitive dissonance. White people had a bias toward black people from what they were told from other white people, and even when proven wrong since they had a cognitive dissonance they were set in their ways of what they thought black people were.

Tariffs

Noelle Roberts

Professor Young

The New Jim Crow

2/9/17

Tariffs

 In December of 1860 South Carolina left the Union and ten other states followed to create the Confederate States of America. This occurred because of Tariffs. A tariff is a tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports. The South did not want to pay tariffs and the North though this was unacceptable. This lead to the Civil War which split the nation and destroyed cities all over the world. Over 600,000 people died and many more were severely wounded. The first African slaves arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 and their main purpose was to work in the tobacco fields.

The North had outlawed slavery after the American Revolution because they did not think it was making a profit anymore. They focused on transportation systems that connected regions which would improve trade. The types of transportation they focused on were boats through the Erie Canal and building Railroads as long as 30,000 miles long. This cut time from a couple of months to a couple of weeks which allowed trade to happen faster. The North was going through the Industrial phase and were producing sewing machines, farm machinery, clothing, and much more. This was called the American system of manufacturing. This created jobs and immigrants came to work in these factories. Banks were made to finance these industries and help with trade.

            In the South, agriculture was the main source for jobs and wealth. The rich soil helped with the production of rice, tobacco, and cotton. There were also cash crops grown for

sale. Majority of whites in the south were poor farmers but big plantation owners who

owned a lot of slaves dominated economically, socially, and politically. Raw cotton was

always expensive because it was very hard to harvest. In 1793 Eli Whitney invented the

cotton gin. This made it so that a slave could clean more than 50 pounds of cotton a day.

This made the want for it increase and it was no longer a luxury item, but the cheapest

fabric because the slaves could produce it faster. The South was the world’s biggest

supplier. They used enslaved Africans as their forced labor source because it was the

cheapest form of work.

             Even though some slave owners treated their slaves “well” slavery was brutal, deadly, and disgusting. Children were dressed in coarse linen clothing and only received two shirts a year. If those shirts did not last them throughout the year they would not receive anymore clothing, they would have to be shirtless or naked no matter the weather. Masters and overseers beat slaves for no reason thinking that this was the only way they could be controlled. There were free slaves, whether they ran away, were bought out by relatives, or freed because of the owner’s guilty conscience. They were brick layers, and carpenters, and they dominated in these fields. They made a life for themselves and resisted slavery any way they could by breaking tools, burning down barns and houses, running away to the North, or Indian tribes on the frontier, poison their masters, and revolted. When a group would revolt and lost, whites would decapitate them and post them on poles for others to see so that they could instill fear into anyone who even thought about going against them.

            William Lloyd Garrison started the New England Anti-slavery society in 1832. He wanted to end slavery and his newspaper the liberated became one of the most popular papers out. He said that nothing justifies slavery. Angry crowds almost lynched him in Boston burned down the new abolitionist hall in Philly and murdered many. The abolitionist movement grew in the North and worked with whites to create the underground railroad. Escaped slaves write autobiographies to inform people and great leaders like Harriet Tubman went back and forth from the South to the North to help slaves to the North.

            In school I was not taught all of these facts, but thanks to my mother, my aunts, and my grandmother I knew a lot of the facts presented in these videos. They made sure that I learned about the truth of my history and what really happened because they don’t put the full truth in textbooks.

Modern Black Superheroes

I chose to write about the poster with Michelle Obama in red, white, and blue in front of the White House saying "First Lady Michelle Obama as Madame America."I like how the artist made her look like a lady Captain America and shows that she is putting on her red glove to go out, represent, and save America. I think the poster represents her well as someone who comes to save the day. Michelle Obama has made many accomplishments like graduating from Princeton University, then continued to earn a degree from Harvard Law School, to being a lawyer and working at a Chicago law firm before she met Barack and became First Lady of the United States. She always carries herself with class, and poise, and is not afraid to stick up for what she truly believes in which is a great trait to have and to teach to others. With her time in office she has focused on supporting soldiers from the military and their families, volunteering at homeless shelters, stressing the importance of education, fighting childhood obesity, and the importance of taking care of yourself and being aware of how and what you are treating and putting into your body. She truly wants the best for everyone, not only Americans and that is someone I aspire to be as well. Barack and Michelle have made history by being the first Black President and First Lady of America and I believe that they truly inspired and pushed many to work hard because they are examples of how you can be whatever you want and make it to the top if you want it bad enough and are willing to work hard for it. She has made many achievements while serving as the first lady, and will continue to do so in the future. If I were to give her a superpower it would to make anything she imagined because I believe she would use this power to make food, clean water, clothing, shelter, and much more to better the world. She can't make these things out of thin air, but I believe that she has used her resources to better the world.