This Pulitzer Prize winning book analyzes why blacks did not rise in American society after emancipation until the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. It provides an answer to those who counter the lack of black achievement with the “bootstrapping” advancement of immigrant populations. And most importantly it shows that long past the time of the Civil War, slavery was actually still alive and well in the South in all but name, with active support of the state and federal governments.
Here’s how it worked (and a vast record of documents unearthed by the author attests to this system):
“By 1900,” Blackmon writes, “the South’s judicial system had been wholly reconfigured to make one of its primary purposes the coercion of African Americans to comply with the social customs and labor demands of whites.” Thousands of random indigent black men were arrested for anything from unemployment, to not being able to prove employment at any given moment, to changing employers without “permission”, or even loud talk. In other words, they were arrested for being young black men. They were sentenced to hard labor, and bought and sold by sheriffs and judges among other opportunists to corporations such as U.S. Steel, Tennessee Coal, railroads, lumber camps, and factories. The prisoners who were sent to mines were chained to their barracks at night, and required to work all day – “subject to the whip for failure to dig the requisite amount, at risk of physical torture for disobedience, and vulnerable to the sexual predations of other miners – many of whom already had passed years or decades in their own chthonian confinement.” Hundreds died of disease, accidents, or homicide, and in fact, mass burial fields near these old mines can still be located.
Blackmon charges that the desire to industrialize the South quickly was central to the restrictions put in place to suppress blacks, since these laws allowed for easy arrest and enslavement of workers. He avers:
Repeatedly, the timing and scale of surges in arrests appeared more attuned to rises and dips in the need for cheap labor than any demonstrable acts of crime.”
But also, and quite importantly, “these bulging slave centers became a primary weapon of suppression of black aspirations.” Millions of blacks lived in a shadow of fear that they or their family members would be taken into this system. It had a profound effect on their behavior and self-esteem.
Meanwhile, the whites in the North were impatient about blacks, and saw their lack of achievement as indicative of inferiority. An 1874 article in the Chicago Tribune asked:
Is it not time for the colored race to stop playing baby? The whites of America have done nobly in outgrowing the old prejudices against them. They cannot hurry this process by law. Let them obtain social equality as every other man, woman, and child in this world obtain it — by showing themselves in their lives the social equals of those with whom they wish to consort. If they do this, year-by-year the prejudices will die away.”
As Blackmon writes:
There was no acknowledgment of the effects of cycle upon cycle of malevolent defeat, of the injury of seeing one generation rise above the cusp of poverty only to be indignantly crushed, of the impact of repeating tsunamis of violence and obliterated opportunities on each new generation of an ever-changing population out-numbered in persons and resources.”
He insists that any consideration of the progress of blacks in the United States after the Civil War must acknowledge that “slavery, real slavery, didn’t end until 1945.” Thus the parents of today are the children of those who suffered under this egregious system, and so it can be expected that the repercussions continue to inform the expectations and attitudes of those who grew up with the stories and experiences derived from this very recent chapter in their family histories.
Evaluation: The story told by Blackmon is horrific. In spite of an abundance of evidence about what happened, history about the neo-slavery that survived after the Civil War is virtually non-existent. Moreover, it is clear from the records that these offenses against blacks were permitted by the nation. The legacy of terror and defeatism has had repercussions up to our present day.
Should it be read? Absolutely! But it’s a painful read, and the text includes some ghastly pictures. And yet, as Blackmon concludes:
Only by acknowledging the full extent of slavery’s grip on U.S. society – its intimate connections to present-day wealth and power, the depth of its injury to millions of black Americans, the shocking nearness in time of its true end – can we reconcile the paradoxes of current American life.”
Rating: 4/5
Filed under: Book Review, Sunday Salon Tagged: | Book Review, Sunday Salon
Another powerful review of a book that we all need to read to expand our knowledge of past and present evils.
In the 1920s the little town in Illinois where I was born was split apart by a bitter railroad workers’ strike. Actually my family was involved since my great-grandfather and grandfather both worked in RR management so they were shunned by blue collar workers. Anyway, black workers from the south somewhere were brought in who didn’t realize they would be strikebreakers until they arrived in Clinton. Now I wonder if they were some of these prisoners. Fortunately the only casualty in the strike was a young white boy who followed his dad to a demonstration and was caught in crossfire. That tragedy sort of woke people up to the danger.
A great review, Jill. I’m adding this to my list.
Acknowledging and learning from the horrors of our past is so important to me. Ignoring it or glossing it over with rose-colored glasses is just a bad idea. In other words, I am glad there are books like this out there. But they are so very hard to read.
I love your reviews, Jill. I love that, not only do they give your opinion, but we learn so much about the topics and subject matter within the book.
This sounds like such an excellent book – brilliant review as always, Jill. Unfortunately I still see the “disadvantage = inferiority” argument being used all the time. People apply it to women, to ethnic minorities, you name it :\ When I studied Beloved in an American lit class, a fellow student completely shocked me, some of my classmates and my professor by saying that he wondered if African Americans weren’t just “naturally lazy” because they’d had “plenty of time” to recover from the effects of slavery but were still disadvantaged in many ways. Worst of all, he didn’t seem to think he had said anything racist or unacceptable. I hope my professor privately handed him a reading list after class.
I’d never heard of this book before and now I’d love to read it. Thanks for reviewing it, Jill. I’ll probably cry but that’s okay. I expect good books to do that to me occasionally.
Although I didn’t actually know this, it doesn’t surprise me at all. Thanks for being our social conscience sometimes.
Wow! Another great review. So important, yet so depressing!
I had a student write on a reading log once, “if the Jews can get over the Holocaust, then why can’t blacks get over slavery?”
We ran out of time that day in class to share logs, and I was soooooo relieved when I read it that night. Books and discussions like this are more important than ever.
This is frightening and horrifying to hear. I had no idea that slavery was still being perpetrated during the time after the Civil War, and I am just flabbergasted to hear this. Clearly, this is a book I need to read and explore for myself. Thanks for getting this review out there.
This is such a complex issue. From your review it sounds like the author has done an excellent job of researching and analyzing the issues. It’s going on my list.
Douglas Blackmon is one of those authors I keep meaning to read, but I always forget his name when I’m at the library and in the mood for nonfiction about Why People Are Bad. :p This looks fascinating and important, and I really really want to read it.