Jim Crow introduction - Lecture notes from Jim Crow, Bootleggers and Okies module. PDF

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Lecture notes from Jim Crow, Bootleggers and Okies module....

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30.09.19 – 9am Introduction to themes. Office hours: Tuesday 10am and 3pm American Civil War:  

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1861-65 – think about what happens during this period. North versus South (or Union versus Confederacy) – was a war that was fundamentally about slavery. Many American conservatives still deny that it was about slavery and it was about the rights of individual states being able to determine their political choices away from the other states. Northern victory – Northern fighting to make slavery illegal whereas southern states were fighting to maintain slavery. Not everyone in the north was an abolitionist and not everyone in the south hated African Americans Legacy: Reconstruction – this period comes immediately after the Civil War. Legacy: Lost Cause

What happened after the war? Can we see that as a Northern victory? Did the south and its values come forward after the civil war. Module tries to study a period of American history where there is a lot of change happening. This course covers from 1861 to 1939.

107th Coloured Infantry, Fort Corcoran, Washington DC 1863

Edwin Jemison, volunteer in Louisiana Infantry, aged 17 when he died in 1862

Andersonville prison, Georgia: 28% mortality rate (13,000 men) One of the things that created the toxic legacy is the military prosecution of the war, there where many abuses on both sides. The treatment of prisoners on both sides is an example.

30.09.19 – 9am Gone with the Wind (1939) – typical of Lost Cause myth This film tells a story about the ‘aggressive northern regime’ and how people wanted to be enslaved and enjoyed their lives on plantations and their masters. They refuse to acknowledge the resistance and rebellions that slavery triggered. This map shows what is going on in the Deep South. In this period in the US huge new areas of settlement are being opened up and racial lines in the southwest and the northwest are very different from the south east. We need to look at what’s going on at a continental level, of the whole nation and not just one area of the USA.

1869 – opening of transcontinental railroad. This radically changes the experience of Westward migration. These technological changes do is make the world smaller, there is less regional and local diversity in the US and it becomes much more of a national picture culturally. US-Philippines conflict This is a period when the US becomes an imperial power for the first time, the 1890s is crucial for this. This example is just one of many in which the US gets involved in overseas conflict. The Philippines, Hawaii, Cuba and Panama are important places. These are examples of the US using economic imperialism to further their goals in terms of geopolitical power. The effect of this political and economic change is the development of this kind of racial stereotyping: Judge Magazine 1899 This portrays the US president carrying a screaming Filipino baby and the caption says ‘the Filipino first bath’ and the president saying ‘oh you dirty boy’

Boston

Sunday Globe 1899

Trying to American baseball

show how these people have been given civilisation and now they have taken on and wearing nice smart clothes.

30.09.19 – 9am

Judge, Arkell Publishing Company, NY, artist Victor Gillam One of the parts of the story is the history of native Americans in the US and what has happened to them in this period. In much of the discourse in the 1890’s Filipino natives are often compared to native Americans. This cartoon talks about the similarities

Bootleggers refer to the question of prohibition during this period. This is a period of history that many historians see as a bit of a failure as prohibition only lasted a couple of years and then was reversed. However, this is a very simplistic view as movements to control alcohol is a big part of American history. This is a period when alcohol may have been prohibited by the federal government, but the control of drugs is also on the agenda for the first time, in the US heroine and cocaine are legal. Wet or Dry poster by American Issue Publishing Company Westerville, Ohio

To understand what happened to Native Americans in this period – the tribes who were living on the East coast reduced because of disease and war – they were moved by forced and marched Westward.

30.09.19 – 9am Iconic photo of the frozen corpse of Big Foot, Dec 1890 after massacre at Wounded Knee. Photographer unknown, in Library of Congress archive. This moment marks the end of military resistance by native Americans. However, that does not mean the end of native Americans – there are many people who define themselves as natives or mixed race.

Race White Blackface as "Jim Crow" broadly in this character – Jim Crow was. form of period. These the working

Entertainer Thomas Rice in Minstrel Character, c. 1830 Representations of race more period. Jim Crow is a fictional there is various stories of who Minstrel shows were a popular entertainment during this shows were popular amongst class as much as the middle.

Jim Crow was almost always portrayed as a white actor in black face. We need to understand why blackface is still present still in the 21st century. Themes of the module:  

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Modernity – what does it mean when we say that the US in the late 19th century is ending a period of modernity? Progressivism – a movement for social reform. It is a middle class led movement which includes people on the political right and left that suggests that reform of behaviour and the urban environment are positive aims. Immigration – immigration was a big issue, we need to look at who the immigrants were and why they were disliked etc. Prohibition – prohibition of alcohol and other drugs. Need to think about the cultural ramifications of crime, gang fiction and so on.

1931, The Purple Gang (Jewish Bootleggers) of Detroit, Michigan

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Science and religion African American resistance and the Harlem Renaissance. – was a period of resistance too Great depression – photo shows economic polarisation. Was a period of incredible riches and poverty. The great depression is not the only depression, there is one in the 1890’s.

30.09.19 – 9am Bud Fields and his family. Alabama. 1935 and 1936. Photographer: Walker Evans....