Introduction
The American South became famous in world historiography due to extreme forms of slavery and discrimination from the white planter class. The peculiar way of life and plantation culture of the American South developed during the British colonization of North America and evolved after the country gained independence. The South of the USA includes, for the most part, the states that in 1861-1865 made up the Confederate States of America and opposed the North during the American Civil War.
The climate of the South made it possible to grow plantation crops. Before 1800, slave labor benefited tobacco, rice, sugarcane, indigo, and hemp growers1. Agriculture demanded year-round work, which, with a shortage of labor from the 17th century, led to the use of the labor of Negro slaves. In this regard, in the southern English colonies in North America, plantation slavery, features of an aristocratic culture appeared, close to the landowning nobility in Europe. The North-South Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement are two events in the history of the American South caused by racial and class discrimination.
The Civil War
The Roles of Race and Class
The key differences between the industrialized North and the agrarian South of the United States were further intensified in the early 19th century. The Industrial Revolution began in the North, and in the South, the invention of the cotton gin made cotton the main crop. The North quickly overtook the South in terms of population: by 1860, Southerners made up only a third of the US population. Focusing on the foreign market, the South, to maintain its slave system, took the extreme step of separating from the United States: in 1861, the Confederate States of America was proclaimed. This event sparked a civil war in which the South was defeated. After that, the so-called Reconstruction of the South was carried out, which lasted until 1877. A military administration was introduced in the southern states; most of the southern states were occupied for a long time, having almost no political rights.
The American Civil War, also called the War of the North and the South, went down in history as the largest conflict on the American continent. The consensus of modern historians is that slavery was the chief cause of the Civil War2. Free emigrants replenished the population of the northern states and the southern states by slaves imported from abroad. By the early 1860s, only a quarter of the population of the southern states had the right to vote. Southerners feared that with such dynamics, all controversial political issues in Congress would be decided in favor of the North because they had the majority of voice.
All agriculture in the South was based on free slave labor, and unskilled factory slaves were inefficient. The industrialists of the North needed slavery to get free workers, so they advocated the abolition of slavery. In addition, for southern planters, this would mean the collapse of the entire economic system built. Besides, the moral side of the issue was also important: many public figures in America criticized slavery as an inhuman relic of the past and demanded its abolition.
Other Reasons
In addition, the central government, located in the North, sought to extend influence to all states, while the Southern Territories wanted to maintain local self-government. The country’s entire industry was concentrated in the North, while cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, and other industrial crops were collected in the South. The Southern states supplied raw materials to the North for a long time, where local producers processed it and exported goods. However, at some point, the planters realized that it was much more profitable to trade with Europe without intermediaries. The manufacturers of the North were at risk of running out of supplies, and European ones were supplanting their goods in the South. Wanting to protect the domestic market, the government imposed huge taxes on trade with Europe, which caused discontent among the southerners.
The Civil Rights Movement
The Roles of Race and Class
The Civil Rights Movement became a grassroots movement of black American citizens and white activists who supported them against racial discrimination in the 1950s and 1960s. In the southern states, centuries of slavery and decades of segregation have created a legal and political system characterized by white supremacy. There were laws according to which Afro-Americans could not study at schools and universities along with whites and had their system of schools and universities; they had to occupy specially designated places for them in public transport. Many shops, restaurants, hotels refused to serve blacks. The whites counted on their obedience; the resistance of the Afro-Americans seemed unthinkable. Many white southerners were convinced that Afro-Americans had taken on the role of second-class citizens, and they even liked it.
The African American legal strategy culminated in the US Supreme Court in 1954, under the leadership of Earl Warren, which overturned many laws that allowed for racial segregation and discrimination. The movement began when the US Supreme Court concedes that segregation is wrong. 3African Americans were re-entering politics in the South, and young people across the country were inspired to take action. From 1964 to 1970, a wave of urban riots and protests in black communities weakened support from the white middle class, but support from private foundations increased. The emergence of the Black Power movement challenged the established black leadership for its cooperation and continued legalism and non-violence. Many popular ideas about the movement are linked to the racially discriminatory movement of Martin Luther King Jr., who was fighting racial inequality through nonviolent resistance.
Other Reasons
Two main causes drove the civil rights movement; discrimination and segregation of African Americans. Another reason for the rise of the movement can be called the economic superiority of the white population over the blacks. The starting point was the stereotypes entrenched in society that made strong racial discrimination possible. People’s discontent grew, given that a significant part of the population did not even have the right to vote, children could not study on an equal basis with others, discrimination even touched places on buses.
One Race or Class Has Been More Powerful than the Other
Historically, the white race has always had economic and social superiority over the black race. However, racial and class superiority did not stop African Americans from fighting for their rights and making a difference. On the side of the oppressed population was the moral right to be considered equal to the other part of the population. This realization of the rightness of one’s actions led, for example, to the success of the Civil Rights Movement. Although the Civil War ended in defeat for the South, it set in motion a chain of societal changes that led African Americans to improve their position later on.
The Most Powerful in Driving the History of the American South
The history of the American South was largely influenced by slavery. Oppression, cruelty, and discrimination led to a fierce struggle for the black population for their rights4. Slavery radically influenced American South history and the development of the entire country. Four hundred years ago, the British brought the first African slaves to Virginia. This event marked the beginning of the British and American transatlantic slave trade. From 1619 to 1860, about 600 thousand African slaves were forcibly imported into the United States. By the middle of the 19th century, the number of black slaves in the United States had reached about 4 million people. Their exploitation played an important role in the development of American capitalism. Slavery in the United States was prohibited only in 1865, but for another 100 years, segregation restrictions were in effect in the country: segregation restrictions were lifted only in the 1960s. The socio-economic consequences of the slave system in America are still being felt.
Conclusion
Racial and class discrimination can be called the main driving force in the history of the American South. Discrimination was the main cause of the events described: the American Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement. There were other reasons, mostly behind the key differences between the industrial North and the agrarian South. Slavery can, in principle, be called the cause that influenced the course of the development of the United States as a whole. Even in modern society, echoes of this terrible oppression are heard.
Bibliography
Annette Gordon-Reed. Racism in America: A Reader. United States: Harvard University Press, 2020.
Hasan Kwame Jeffries, ed. Understanding and Teaching the Civil Rights Movement. United States: University of Wisconsin Press, 2019.
Lamphier, Peg A.., Welch, Rosanne. The Civil War on Film. United States: ABC-CLIO, 2020.
Reynolds, Donna. The Civil War. United States: Cavendish Square Publishing LLC, 2020.
Footnotes
- 1-Lamphier, Peg A.., Welch, Rosanne. The Civil War on Film. United States: ABC-CLIO, 2020, 17.
- 2-Reynolds, Donna. The Civil War. United States: Cavendish Square Publishing LLC, 2020, 14.
- 3-Hasan Kwame Jeffries, ed. Understanding and Teaching the Civil Rights Movement. United States: University of Wisconsin Press, 2019.
- 4-Annette Gordon-Reed. Racism in America: A Reader. United States: Harvard University Press, 2020, 20.