My two most recent genealogy diaries got me thinking and that is almost always dangerous. I take no joy in being a member of the oppressor race. There is no solace in the official abolition of slavery, not for me and certainly not for the oppressed.
In writing about the Jamestown Colony and when the first Africans were officially enslaved it became clear it was a process, done by degrees until full ownership of another human being became the law. I was also struck by the similarities between those laws and the laws passed after the end of the Civil War, called the Black Codes meant to regulate the lives of newly freed slaves.
To my surprise, Virginia alone passed more than 130 laws pertaining to slaves in the years between 1687 and 1865, and that number doesn’t include the laws passed earlier and leading up to slavery becoming legal, The laws also restricted the rights of free Blacks, always a constant threat to the Status Quo. After Nat Turner buckling down on free Blacks became a priority.
In many southern states, particularly after the insurrection of 1831, free Blacks were prohibited from the basic constitutional rights to assemble in groups, bear arms, learn to read and write, exercise free speech, or testify against white people in Court. After 1810, states made manumissions of slaves more difficult to obtain, often requiring an act of legislature for each case. This sharply reduced the incidence of planters freeing slaves.
Through the early years, free Blacks enjoyed the same rights as Whites, they were expected to assimilate, become landowners and full tax-paying members of the community. Some free Blacks even owned slaves. There are dozens of cases of Blacks buying their freedom, being freed by their owner or being baptized, all avenues to escape slavery, having a White parent could also work to your benefit. In 1668 a law was passed making it legal to tax Black women who worked and produced wealth for the community. Slave owners paid the tax for their slaves but because White women normally didn’t work creating wealth they weren’t taxed, which meant free Black couples paid twice as much in taxes as White couples. Imagine when the new Black Codes starting making their way into law, how their lives quickly became little better than the slavery they left or the slaves they owned.
In the early 17th century, as the Age of Colonization began in earnest, Africans had begun to come to North America to stay. In 1619, a year before English pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, a group of Africans were brought to the Jamestown colony in Virginia as indentured servants.
Within 50 years, however, this colony of free people was no more, and most of the African immigrants in Virginia had been enslaved. Like practically all other Africans in North America, they had been caught up in the transatlantic slave trade-a web of international commerce and human suffering that was entangling Europe, the Americas, and Africa. This new institution would bring about profound changes in society, politics, and everyday life on all four continents, and would shape the African experience in America for centuries to come.
It is estimated that during the 300 years of the transatlantic slave trade, between 15 million and 20 million Africans were transported to the Americas as slaves. Of these, more than 400,000 were sent to the 13 British colonies and, later, the United States. We may never know a precise number, but current estimates hold that more than 1 million Africans died on the journey.
A ready source of free or nearly free labor fueled expansion, innovation and made many White plantation owners very wealthy. It also contributed to social stratification, classes emerged, the wealthy and the poor.
After the Civil War, to become part of the Union again and regain their rights of citizenship the Southern states were required to rewrite their constitutions removing all bits and pieces making slavery legal, repeal slavery laws on their books and ratify the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. This meant the former slaves were equal to White men under the law, they endowed with the same rights as their former masters. After 100 years of enjoying the benefits of slavery, it should surprise no one the transition was a difficult one.
The very idea former slaves could enjoy equality made folks go right off the deep end because it would never ever do. The Black Codes started to reappear, they were meant to regulate the activity of newly freed slaves. By suppressing the rights of Blacks it was possible to force them into low paying jobs, as close to slavery as they could make them and require them to carry evidence of their job or be arrested for vagrancy and jailed. Black Codes were passed in Northern states too, particularly in border states. The aim was to deny them the right to vote, to free public education, where they could work, shop, attend church, socialize and when they could be out in public, hence the birth of Sundown Towns. Towns that still exist in the United States. Darien, Connecticut, and Lake Forest, Illinois were notorious Sundown Towns excluding both Blacks and Jews from living there.
Of course, being free was not something the former slaves were willing to give up, to enforce the laws there were gangs of outlaws called Regulators. They have been associated with the Klan and there is no doubt there was a cross over of membership but the Regulators rarely hid their identities. Losing the Civil War was a complete and utter repudiation of everything the South stood for and it was a bitter defeat, the South was left destitute, ruined in tatters. in the years leading up to the war there had been a number of slave revolts and plantation owners were less likely to look at their slaves as docile workers as a possible threat to their safety. When the slaves were freed and possessing the same rights they had the former slave owners did everything they could to erode those rights. It was mostly former Confederate soldiers and the poor and uneducated who rode with the Regulators and the Klan, they were on a mission of pure revenge. Before the War night riders and patrols were common, legally deputized to punish any slave they found out after curfew. In 1866 they mounted up again to terrorize Black citizens, this time the road day and night.
Blacks were not the only group terrorized by the night riders or the Klan, or just misguided ordinary folks, the Mexicans, Chinese, and Native Americans were targeted as well as Catholics and Jews. Some of these laws inshrining bigotry weren’t repealed until well into the 20th century. As we moved into the modern age Klan participation slowed down, there was an uptick in the ‘20s and during the Civil Rights years. Then there are the Nazis, White supremacists, they marched in Chicago in 1977, but they had been active on college campuses since the ‘60s, their leader George Lincoln Rockwell.was assassinated by one of his followers in 1968.
The last quarter of the 20th century had a veneer of equality across the races, but nothing could be further from the truth, as we found out with Trump, the haters crawled out from under their rocks. But as horrified as we might be the old traditions weren’t really gone. Redlining was still taking place although it had been against Federal law for years. Discrimination in the workplace was still alive and well, particularly in right to work states. Housing discrimination, medical discrimination, substandard schools, no equality in opportunity even with Affirmative Action, voter suppression just touch the surface. Add to that out of control police brutality and harsh prison sentences, all meant to continue the subjugation of POC.
This is not to say all POC live in poverty or never succeed, but it is to point out the barriers that keep them from being truly equal are largely still in place. In many ways, one horror had been replaced with another equally tragic act. Lynchings are no longer happening but the police are killing unarmed POC at an alarming rate. It is no longer illegal for Blacks to learn to read and write but so many of their schools are substandard. Because of redlining, we have created ghettos, not ethnic enclaves where their history and culture can be preserved and celebrated.
For more information.
Without Sanctuary
Searching through America's past for the last 25 years, collector James Allen uncovered an extraordinary visual legacy: photographs and postcards taken as souvenirs at lynchings throughout America. With essays by Hilton Als, Leon Litwack, Congressman John Lewis and James Allen, these photographs have been published as a book "Without Sanctuary" by Twin Palms Publishers . Features will be added to this site over time and it will evolve into an educational tool. Please be aware before entering the site that much of the material is very disturbing. We welcome your comments and input through the forum section.
Southern Poverty Law Center Hate Map
History of the KKK