August 30: Class Summary

          In 1829, racial violence broke out in Cincinnati, Ohio. White residents were angered by the Ohio government's unwillingness to enforce laws that would keep black Americans out of the State, and they responded by committing atrocious acts against the black population in Cincinnati. These laws included a requirement of black residents to hold papers proving freedom, the support of two white citizens from Ohio, and a $500 bond. These requirements were aimed solely at keeping African Americans out of the state of Ohio. This example illustrates an important point about race relations in the United States. While slavery was a Southern institution at this point in American history, racism was still virulent throughout the entire country. Even as democracy was expanding for white Americans under the populist leadership of President Andrew Jackson, black Americans saw what little rights they had contract. At this point in time, white supremacy remained the law of the land.

          If we back up a little bit, we see the development of this racism and white supremacist ideology.  With the dawn of Enlightenment thinking in the 17th and 18th centuries, we saw a new interest in the classification of different species. Eventually Enlightenment thinkers began applying this system of classification to human beings, which in turn helped create our modern conceptions of race. Meanwhile, during this same time period, the trans-atlantic slave trade was developing. This slave trade marked the first instance of a slave trade with global implications, and it also created a new type of slavery that has since been termed chattel slavery. Because these two things developed around the same time, we are faced with the question of which came first: chattel slavery or race as we know it now.  Some scholars have posited a theory of mutual causation, or simply that they fed off of each other. As slavery made its way to the Americas, Enlightenment thinkers began commenting on race and slavery. For instance, Immanuel Kant weighed in on the subject of beauty, and its implications on race. Furthermore, Thomas Jefferson commented on race in his famous Notes on the State of Virginia. Within this text, Jefferson drew large conclusions about African slaves despite his limited experience with them. One such conclusion was that Africans were less intelligent and thus an inferior race. In addition to these and other "scientific" observations about race, religious justifications were eventually created to condone the institution of slavery and beliefs of racial inequality.

         In his Appeal, David Walker directly addressed the charges of Thomas Jefferson when he said, "Has Mr. Jefferson declared to the world, that we are inferior to the whites, both in the endowments of our bodies and our minds? It is indeed surprising, that a man of such great learning, combined with such excellent natural parts, should speak so of a set of men in chains. I do not know what to compare it to, unless, like putting one wild deer in an iron cage, where it will be secured, and hold another by the side of the same, then let it go, and expect the one in the cage to run as fast as the one at liberty." Walker's appeal was an incendiary work that was aimed at both blacks and whites. Walker's strident anti-slavery was met with vigorous opposition, especially in the Southern states. After his work was published, Walker had a price on his head in all the Southern states, and the Appeal was immediately banned in those same states.

          Walker, along with his friend and mentee Maria Stewart, also discussed the politics of respectability. As Rael discussed, the politics of respectability come with a specific set of terms that are associated with it. Stewart used this terminology as she urged her readers to "elevate" themselves. This elevation was supposed to occur in several areas: morally, spiritually, and intellectually, or as Stewart said, "cultivate among ourselves the pure principles of piety, morality, and virtue." The politics of respectability had both internal and external motivations. Stewart, Walker, and other authors urged that this method of self-improvement was not meant only for the benefit of improving in the eyes of white Americans. Instead the politics of respectability were meant also as an internal improvement within the black community for the benefit of the black community, not for anyone else.

          Rael also discusses the power that media had in exacerbating the fears of whites as blacks aimed for this type of self-improvement. Rael included a number of cartoons that were characteristic of these fear-mongering tactics. In class, we also discussed how there were political calculations behind this type of behavior. For instance, it gave white politicians an easy scapegoat. Rather than taking responsibility for mistakes or problems, white politicians could simply point to the black community and say "It's not my fault. It's their fault."

Please post anything that I might have left out. I tried to hit on everything that we talked about in class, but I had about four pages of notes, so I had to cut some stuff down and cut other things out.