To be fair, Polish people and blondes didn't fare well either, and nearly half the people in my family were blonde.
Because SLAVERY and all it's ramifications had it's beginings in the South. Of course Racism existed and still exists every where but most all the violence, shootings, hangings, beatings,denial of black voting was in the South. Read The Lost Cause
Throughout the 17th, 18th and part of the 19th century all northern states were slave states. Long before any southern territory was recognized as a state, the north prospered heavily with the use of slaves particularly at the ports. Even when some northern states abolished slavery many trade companies still profited by the use of slaves in the southern regions and those that were deemed as states and also profited by the selling of slaves in ports where slavery was abolished.
I have read about how awful it was in other places but growing up on a farm In NC, I never saw all the hatred, violence, hanging, etc. We worked side by side with our Colored neighbors. We children played together. There was mutual respect between the races. The only time I ever heard the word "Nigger" was when one of my Colored playmates called her sister that. Their Mama scolded her soundly for that and told her the only nigger is the devil. Maybe it was different in Mississippi, I don't know. I think there is more animosity between the races in some places now than there was back then. I think there is more of it in the crowded cities than down here in the rural south. I know there are white racist but only among stupid, uneducated, ignorant people.
If Southern Democrats had not changed & ignored the provisions of Reconstruction at the end of the Civil War there would never had to been The Civil Rights Act of 1954 & 1968
Yes, “southern democrats” did indeed have a problem with abolition as did the northern democrats. The democrat / Federalist Party is the oldest party in the U.S. and one of it’s mainstays was it’s opposition to banks and the abolishment of slavery. I think part of the mix up has a lot to do with knowing how many actual states there were in pre and post civil war. The Louisiana purchase wasn’t until 1803 and much of that territory, both north and south had slaves even after the civil war. In order to become a state, the inquiring territory had to agree to abolish slavery. If one looks back, it can be clearly seen that some tentative states on both sides of the line had some problems with going anti-slavery and it can also be clearly seen that the culprits were affiliated with the Democratic Party which again, had it’s roots in the N. Eastern portion of the U.S. down to Virginia. No, I am not saying that the South didn’t and doesn’t have it’s problems but to focus strictly on the south and negate the happenings in and from the north is to take away half of the history lesson we have to learn.
We STILL call northerners yankees. It's not a continuation of the Civil War, it's just a cultural designation.
Actually, slavery had its beginnings everywhere where there were people. Most of the African slaves who were brought to the Americas were already slaves in Africa, and many of the Native American tribes held slaves, as well. Most of the slaves who came to North America were sold to the slave traders by other Africans or by Muslims, and they were brought here by Spanish, Portuguese, and English slave ships long before the United States became a nation. For that matter, far more slaves were taken to various islands in the Caribbean, and to Central and South America, than to North America. The world has been trained to equate slavery with the American South. However, I think we're being fed a meal of selective history when we blame the American South for slavery while leaving fellow Africans, Muslims, the Portuguese, Spanish, and English off the hook, simultaneously ignoring the fact that slavery continues in other parts of the world, including African and Muslim countries. As for racism prior to the civil rights movement, as I have said, I don't know. I grew up in a part of Michigan where Catholics were the closest thing to a minority and, while the vocabulary included some racist language, I don't know that most people used the words as a means of voicing hatred, perhaps because there wasn't any racial diversity, and there were no subjects of racial hatred. I don't know what the larger, more racially diverse, cities in the Lower Peninsula were like because we didn't go there. I remember the eeny, meeny, miny, moe rhyme, but I don't know that I ever considered the meaning to any of the words, other than to know that it wasn't anything I should be saying around my mother. I must have learned it from someone, but it was surely another kid. I wasn't taught to hate anyone, and I know that I didn't learn any racist language from my parents. When I enrolled in college at Northern Michigan University, I was asked if I would object to a black roommate, and I thought that was a pretty odd question to ask. It was 1971, after all. But apparently, some people minded because they asked the question. My roommate wasn't asked if he minded having a white roommate, I know, because we talked about it.
au contraire Bess It is a continuation of the Civil War, particularly in the way some Crackers say it.
No, we were calling them that LONG before the Civil War. There is a good chance it was said then pretty much the way it is sometimes said now.
I grew up in Alabama post-civil rights movement. The schools were desegregated and everyone was friendly. I never knew there was an issue until one day one my black friends came home with me after school and my mom went ballistic when she found out. My brother told me that's what happens to people when they get old--they lose their mind. She was in her late 30s. lol