South And South In Blood On The Forge By William Attaway

Hughes uses powerful imagery as he describes the most ostracized groups in American society from which this voice derives: the poor white man “fooled and pushed apart”, the black man “bearing slavery’s scars”, the red man “driven from his land”, and the immigrant “clutching” onto hope. He uses stirring metaphors, “slavery’s scars”, to relay the image of suffering experienced by these forgotten

Part of the definition of ethnic identity can often times be the common rejection of other ethnic values for a specific reason. This rejection of influence from other ethnicities seemed to be quite a common theme in all of the novels reviewed in our selection, but most abundant in Coming of Age in Mississippi, by Anne Moody. In this novel there was consistent conflict among black slaves due to the turmoil endured throughout lives in which rich, white plantation owners were served. Many slaves, and freed slaves that maintained the same duties with pay when awarded their freedom, were fed up with working for men that had treated them so poorly in the past. Lack of employment options

Phillips writes that the defining characteristic of a ‘Southerner’ is a feeling of white racial solidarity which casts all other social considerations in the shade; it is the “cardinal test of a Southerner.” When Phillips touches upon the subject of non-slaveholding whites, he emphasizes their zeal for the primacy of white civilization as an end unto itself. He relates two contemporary accounts of non-slaveholders, one a tinner and the other an overseer, to demonstrate this fervor but pointedly devalues their economic attachments to slavery, writing, “Both of them, and a million of their non-slaveholding like, had a still stronger social prompting: the white men’s ways must prevail; the Negroes must be kept innocuous.” Phillips rejects out of hand the sway of overt pecuniary motives against the weight of racial ones and this rejection is so absolute in part because “it is otherwise impossible to account

In Chapter 4 of his book, which is aptly titled “Postwar Passions”, Daniels chooses to focus on the experiences of African-Americans in the post-WWI era, specifically focusing on race riots that occurred during the “Red Summer” of 1919. (104) There is a long-standing history of racial discord between whites and African-Americans, but the post-WWI years are a unique time. It has been more than fifty years since slavery has been abolished, but it will still take another forty plus years before discrimination on the basis of race is made illegal in America. Industrialization after the turn of the century and blatant racism in the South led to the migration of millions of African-Americans to northern

Specifically, white efficiency expert Dwight Thompson Farnham said, “A certain amount of segregation is necessary at times to preserve the peace” (Doc. 3). This reveals how despite the popular belief in the south, the north also had segregation and racism prevalent. To further support this idea that segregation was still prevalent in the North is Document 7. Specifically, the black population grows over time, but the blacks scattering throughout the city does not change at the same rate. Even though black population is growing, they still are in a part of town they is predominately black only (Doc. 7). Next, a white-owned newspaper discusses the topic of the poor quality of life for Negros in the north: “…the decent, hand-working, law-abiding Mississippi Negros who were lured to Chicago by the ball of higher wages, only to lose their jobs, or forced to accept lower pay after the labor shortage because less acute” (Doc. 4). This reveals how African Americans did not have jobs where they had sustainable income, appreciation, and reasonable hours, which was the complete opposite of what they expected. In all, from the perspective of white men in the north, white men believed that black men should be separated and be working in poor and unbearable conditions. The black individuals had an ideal picture of life in the north, but the white men clearly explain the difference between expectations and

The tensions of the Civil War are very much still alive in the Southern United States one hundred and fifty years after the Confederacy surrendered to Union forces to end the war. While the tensions may have mitigated away from full-fledged war between North and South, there still remain tensions along racial and cultural lines well beyond the war. In Tony Horwitz’s Confederates in the Attic these long standing tensions left over from the war are delved into by Horwitz as he makes his way across the south to see how the old Confederacy is viewed in the modern world of the United States. What Horwitz found was a dualistic society differing views on the Confederacy and the events of the Civil War. Dualities left from the war in aspects such as racial tensions, the meaning of the Confederate flag even between North and South entirely. Those living in the South can be seen holding a resonating connection to the Civil War. It becomes clear in Confederates in the Attic the Civil War not only became the catalyst of such dualities in Southern society, but still further shape and perpetuate these dualities long after the Civil Wars conclusion.

Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass both wrote narratives that detailed their lives as slaves in the antebellum era. Both of these former slaves managed to escape to the North and wanted to expose slavery for the evil thing it was. The accounts tell equally of depravity and ugliness though they are different views of the same rotten institution. Like most who managed to escape the shackles of slavery, these two authors share a common bond of tenacity and authenticity. Their voices are different—one is timid, quiet, and almost apologetic while the other one is loud, strong, and confident—but they are both authentic. They both also through out the course of their narratives explain their desires to be free from the horrible practice of slavery.

“He never had a craving in him that he couldn’t slick away on his guitar. You have to be a native to the red-clay hills of Kentucky to understand that.” (Attaway 1). Here, you are hit with harsh reality of the main characters. Yes, sharecropping allowed you to achieve some money, but you would still be in debt as Chinatown says, so what is the point in working? Attaway presents this information to allow himself up to showcase the push and pull theory, which explains why so many of our ancestor migrated from the south. The push and pull theory describes a person or a group of people being pushed out or into a geographic area. As stated above, this theory can be connected to the migration of African American people from the south to the north. The promises the north presented to these people would serve as a pull factor. The lack of opportunities in the south, the racism, and the segregation would be push factors. In Blood on The Forge, this theory is represented when the Moss brothers leave Kentucky. The labor presented in the steel mills served as a pull factor for the Moss brothers. In the text it states, “A man don’t git to know what the place where he’s born looks like until he goes someplace else. Then he begins to see with his mind things that his eyes had never been able to see.” (Attaway 45). I felt this quote connected to the theory because it

America in 1857 was a “Nation on the Brink.” Relationships between the Northern and Southern states had been strained for decades. During the 1850 's, the situation exploded. The Compromise of 1850 served as a clear warning that the slavery issue—relatively dormant since the Missouri Compromise of 1820—had returned. African Americans existence in America has been a disaster ever since they have been here. Every avenue of their cultural, economic, literary, political, religious, and social values has been violated to no avail, and then only until the

Times were difficult in Habersham County. The skyrocketing prices of fuel and food were threatening to bankrupt the Johnson family’s small farm, which was no match for the multi-million-dollar mega-farms that had been popping up all over the southeast. Joseph, the family patriarch, was especially troubled by the farm’s

In the book titled The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South, author John Blassingame’s theme, focused on the history of African slave experience throughout the American South. After much research, the author said in the preface that most historians focused more on the planter instead of the slave. He also pointed out that most of the research on slaves by previous historians was based on stereotypes, and do not tell the real history of slave life and a slave’s inner self. Most of these historians, who focused on antebellum southern history, left out the African-American slave experience on purpose. Through much gathering of research, Blassingame hoped to correct this injustice to the history of African-American slaves, and show how slavery affected slaves, but also American life, culture, and thought.

William Attaway’s novel, Blood on the Forge, displays a family torn apart as a product of systematic exploitation. In the compelling narrative, the Moss brothers, Big Mat, Chinatown, and Melody, migrate to the north in motivation of Big Mat committing the murder of his riding boss. As they begin to adjust, their perception of the north’s assumed and rumored opportunities quickly conforms to the reality of what is actually offered. Through plot lines of the very act of migrating, acclimating to regenerated labor and norms, and, finally, the dissolution of the brothers’ identities and close family connection, it is observed that their exodus to the north is just as empty of benefits as the south. Attaway accomplishes depicting an accurate account of the contrasting exploitation that occurred in both the north and the south by portraying the Moss brothers’ demise as a result of their migration from a systematic, rural setting to an industrial, diminishing, and, ultimately, unfamiliar environment along with how the two regions parallel in similarities concerning economical and social consequences, permanently affecting the brothers altogether mentally and physically. Where there was great potential for a rebirth of opportunity and success, the result was a contrasting reality of misery and permanent damage.

During the 1840s, America saw increasingly attractive settlements forming between the North and the South. The government tried to keep the industrial north and the agricultural south happy, but eventually the issue of slavery became too big to handle, no matter how many treaties or compromises were formed. Slavery was a huge issue that unraveled throughout many years of American history and was one of the biggest contributors leading up to the Civil War (notes, Fall 2015). Many books have been written over the years about slavery and the brutality of the life that many people endured. In “A Slave No More”, David Blight tells the story about two men, John M. Washington (1838-1918) and Wallace Turnage (1846-1916), struggling during American slavery. Their escape to freedom happened during America’s bloodiest war among many political conflicts, which had been splitting the country apart for many decades. As Blight (2007) describes, “Throughout the Civil War, in thousands of different circumstances, under changing policies and redefinitions of their status, and in the face of social chaos…four million slaves helped to decide what time it would be in American History” (p. 5). Whether it was freedom from a master or overseer, freedom from living as both property and the object of another person’s will, or even freedom to make their own decisions and control their own life, slaves wanted a sense of independence. According to Blight (2007), “The war and the presence of Union armies

Fortune Magazine, in July and August of 1936, sent James Agee and Walker Evans to research a story on sharecropping. In the preface of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Agee describes it as “a curious piece of work.” They were to produce “an article on cotton tenantry in the United States, in the form of a photographic and verbal record of the daily living and environment of an average white family of tenant farmers,” (IX). James Agee and Walker Evans set out to write and photograph an article for a magazine, and ended up experimenting with the form of the novel itself.

As the north and south began to separate after the Era of Good Feelings (1815-1825), the Second American Party System was established. This system consisted of two distinct parties, the Democrats and their opponents, who were known as Whigs for the most part. The goal of these two parties was to create a common thought process between the north and the south. Three of the issues prominent in their campaigns to gather votes in these two regions were government, economy, and slavery. Using these topics as foundations, the members of both parties of the Second American Party System aimed establish harmony between the north and south.