Textbook: Chapter 5
1. The main reason that the North and South women were divided was because they had different ideas on slavery. The women in the North were against the idea of slavery while those in the South wanted to keep their slaves. One of the reasons that the northern women had different perspectives was because the women in the north had more recently been involved in their Christian religion and believed that slavery was a sin. The women in the south depended on their slaves and would need the slaves to carry out many of the difficult duties. Since a civil war broke out between the North and South because of the different ideas, even more tension was created between the women.
2. The “New South” was the beginning of a new era for everyone living in the United States. It was a time of “Reconstruction” as many Americans liked to call it. Women dealt with these changes as well. The women in the north slowly attempted to receive their equal rights with men while the women in the south were adjusting to the new life of a non-slave owner even though they were not too eager about it. Southern White women began to look for new ways of being superior since they were no longer slave-owners. The elite women had suffered because of the economic struggle they had endured and from the fact that they were now widows, since their husbands had died in the war. Many of these white women would eventually headed towards the textile mills where they were given bad wages. Working in these industrial mills allowed women to live public lives. Many black people in the south were not told that they were free for many months after the war and therefore stayed with their owners. Laws had been passed that took away rights from black people so that they could not work.
Source Interpretation
Textbook document
1. Tensions that led to Thomas Moss being lynched was the fact that the white men in the south did not want the black men to succeed and become wealthy. The idea that these white men lived by was that it was important for them to keep the black people down. This meant that they wanted to keep the black people poor because if the black men received wealth, it meant that superiority would soon be acquired afterwards. Therefore, many of these black people, who were searching for a new and better way of life, were always treated horribly and sometimes decided to give up since the white men would always be there to keep them down.
2. Wells challenged that many of the black people who were being lynched in the South were charged with raping a white woman. She believed that the reason that these black men were charged with rape was because they were becoming successful, just as the story with Thomas Moss. She challenged that many of these black men who had been in relationships with white women were accused of being rapists because the white men did not like the fact that these black men and white women were having relationships with one another. The accusations of rape was just another way for the white man to keep the black people down and keep them in the lowest possible level of the social ranking.
3. The relationship that Wells saw between the two was that the black men who were accused of raping the white women were usually lynched and their stories were written throughout the newspapers while the raping of black women by the white men were usually never talked about. The white men who raped these black women did so without any interruptions but when the white men had seen a black man with a white woman, many of the white men became furious and began to lynch these black men. Many of these white men had created mulattos and were now afraid that the black men and white women would create their own mulattos. This had made the white men seem very hypocritical.
2 comments:
Tyler R# 1
Hey Elias! See, told you this wasn't so bad! In regards to no. one, I also feel that because the Northern women had their religion and did their work themselves they thought they were better than the Southern women. I don't think I mentioned that in my own blog but it became more apparent to me after reading more into it. But it would make sense right? Women, no matter what ear you look at, will always have that rivalary of whos better in society. We still see it today, of course.
I also thought about the last question where white men raping black women was ignored while black men and white women was condemed. Then it was wrong if a woman had relations with a man of color. I think a lot of this is also seen today in regards to prostitution. I think if we hear about a man using women's bodies its kinda of a typical thing, but it is unthinkable for woman to do that to a man. Again, we go into a strange double standard. Everyone ignores the man's bad behavior, but when a woman is doing it, her lover is taken away from her.
Aylin R# 2
Hey Tyler, I enjoyed reading your response to Elias’s blog, you clearly analyzed his responses and shared your point of view as well. I found the second part of your response quite interesting as you mentioned that there’s a double standard even in our society today, where it is accepted for men to sleep around and have relationships with women of other culture and color; however, if a white woman was to sleep with an African American man that’s a disgrace to the White race. You brought up an interesting point of view as it hadn’t crossed my mind that it still occurs today. You also said that men have been using women for a long time and if a White woman is caught using a Black man for sexual purposes she no longer can do that as they have to split when they’re exposed. Over all, you had a clear analysis of Elias’s blog and I enjoyed reading your point of view.
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