Slavery and the concept of "white supremacy" have largely contributed to the viewpoints of race in the southern states, as well as the rest of the country. Discuss

Throughout the years, the concept of race has changed in the South. Slavery and the concept of “white supremacy” have largely contributed to the viewpoints of race in the southern states, as well as the rest of the country. The definition of race has changed, as well as the effects of race on a nation.

Prior to the sixteenth century, race was defined as descendants of a common ancestor, or your kin. This definition was based solely on ancestry instead of the color of your skin.

After the 16th century, the concept of race changed during the Age of Exploration by the Europeans. This new definition of race is based on physical and mental attributes, or characteristics of a person. The color of a person’s skin began to have a large effect on their racial classification, and thus, how they were treated. German Johann Blumenbach, the father of anthropology, gave us the first racial classification system, and he believed that Caucasians were the purest group of people and must have been the first human race. This definition of race has stuck since its beginnings in the 1500’s.

Slavery grew out of this concept of race. From 1619 to 1808, 500,000 slaves were brought out of Africa to the United States, and as of 1860, four million slaves were in the United States. They traveled across the Atlantic on the Middle Passage bearing harsh conditions. They came due to the demand of labor needed to work on sugar, cotton, and tobacco plantations. African Americans were forced in slavery until the North and South fought over the issue in the Civil War.

After the Civil War ended, African American slaves supposedly won their freedom. African Americans, however, were not ...

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After the Civil War ended, African American slaves supposedly won their freedom. African Americans, however, were not free yet from the white population in the South. They needed political freedom and economic freedom, neither of which they had at the Civil War’s end. In 1865, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States, but it didn’t really mean the freed had their freedom

The concept of race also changed in the South after the Civil War during the Reconstruction Era from 1865-1877. The concept of “white supremacy” was still strong and evident. Sharecropping came about for poor black and white farmers as a way to keep them working. Through this system, the poor farmers would never be able to pay off their debt to the landowner. Black codes were enacted in the South to keep conditions as close to slavery as possible. The Ku Klux Klan was created as a terror organization against the black population.

Politics became intertwined with race in the South as well. Throughout the Reconstruction Period, politics were closely related to dealing with the controversy over slavery, white supremacy, and African American relations in the country. The political goals during Reconstruction were to get rid of the old power structure and to install the Republican Party into power in the South. Successes in politics and in the nation during this time were small and temporary, but one success was the election of the first black US Senator in 1870—Hiram Revels of Mississippi. By 1877, the KKK had took back the power structure and the North had pulled out of the compromise, causing problems to arise in the nation.

The next racial phase in the South existed from the 1890’s to the 1950’s as the era of segregation was taking place. Jim Crow laws were created as a way to prevent the blacks from voting, such as having to pass a literacy test, pay a poll tax, or have had a grandfather that voted. Also during this time, a famous Supreme Court case arose establishing a way of life for sixty years, especially in the South. In 1896, the case of Plessy vs. Ferguson established a phrase “separate but equal”, making segregation legal.

The Populists Party was created during this time by Southern farmers. The concept over this party was built around the phrase “the Big Man vs. the little guy”. This party was able to give Southerners a voice in politics. Politics during the segregation time period was strongly linked to race and the candidate’s stand on African Americans.

Segregation finally came to an end after sixty years in the Civil Rights Movement during the 1950’s and 1960’s.