Reply #14: Southerners feared slave revolts

[StellaBlue]

because the revolts would have been JUSTIFIED and righteous in their rage.

The collective conscious of the South, and, really, by extension, especially after the poor, black diaspora made that emerged from Reconstruction, has deep-seated, and probably really fairly RATIONAL fears of this meme of "WILD BLACK FOLKS ON THE LOOSE" that everyone here keeps referring to.

The hicks are scared because they know the poor, black community has a righteous anger. Therefore, they are powerful. More powerful than if they were just plain ole looters and thugs.

Plus, in a LOT of places in the South, blacks outnumber whites significantly. These people realize that they may be outnumbered, or, from their perspective, swamped, by blacks.

And even more enlightened people who are not racist will sense the undercurrent of fear and restlessness, and also may fear the unknown.

The South has ALWAYS been in fear of a great uprising of the black underclass.

I, personally, after reading 'A People's History of the United States' by Howard Zinn, have become really fascinated by slave revolts, many of which occured very, very early in our nation's history. This has also made me interested in other revolts, such as the case of women in New England who refused to cooperate with the crazy Puritans and poor and working class women who refused to marry, despite the constant threat and reality of prosecution for having multiple children out-of-wedlock. Very interesting. Would love to hear recommendations for what are the best books on these topics. Perhaps I should start a thread re: this in the books section....