Jim Crow Era Romanticism
The themes of racial retribution and the romanticism of slavery can be seen during the Jim Crow Era (1877 – 1950s) and over the current debates over the removal of Confederate statues. Iniatally after the Turner’s rebellion, Virginia did take the inaitative to debate about abolishing the institution as a whole in their state but unfortunately the pro-slavery side won and that led to the inactment of slave codes and other laws (ex. making it illegal to teach slaves how to read) meant to further oppresses free blacks and slaves. Following the end of the Civil War (1861 – 1965) and Reconstruction (1863 – 1877), the south began passing racially motivated laws like segregating black or colored people to the worst parts of cities, making it difficult
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During the time of Nat Turner, the same way that whites southerners had convinced themselves that slavery was a good thing because they were civilizing Africans is the same way that following Reconstruction that southern Americans convinced themselves and in a sense rewrote their states’ history to make it seem as if not only was the Civil War not about slavery but that those who were once seen as traitors to the republic were actually heroes who had “risen up to fight against a tyrannical federal government” that was infringing on state rights. By changing the narrative of the Civil War, southern whites are doing the same thing as those before them did in regards to Slavery; if the evilness, inhumanness and barbaric elements of the institution of slavery is downplayed enough times by numerous voices all with ranging amounts of power (poor folk to senators) then, it is not hard to change the narrative to make it seem harmless when it truly is. Though there were a few memorials to Confederate soldiers that sprang up immediately after the end of the Civil War (), the bulk of Confederate statues that are present now which leads to constant debate and division did not start showing up until the Jim Crow era, a time period of extreme racial tensions and injustices. Relating the statues back to the theme of racial retribution it could also be argued that these statues and the flag became widespread and popular in the south as a means of intimidation to blacks to always remember their place at the bottom of society as the racial codes passed after Nat Turner’s rebellion were supposed to
During the time of Nat Turner, the same way that whites southerners had convinced themselves that slavery was a good thing because they were civilizing Africans is the same way that following Reconstruction that southern Americans convinced themselves and in a sense rewrote their states’ history to make it seem as if not only was the Civil War not about slavery but that those who were once seen as traitors to the republic were actually heroes who had “risen up to fight against a tyrannical federal government” that was infringing on state rights. By changing the narrative of the Civil War, southern whites are doing the same thing as those before them did in regards to Slavery; if the evilness, inhumanness and barbaric elements of the institution of slavery is downplayed enough times by numerous voices all with ranging amounts of power (poor folk to senators) then, it is not hard to change the narrative to make it seem harmless when it truly is. Though there were a few memorials to Confederate soldiers that sprang up immediately after the end of the Civil War (), the bulk of Confederate statues that are present now which leads to constant debate and division did not start showing up until the Jim Crow era, a time period of extreme racial tensions and injustices. Relating the statues back to the theme of racial retribution it could also be argued that these statues and the flag became widespread and popular in the south as a means of intimidation to blacks to always remember their place at the bottom of society as the racial codes passed after Nat Turner’s rebellion were supposed to