The Lower South

The (lower) South

Mason-Dixon Line

• a line separating three colonies in dispute: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware

• separated “free” and “slave” state and later the states where Jim Crow applied

Main characteristics of the Lower South

• warm and humid climate

• wetlands and forests

• hurricanes and tropical storms

• early European settlement

• cotton and tobacco as important crops

• a high share of Black/African American population

• a history of slavery, plantations, racial segregation, and Civil Rights struggles

• environmental injustices along the racial divides

Climate:

• high average temperatures (the more south the hotter)

• high precipitation levels

• Florida: warm and dry winters, wet and hot summers

The Climate system:

• climate is controlled by a complex system that distributes energy received from the Sun

• solar radiation differs by latitude (measures the distance north or south); temperatures and precipitation depend on the distance from the sea, ocean currents, altitude, vegetation + other factors

Ocean currents:

• warm ocean currents distribute warmth and humidity from the Caribbean Sea to the Northern Atlantic

• the Gulf Stream influences the climate of Southern Atlantic coast in the US (up to Virginia) and Northwest Europe (as the north Atlantic Current)

The North Atlantic Gyre — important for the climate and navigation during the colonial times

Hurricanes

• a type of tropical cyclone

• form in warm tropical waters

• accelerate over warm water, decelerate over land (after a landfall - the event of a storm mocing over land after being over water)

• hurricane ⇒ tropical storm ⇒ tropical depression

• speed meassured on the Saffir-Simpson scale

• season lasts from June to November

• some bring thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in property damage

• Hurricane Beryl — the earliest major hurricane on record

Ecoregions

• are identified based on the patterns and composition of geology, landforms, soils, vegetation, climate, land use, wildlife, and hydrology

• 8.0 eastern temperate forests

• 9.0 great plains

• 15.0 tropical wet forests

Proclamation of 1763

prohibiting settlement to the West of the British colonies

reserving land west of the Appalachian Mountains to Native Americans

Tobacco

• cultivated primarily in East North Carolina and in the Pennyroyal and Bluegrass areas of Kentucky

• does not require fertile soils

• historically part of the colonial plantation economy, labor intensive

• the industry is still important in the Southeast (e.g., in Winston-Salem)

Cotton

• cultivated in the Deep South aka The Cotton Kingdom

• historically part of the plantation economy, labor intensive

• boomed after 1790, was a major factor in spreading the plantation economy and slavery to the West

• still cultivated in part of the former range

Plantations

• lare landholdings

• “both farm and town, both residence and workplace, encompassing both landlord and tenant

• owned by a wealthy minority including the “plantation aristocracy”

• many remained after the Civil War and used the labor of tenant farmers and sharecroppers

1619

• an arrival of a ship with 20 enslaved Africans to the shored of Virginia

• a symbolic beginning of Americans esnlavement, even though enslaved Africans were presentin the colonies before that date

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html

Atlantic Triangular Trade

triangular trade — a simplified model of trade directions during the colonial time

middle passage — the middle part of the transatlantic slave trade, in which enslaved Africans were forcibly transported on ships from the West Coast of Africa to the Americas

Chattel slavery

• chattel = property

• since passing the slave codes in 1667-1705 ← laws relating to slavery and enslaved people

• indentured servants gained freedom after certain time of work, could purchase freedom, or gain it through converting to Christianity

• chattel slaves were not able to gain freedom and their status was hereditary

Southern wetland and marronage

Wetlands were a place of refuge for Native Americans and fugitive slaves

Marronage — now used in Black social geography as a metaphor for creating alternatives to state violence through isolation, collectivity and system of care

Seminoles in Everglades

• the Everglades were a refuge for Seminole tribes fighting the US

• never signed a peace treaty

• Seminole Tribe Florida recognized by the US in 1957

• Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida in 1962

Civil War, Reconstruction, and backlash

• after Civil War, the Union wanted to enforce change of laws and racial relations and had troops in the South oversee the process

• When Black people gained citizenship and the right to vote → white Southerners feared they would lose not just free labor but also power over state affairs

• Black ppl often outnumbered whites and could win elections

• white Southeners targeted the attempts by Black people to vote and ousted Republican governors and legislators — conspired to overthrow the government ← back then Democrats were against the rights of Black people to vote

anti-black violence — lynching

Jim Crow

a caricature and derogatory name for black people. A white dressed up as a caricature of a black man, black-face, over-the-top gestures etc.

“Jim Crow laws”

a customary name for rules of segregation (initially a custom, then written into the law), discrimination and disenfranchisement in the South from the 1890s-1910s to the 1960s.

The Delta

• a characteristic place, an agricultural area

• low wages, poor health-care

• an area between Yazoo and Mississippi rivers,

• mistakenly called a “delta” (a river that flows into the ocean/sea),

• a fertile alluvial floodplain — a more formal name for it

• primarily rural with Memphis and Jackson serving as main urban centers,

• area of high poverty and wealth inequality,

• origin of delta blues — musical style (darker, slower than classical blues)

Blues

folksy, but tackled real life issues through art

notable blues artists:

Leadbelly - Jim Crow Blues

Big Bill Broonzy - When do I get to be called a man

Blues sort of led to the foundation of rock’n’roll — white people inspired by blues (black people’s art) and introduced through a different music style but to the white audience as well.

Clyde Woods (a black professor at University of Carolina introduced two different methods of looking at blues

Blues as epistemology:

the way of understanding, making sense of, discussing and critiquing social reality done by black people in the U.S., rooted in oral tradition

Blues as methodology:

researchers and students of social studies an learn much about the social realities and experiences of black people from the blues (besides written sources)

Hip-hop as a continuation of this tradition

Montgomery Bus Boycott

a campaign against racial segregation in Montgomery, Alabama. Refusal to use the bus service and pay for tickets to create economic distress to the bus operator.

• started in Dec 1955

• Rosa Parks - Dec 21, 1956 — the same day Montgomery’s public transportation system was legally integrated

Civil Rights Movement

— against racial segregation.

key points:

• racial integration (in schools for example)

• equal rights (the right to vote)

• changes through legislature and court cases

• organized marches , sit-ins, boycotts

• legalism and nonviolence

• Martin Luther King Jr.

• notable wins:

  • Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

  • The Civil Rights Act of 1964

  • The Voting Rights Act of 1965

  • The Fait Housing Act of 1968

Black nationalism and separatism

• Malcom X - spokeperson of nation of islam. Black empowerment “by any means necessary”

• proposes a separation of races by creating a Black state in America or migrating to Africa

• reparations for black people

• related to Pan-Africanism

Environmentalism and social justice

Robert Bullard sought to combine the struggles of both movements. “The father of Environmental justice movement”

• Locally unwanted land uses (LULUs)

• Not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY)

• Place-in-blacks’-backyard (PIBBY)

gentrification, placing harmful factories/plants “in their backyards”, those plants placed there was racist and pragmatic — black people had no power in the government so while they protested they would not have as much impact

Environmental racism — intentional siting of polluting and waste facilities in communities primarily populated by African Americans, Latines, Indigenous People, Asian American and Pacific Islanders. It is a racism and class issue.

coined by Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr..

examples:

• Claiborne Avenue - used to be a centre of black culture and life

Megaregions

clusters of cities, traditionally called (agglomerations)

in the South:

• Gulf coast

• Piedmont Atlantic

• Florida

• Texas Triangle

Atlanta

an important place for black people in the South, while highly segregated in the past it is capital to hip-hop

• largest city and capital of Georgia

• established in 1847 as a railroad hub

• destroyed in the Civil War, recovered afterwards

• place where black middle class formed during Reconstruction era

• home to HBCUs - historically black colleges and universities

• home to coca-cola company

• was called the most segregated city in the south

racial residential segregation

examples:

• in 1970s black people resided in the city centres, the residential areas were resided by whites

• in 2020 it is more diverse and not as divided

in chronological order:

1. De facto segregation during Reconstruction — did not overtly segregate them by law, it was more of a custom in schools, society etc.

2. Atlanta Race Riot in 1906

3. Segregation by law - during the Jim Crow period: neighbourhoods, restaurants, streetcars, theaters, sport etc.

4. Desegregation in late 50s ad 60s: “The City Too Busy to Hate”

5. Blockbusting since the 1950s — real estate agents and developers scaring whites into moving out (as the POCs are supposedly going to move into the area and whites are going to lose value of the property), buying their houses at low price and selling to poc’s at higher ones. Manipulated both white and black people — but whites prejudice against POCs put the plan to life.

6. White flights in the 60s and 70s — white people migrating to suburban areas, leading to segregation and downtown deterioration — blockbusting led to this

7. still high but declining

Notable places and events in the South

Sandy Springs, GA

• urban growth during the white flight period

• incorporated in 2005, partly to keep tax money in the local, wealthy area

• outsourced, privatised government services (public-private partnership)

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

• the World’s busiest airport

• 105M passengers in 2023

• a hub for delta and other airlines

“Cop City”

• a police and fire department training campus — where they train repressive tactics so that rebellions can be easily crushed — police brutality

• proposed Atlanta Public Training Centre

• located in a green area (forest i think)

• supported by Atlanta Police Foundation and most council members

Lower Louisiana and New Orleans

Lower Louisiana

• deltas of the Mississippi River and its distributaries

• large and costly river engineering

New Orleans

• founded in 1722 (for US’s standards quite old)

• a tourist attraction

• voodoo

• Mardi Gras - carnival

• Jazz

• Hurricane Katrina:

  • August 29, 2005

  • 80% city flooded

  • Federal levee system failed

  • mandatory evacuation and more than 1,5k deaths

  • many people unable to evacuate

• Katrina aftermath:

  • used as opportunity to privatise school system, hospitals, demolish public housing

  • several thousand of public employees fired

  • federal money spent on expensive large contractors instead of local businesses and workers

  • Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein

  • because of that many people did not come back to the city

  • the rich got richer

Acadiana

• southern part of Louisiana associated with its French colonial past and distinctive culture

• Louisiana Creole - culture derived from enslaved African-West Indian people

• Cajun culture of French settlers from Nova Scotia (Acadia) or West Indies

• Sugar cane and rice farming

Gulf Coast fossil industries

Oil, gas and petrochemical facilities along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana

• affected oil prices around the world

• “Cancer Alley”, Louisiana

  • an industrial corridor along he lower Mississippi River

  • not only facilities but dump sites as well

  • home to over 200 oil refineries

  • known from the 80s

  • high air pollution and higher cancer rates among Black and impoverished communities

  • there is data proving that people living near those facilities are affected negatively

• St. Gabriel, LA

  • 1994 formed a municipality (place that has a local government - town) - able to fund facilities such as sidewalks or parks

  • main goal to stop the development of petrochemical plants

Florida

• very flat limestone platform with springs, swamps, and lakes

• vegetable ad fruit (citrus) agriculture

• exotic climate

• 23M inhabitants

• 75 cities with over 50k inhabitants, no city over one million

• Jacksonville - largest city with 892k,

• retirement-age population:

  • most common destination for retirees to move to

  • trend is weakening due to housing prices rising

• tourism (mainly winter tourism)

  • Walt Disney World resort

  • Hotel Royal Palm

  • Sandy beaches