A House Divided: Racial

     Among all the divisions of Americans that could lead to violence, even to the next Civil War, perhaps the most evident is race – the division between African Americans of slave descent and whites of European extraction.  The division is not as much biological as it is psychological.  The underlying foundation of American racial relations remains fear.

     Black Americans from the slave tradition fear white brutality, discrimination, and demeaning gestures.  For centuries, they were expected to obey white masters and defer to their white superiors and they paid dearly in pain and lives if they crossed whites.  As I asserted in my book American Ways, the Civil War ended slavery but did not end the racism that had previously rationalized the “peculiar institution” among whites.

     And whites fear blacks as well.  The great fear of white masters in early American history was generated by plots and incidents of slave insurrection.  As early as 1739, the Stono Rebellion of slaves in South Carolina resulted in the deaths of as many as 47 whites and 44 slaves.  In 1811 a slave revolt broke out in the territory that became Louisiana.  As many as 500 rebellious slaves marched on New Orleans, burning down five plantations along the way.  And the Nat Turner revolt in Virginia in 1831 killed about 60 whites.  None of these slave revolts were successful and all were brutally suppressed, but they caused enormous fear that lasted beyond 1865 and continues to exist somewhat even today.

     The greatest and most successful of all slave revolts was the revolution that resulted in a new black independent country, Haiti, from French masters in 1804.  The former slave forces of the new republic systematically massacred 3,000-5,000 white French men, women, and children.  The French who escaped to the U.S. brought with them horrific stories and near hysteria of what might also happen elsewhere. 

     Since the end of slavery in 1865, whites have continued to fear black violence.  The form became private fights, occasional murders, and periodic race riots across the country.  The fear of a race war, a fear reminiscent of slave rebellions, reached a peak in the late 1960s during a period of turmoil caused by the civil rights movement, militant black groups, assassinations, and opposition to the Vietnam War.

     Might racial divisions cause another American civil war in the future?  Possibly, but not probably.  Occasional racial shootings and riots will likely continue, but they are not likely to escalate into full-blown civil war for several reasons.  The percentage of African Americans among the total American population has never been large:  since 1860, the national percentage has ranged from about 10 to 13, although some areas are predominantly black.  With time and increasing numbers of interracial marriages and children, the races are slowly converging.  Fear generally has been declining, except for particular incidents where blacks fear police actions and whites fear black crimes.  During the last six decades, whites have increasingly accepted blacks in social and economic settings.  Equal rights before the law, legal nondiscrimination in public, and voting rights for blacks are more generally practiced.  Each generation since World War II has become less and less responsive to old racial suspicions.  In addition, Hispanics have emerged as the principal minority group in the U.S., and they are causing a new set of fears, especially concerning some 11 million illegal immigrants who have been characterized by some white Americans as drug dealers, rapists, and murderers.  The divisions concerning Hispanics and Muslims will be covered later in a separate blog posting on immigration.

© 2017 Stephen M. Millett.  All rights reserved.