Blog # 7

Textbook: Chapter 5

1. What divided the women of the North and South in the years immediately before and during the Civil War?

The movement for freedom from slavery divided the women of the North and South in the years immediately before and during the Civil War. There were different classed in the South. The white slave-owner women wanted to keep owning slaves and the black women wanted to find their freedom. This created conflict and violence among the black slaves and their owners. On the other hand, in the North the wealthy women had better prospective. They wanted to give freedom to slaves. Moreover, they were fighting for equal rights for men and women.

2. What impact did the emergence of the “New South” have on women?

The “New South” had a great impact on black and white women. The black women were finally given the chance to have freedom. They were able to have jobs. Their lives changed to good. They were no longer the properties of their owners and could choose their lifestyle. Black slave women also were able to fall in love and they got the right to marry. When it comes to the white women, a lot of them lost their husbands on Civil War. The widows had a really hard time surviving without their husbands, and working hard to raise their children.

Textbook document ( Chapter 5 pp. 306-310) – “Race Woman,” and “Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells”

1. What were the underlying tensions and larger conflicts that led to the lynching of Thomas Moss?

According to Ida Wells, the underlying tensions and larger conflicts that led to the lynching of Thomas Moss were “…to get rid of Negroes who were acquiring wealth and property and thus keep the race terrorized and “keep the nigger down.””(pg 308) Thomas Moss along with Henry Stewart, and Calvin McDowell owned a grocery store. This grocery store was owned by “colored” people and it had negative influences on white man’s grocery’s business. This was a big problem, and was the reason that Thomas Moss and his two friends were horribly shot to death. Ida Wells says, “Thus, with the aid of city and country authorities and daily papers, that white grocer had indeed put an end to his rival Negro grocer as well as to his business...” (pg 308)

2. What was the prevailing opinion about lynching that Wells was determined to challenge?

At first, Ida Wells had accepted that even though lynching was against law, it was the way to punish the people who did terrible crime of rape and who deserved to be punished. However, after she found out how Thomas Moss and his friends had been lynched without committing any crime against white women, she changed her mind. This opened her eyes and helped her to understand that black people’s being lynched for rape was just an excuse. This was a way for white people “to get rid of Negroes who were acquiring wealth and property and thus keep the race terrorized and “keep the nigger down.” ” (pg 308). Thomas Mosse’s and his friends’ death became the challenge for Wells to begin an investigation of every lynching that she read and heard about. Through her investigation into the practice of lynching, she found out about many other black people’s death who were innocent.

3. What did Wells see as the relationship between the long history of white men raping black women and the charges against black men of raping white women?

Ida Wells says that relationships between white men and colored women were common. The rape of the helpless Negro girls started from the slavery days and still continued. They were allowed to fall in love with the beautiful colored girls. However, relationships between colored men and white women were impossible. The colored men and white women weren’t allowed to fall in love with each other. If they did so, the colored men were punished for “rape”. Wells says, “Here came lynch law to stifle Negro manhood which defended itself, and the burning alive of Negroes who were weak enough to accept favors from white women” (pg 309).