Summer of Trials (Chp. 8) and A River of Anger (Chp. 9) by Douglas Blackmon

Hussien Nasser
AFAM 2100
Professor Young
19 March 2017

Chapter 8 - A Summer of Trials, 1903

1. "The country throughout this district wherever (peonage) exists is pretty thoroughly aroused, Finch wrote. "The fact that a Secret Service is engaged on these cases is well known and many have the impression that a number of agents are scouring the country . . ." (pg. 218)

• In some locations that debt slavery or debt servitude existed, government officials began to fill the streets in order assist capturing of blacks essentially so they can become peons. Anyone who seem suspicious and working as a detective for the government in this matter was unsafe. Bringing an inside intel (agents) made everyone to be in their guard and watch out because blacks specifically would not be able to distinguish between a white civilian and one who would be working as an agent.      

2. "It is by no means confined to a few isolated communities. I have also been again and again informed by these persons that this peonage system is crueler and inhuman than the slavery of antebellum days, since then the master conserved the life and health of the slaves for business reasons just as he did that of his horse or mule."  (pg. 218)

• During this time, African Americans were being treated worse than the antebellum period. A cloud of hate towards blacks aroused.  They would be considered as debt after being arrested and serve involuntary services. Not only was they being arrested for unimaginable charges to be put into this position, but they would be sold as different names and even beaten to the extent of death. It was a time when wicked act and full-blown hatred was exemplified towards blacks and operated by whites. They were considered a product as mentioned instead of humans, resulting in the inhuman system that blacks were put in.

3. "But a growing chorus of politicians, journalists, and southern commentators - the same voices that originally applauded the investigation as proof that southerners could be relied on to clean up slavery - hailed Pace's admission that the continuing slavery was limited to a pocket of miscreants in one country." (pg. 220)

• This quote is significant because not only was the country lied to by these higher position individuals, but slavery continued in a way that people would be arrested if they broke the law. Trumped-up legal charges were used to have peonage exist, slavery by another name. The debt however would take more years than expected or would never go away at all, leaving individuals in "slavery" continuously. 

4. "Unlawfully and knowingly holding a person forcibly and against his will and requiring such person to labor for the holder to work out a debt claimed by the holder to be due him . . .does not constitute holding such person to a condition of peonage under the laws of the United States". (pg. 226)

• The quote above is what was written to justify that involuntary servitude was not peonage making it not illegal and a correct action to continue with. The wording alone amazes me, stating that "holding a person forcibly and against his will and requiring such person to labor for the holder to work out a debt". People working to pay off debt or a crime that they never committed is beyond mistreatment to another race.

5. "You have violated not only the laws of your country but that great law of honor and justice, which bids the powerful and strong not to oppress the down-trodden." (pg.224)

• Blacks during the summer of 1903 were being treated terribly by those who were in power. Police and government officials was the main individuals who acted out in this manner. They would act out in a way that they would never act out upon or treat any white person to the same degree.

Chapter 9 -A River of Anger

1. "They were net foulers and "nigger lovers", cried supports of the accused. Heflin and his allies said any man who did not deft them deserve all the contempt of the white South." (pg.233)

• People who were supporting blacks in the South at the time was getting their backs turned against them from higher officials. In the chapter, Judge Jones and Reese who helped black workers was sacrificing the obligations white southerners had at hand.  With blacks gaining some stand with the help of Jones and Reese, they were referred to as "nigger lovers' and "nest foulers". Just because they were doing their job and following the laws that has been put into place by the government, they were being accused because they did not act out discrimination and inequality.

2. "Across the nation, the spring and summer of 1903 marked a venomous turn in relations between blacks and whites. A pall was descending on black America, like nothing experienced since the darkest hours of antebellum slavery." (pg. 234)

• During this time, African Americans were being treated worse than the antebellum period. A cloud of hate towards blacks aroused. As opposed to the treatment through the Industrial slavery and abolitionist fight to end slavery, the summer of 1903 was a time when blacks were being put back into slavery basically. They would be considered as debt after being arrested and serve involuntary services. Not only was they being arrested for unimaginable charges to be put into this position, but they would be sold as different names and even beaten to the extent of death. The spring and summer of 1903 was a time when wicked act and full-blown hatred was exemplified towards blacks and operated by whites. 

3. Infuriated by the setbacks suffered by blacks in all regions of the country, W.E.B. DuBois, the rising young sociologist - wrote that the South is simply an armed camp for intimidating black folk." (pg. 245)

• W.E.B Dubois is mentioning that throughout history and since the birth of the United states and thirteen colonies, the South has "always" been an armed camp where blacks are being taken advantage off. From the beginning of slavery, to Industrial Slavery, Antebellum Slavery, and many more historic moments are all times when blacks were being intimidated, criminalized, discriminated, and negatively treated from a broad spectrum.

4. "The South has nothing to be ashamed of anymore. The myth that the war had been fought over regional patriotism rather than slavery became rooted in American identity. Even slavery itself came to be remembered not as one of the basal crimes of American society, but as a nearly benign anachronism." (pg. 241)

• In the South, racism has always existed resulting in the idea of racism to remain with the people who govern and control the south. In the quote, in mentions how the war was fought over regional patriotism rather than slavery. The reality of slavery has always been undermined and under discussed which is why people deliberately act racist in the South. The belief has always existed causing it to be the least issue which is not the case.

5. "No society (United States) in human history had attempted to instantly transform a vast and entrenched slave class into immediate full and equal citizenship. The cost of educating freed slaves and their children came to seem unbearably enormous, even to the purported friends." (pg. 235)

• The United States has made many attempts throughout history to create equal and full citizenship for the slave class. As the government has done with laws and amendments throughout history, it was created for one reason but end up doing the opposite. For example, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendment was created to abolish slavery, create equality, and give the right to vote to all citizens. At that particular time, slavery did not end up getting abolish nor was blacks given the right to vote and full equality without a fight or an arrest. The main point here is that the United States has attempt to transform many obligations at hand throughout history and none has been successful being the reason why slavery still exist.