ISBN:
9780807134832
Language:
English
Pages:
1 online resource (295 pages)
Edition:
1st ed.
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als
DDC:
305.80092
Keywords:
Stone, Alfred Holt, -- 1870-1955
;
Stone, Alfred Holt, -- 1870-1955 -- Political and social views
;
Mississippi. -- State Tax Commission -- Officials and employees -- Biography
;
Plantation owners -- Mississippi -- Biography
;
Cotton farmers -- Mississippi -- Biography
;
Racism -- Mississippi -- History -- 20th century
;
Eugenics -- Mississippi -- History -- 20th century
Abstract:
In the years after Reconstruction, racial tension soared, as many white southerners worried about how to deal with the millions of free African Americans among them -- an issue they termed the "negro problem." In an attempt to maintain the status quo, white supremacists resurrected old proslavery arguments and sought new justification in scientific theories purporting to "prove" people of African descent inherently inferior to whites. In Portrait of a Scientific Racist James G. Hollandsworth, Jr., reveals how the conjectures of one of the country's most prominent racial theorists, Alfred Holt Stone, helped justify a repressive racial order that relegated African Americans to the margins of southern society in the early 1900s. In this revealing biography, Hollandsworth examines the thoughts and motives of this renowned man, focusing primarily on Stone's most intensive period of theorizing, from 1900 to 1910. A committed and vocal white supremacist, Stone believed black southern workers were inherently lazy, a trait he attributed to their African genes and heritage. He asserted that slavery helped improve the black race but that opportunities still existed during Reconstruction to mold the freedmen into efficient workers. Stone's central -- yet unspoken -- goal was to devise a way to maintain an obedient, productive labor force willing to work for low wages. Writing from both Washington, D.C., and his cotton plantation in the Mississippi Delta, Stone published numerous essays and collected more than 3000 articles and pamphlets on the "American Race Problem" -- including those written by bitter racists and enthusiastic "race boosters." Though Stone lacked the credentials typically associated with scholarly experts of the time, he became an authority on the subject of black Americans, in part because of his close friendship with fellow scientific
Abstract:
Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- INTRODUCTION: The American Race Problem -- 1. AN ORDERLY BRAIN -- 2. ESSENTIALS OF GREATNESS -- 3. NO TWILIGHT ZONE -- 4. FOOD FOR THE HUMAN MIND -- 5. THE BUSINESS OF RAISING COTTON -- 6. CONVICTIONS OF SOUTHERN MEN -- 7. MY LIFE WORK -- 8. I AM NOT A NEGROPHOBIST -- 9. DESTRUCTIVE PROPENSITY -- 10. FRANK, WITHOUT BEING OFFENSIVE -- 11. SEVERE AND DISCRIMINATING CRITICISM -- 12. A SLAVE TO BUSINESS -- 13. IN PUBLIC DUTY -- 14. AND IN PRIVATE THINKING -- Appendix A -- Appendix B -- Appendix C -- Appendix D -- Appendix E -- Bibliography -- Index.
Note:
Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources
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