具体描述
Moral reform movements targeting racial minorities have long been central in negotiating the relationship between race and class in the United States, particularly in periods of large scale social change. Over a century ago, when the abolition of racial slavery, Southern Reconstruction, industrialization, and urban migration presented challenges to both race and class hierarchies in the South, postbellum missionary reform organizations like the American Missionary Association crusaded to establish schools, colleges, and churches for Blacks in Southern cities like Atlanta that would aggressively erode cultural differences among former slaves and assimilate them into a civic order defined by Anglo-Protestant culture. While the AMA's missionary institutions in Atlanta sought to shift racial dynamics between Blacks and Whites, they also fueled struggles over the social and cultural boundaries of middle class belonging in a region beset by social change. Drawing upon late nineteenth century accounts of AMA missionary activity in Atlanta, Black attempts to define and maintain a middle class identity, and Atlanta Whites' concerns about Black attempts at upward mobility, the author argue that the rhetoric about the implications of increased minority access to middle class resources like education and cultural knowledge speaks to links between anxieties about class position and racial status in societies stratified by both class and race.
race, social reform, and the making of a middle class: A Study in Nineteenth-Century America This book delves into the complex and often contradictory interplay between race, social reform movements, and the emergent concept of a middle class in nineteenth-century America. It moves beyond simplistic narratives to explore how anxieties and aspirations surrounding race deeply shaped the very definition and boundaries of middle-class identity and the efficacy of reform efforts. The study begins by examining the pervasive influence of racial ideology on American society in the antebellum period. It highlights how prevailing notions of racial hierarchy, particularly white supremacy, permeated institutions and social interactions, providing a foundational justification for slavery and the subjugation of non-white populations. Simultaneously, nascent reform movements, such as abolitionism and temperance, emerged, often driven by a desire to improve society and create a more virtuous citizenry. However, the book argues that even within these progressive currents, racial biases frequently intersected and complicated their objectives. A significant portion of the book focuses on the ways in which the abolitionist movement, while ostensibly fighting for human rights, often grappled with its own internal racial dynamics. It explores how some abolitionists, particularly white middle-class reformers, viewed enslaved people through a paternalistic lens, seeking to "civilize" and "uplift" them in ways that mirrored their own aspirations for social order. The experiences and perspectives of Black abolitionists are central to this analysis, revealing their agency and their critiques of both slavery and the racial prejudices that persisted within the anti-slavery cause. The book uncovers how Black communities, through their own institutions and activism, actively participated in the struggle for freedom and equality, often forging their own distinct paths towards middle-class respectability and self-determination. The concept of the "making of a middle class" is explored through a multifaceted lens, considering economic shifts, educational advancements, and cultural aspirations. The book investigates how emerging industrial capitalism created new opportunities for wealth accumulation and social mobility, leading to the growth of a distinct middle stratum. However, it contends that this process was not a uniform or universal ascent. Instead, access to the markers of middle-class status – education, professional occupations, comfortable housing, and refined leisure – was heavily mediated by race. White families, possessing greater access to resources and social networks, were more readily able to establish themselves as middle class. In contrast, Black families, despite facing systemic discrimination, actively pursued pathways to economic stability and social recognition, often through entrepreneurship, skilled trades, and educational institutions they built themselves. The book further examines how social reform movements, while aiming for broad societal improvements, often served to solidify the boundaries of this emerging middle class. For instance, movements promoting moral uplift, such as those advocating for public education, public health, and temperance, were frequently animated by a desire to distinguish the "respectable" middle classes from the perceived "immoral" or "unruly" working classes and marginalized racial groups. The book analyzes how reform efforts, whether consciously or unconsciously, often reinforced racialized stereotypes, associating certain behaviors and lifestyles with particular racial groups and thereby shaping perceptions of who belonged to the virtuous and deserving middle class. The latter half of the nineteenth century, marked by Reconstruction and its subsequent dismantling, provides a crucial case study. The book scrutinizes how the promises of racial equality during Reconstruction were ultimately undermined by resurgent white supremacist ideologies and policies. It demonstrates how the struggle for Black civil rights and economic advancement was met with fierce resistance, often fueled by anxieties about the erosion of white social and economic dominance. The rise of Jim Crow laws and the systematic disenfranchisement of Black Americans represented a deliberate effort to reassert racial hierarchies and to deny Black communities the opportunities for upward mobility that were increasingly associated with the white middle class. In conclusion, this book offers a nuanced and critical examination of how race was not a peripheral issue but a central organizing principle in the formation of American society, including the development of its middle class and the trajectory of its social reform movements. It reveals how the pursuit of social improvement and the aspiration for middle-class respectability were inextricably linked to racial ideologies and practices, often creating a stratified and unequal landscape. By foregrounding the agency of marginalized groups, particularly Black Americans, the study challenges conventional understandings and provides a richer, more complex picture of nineteenth-century American social and political history.
