Topic 6: The slow drift North

Question 1

what was the total population of the US in 1850?

Answer 1

23 million

Question 2

how many BA lived in US 1850?

Answer 2

around 4 million

Question 3

prior to the Civil War, how many BA lived in the South and were enslaved?

Answer 3

3.2 of the total 4 million

Question 4

when did slavery begin to disintegrate?

Answer 4

during the CW

Question 5

how did Northern WA feel when slavery began to disintegrate?

Answer 5

feared a black influx into the North

Question 6

what was a result of WA fears of BA moving North?

Answer 6

fears were partly responsible for a draft riot in NYC in 1863

Question 7

when was the draft riot in NYC?

Answer 7

1863

Question 8

what were white southerners worried about when slavery began to disintegrate?

Answer 8

worried about the effect on the southern economy which relied on black labour

Question 9

what years was the slow drift North?

Answer 9

1880-1910

Question 10

how many BA left the South in the slow drift North?

Answer 10

500,000

Question 11

how many BA remained in the South in the slow drift North?

Answer 11

6 million

Question 12

in 1910, what percentage of BA still lived in the South?

Answer 12

89%

Question 13

after what year did Jim Crow develop in the South?

Answer 13

1877

Question 14

when was Plessy vs. Ferguson?

Answer 14

1896

Question 15

when did Ida B. Wells move from Memphis to Chicago?

Answer 15

1892

Question 16

how were BA able to be disenfranchised in the South?

Answer 16

due to loopholes in Reconstruction Amendments

Question 17

who was the ‘Great Emancipator’?

Answer 17

Abraham Lincoln

Question 18

were push or pull factors more important in causing the slow drift North? why?

Answer 18

push

Harsh conditions of south - JC, racial violence, disenfranchisement, sharecropping- increasingly difficult place to live
Although some pull factors such as work and freedom, opportunities limited and often met with racial discrimination: most only had basic agricultural skills + were illiterate, many northern employers + unions excluded black labour. North did not yet have the industrial labour demand ( due to the war) that would change this → moving North was a leap of faith, no guarantees. Therefore worsening conditions in South (push factors) more significant.

Question 19

examples of riots on Northern cities due to increased racial tensions because of the slow drift North?

Answer 19

• NY’s great race riot of 1900 - mob encouraged by predominantly Irish police
• Springfield, Ohio 1908 - one of the worst

Question 20

what percentage of NY’s population did BAs make up 1880-1900?

Answer 20

1%

Question 21

by what year were BA as likely to be lynched in the North as in the South?

Answer 21

1908

Question 22

in what year did Boston’s City Council redraw the electoral district boundaries to dilute the black vote?

Answer 22

1897

Question 23

by what year had 30 states in the N+W adopted the secret ballot?

Answer 23

1891

Question 24

what was the impact of the secret ballot on BA voting?

Answer 24

prevented illiterate BAs voting

Question 25

how many states in N+W adopted the secret ballot by 1891?

Answer 25

30

Question 26

when and where was thew NAACP established?

Answer 26

1909 NY

Question 27

what was the most important impact of the slow drift North? why?

Answer 27

Arguably black activism- others were continuations of existing conditions than a direct impact of migration. Migration allowed communities and CR organisations to develop in the North that laid foundations for future progress. E.g. NAACP 1909, co-founded by Du Bois. BUT could argue that this really developed more in the later periods, and at this time, the transplantation of racial tensions was the most impactful on BA in the North (as likely to be lynched in N by 1908!!). Also, black activist communities arguably wouldn't have been necessary if it weren’t for white backlash and discrimination against migrants.