> --- Forwarded from [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------- > > Date: 6 Jan 1998 00:01:14 GMT > From: David Silver <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > BLACK WOMEN ABOLITIONISTS, A STUDY IN ACTIVISM, 1828-1860 > BY SHIRLEY J. YEE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE KNOXVILLE 1992 > > ORGANIZED LABOR IN THE 20TH CENTURY SOUTH > > EDITED BY ROBERT H. ZIEGER UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE PRESS 1991 > reviewed by Dave Silver > > "Black Women" provides an excellent resource on the lives and > strugg les of lesser known Black Women Abolitionists in addition to > Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. Among the other Abolitionist are > Anna Murray Douglass, Mary Ann Shad Cary, Sarah Parker Remond, Frances > Harper, Sarah Mapps Douglass, Eliza Dixon Day and Sarah Forten. The > author explores how race, sex and class came together to create a > complex experience for these militant activists Some women, especially > former slaves were motivated by their own experience to "devote their > lives to the cause o f freedom." > > The author analyses this experience by showing that "economic > circumstances, kinship and friendship ties, marriage and education led > women toward personal definitions of their goal as activists." Yee > also notes the secondary status of Blacks in the broader Abolition > movement.In addition she documents the problems that these Black women > had in the white feminist movement which "succumbed to racist fears > and abandoned the possibility of forging a biracial feminist > alliance." > > Several common themes emerge from Black women's oral and written work: > As Yee notes that "slavery was especially difficult for slave > mothers who often saw their children taken away from them and their > writings examined the breakup of the slave family and the sexual > exploitation of slave women." > > The contribution made by these Black women to full Emancipation becomes > even more astonishing when one realizes that they found themselves > caught between the sexism of the anti-slavery movement on one hand and > the racism of the white women's movement. > > "Organized Labor" explores the significant role that trade unionism > played in shaping the industrail, political, economic and social life > of the 20th Century South.It depicts the centrality of race and the > essays try to come to grips with the question of how distinctive as > well as what similarities existed in the southern working class and and > southern patterns of labor relations. Rich sources both oral and > archival are tapped such as the oral history collections at the > University of North Carolina and the Southern Labor Archives in > Atlanta. > > Among the themes explored are Labor Espionage, Textile Workers > struggles to unionize, the 1922 Railroad Shopmen's Strike, the struggl > e for racial justice and Industrial Unionism in Memphis, interracial > unionism among Fort Worth's Packinghouse Workers and the struggle > against anti-union sentiment in Arkansas and Florida. > > There are vivid descriptions of the role of such heroines as > "Mother" Jones in the coal mining areas of the South in the 1910's > and early twenties and Ella May Wiggins songstress and martyr of the > Gastonia strike in 1922 Although the contributions of such groups as > the Southern Conference Educational Fund and the Communist Party > deserved greater documentation, this volume is an important guide to > understanding the rich labor history of the South. >
