[Dragaera] Fwd: Peasant fantasy

[Jerry Alan Sayers via Dragaera]

Do not forget that there were white sharecroppers, too.  The white 
landlords did want them as a peasant class, and labour contracts and 
lots of other laws tried to keep them (especially black ones) in 
something like serfdom, but at least in the early 20th century there was 
some mobility (going North to the factories starting during WWI or going 
West to look for better farm work, although that did not always work out 
great, either).  Even in the late 19th century, some white and black 
poor farmers in the South briefly tried to work together in Farmer's 
Alliances until entrenched politicians were able to use racism to drive 
a wedge between the poor farmers briefly united by class interests 
rather than divided by race.  Even if there were lots of poor farmers in 
the South, there was enough hope (even if little enough reality) of some 
social mobility that I don't think there was an acceptance of peasant 
status, or even a sense among the poor farmers that they were peasants, 
even if some of them were pretty close to that in reality.



Rebecca Harbison via Dragaera wrote:
> I seem to recall that racist arguments that black folks were not suited to
> running things (either couched in religious or scientific terms) still
> existed pre-1960s, but I don't know how well the sharecroppers bought into
> that, or more the 'this is how it's always been, and we can't win if we
> fight it, because it is bigger than all of us' mentality.  'All men are
> created equal' after all was penned by a man who thought he could own black
> people as slaves.
>
> On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 3:50 PM, Philip Hart via Dragaera <
> dragaera at lists.dragaera.info> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Mon, 3 Nov 2014, skzb at dreamcafe.com wrote:
>>
>>
>>>> Maybe sharecroppers in the American South after the war would count as a
>>>> peasant class?
>>>>
>>> There is implication of a current or past feudal aristocracy, and the
>>> Southern Slavocracy (in spite of their best efforts and pretensions) never
>>> did qualify as that.
>>>
>> A (the?) practical implication I take it is that in a feudal system there
>> would be a religious framework for the class structure, an inarguable
>> justification, but the black sharecroppers would have access to narratives
>> (e.g. "all men are created equal") supporting their right to advancement.
>>
>> Perhaps this reflects Teckla-Easterner discussions that have taken place
>> here over the years.
>>
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-- 
J A Dusty Sayers

Home Page http://www.sayersnet.com/~dusty/
Rescue the Princess http://www.sayersnet.com/~dusty/rescue/

'--I tell the tale that I heard told.
Mithridates, he died old.'
      --A E Housman, A Shropshire Lad LXII