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A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration
This is the epic story of how African-Americans, in the six decades following slavery, transformed themselves into a political people--an embryonic black nation. As Steven Hahn demonstrates, rural African-Americans were central political actors in the great events of disunion, emancipation, and nation-building. At the same time, Hahn asks us to think in more expansive ways about the nature and boundaries of politics and political practice.
Emphasizing the importance of kinship, labor, and networks of communication, A Nation under Our Feet explores the political relations and sensibilities that developed under slavery and shows how they set the stage for grassroots mobilization. Hahn introduces us to local leaders, and shows how political communities were built, defended, and rebuilt. He also identifies the quest for self-governance as an essential goal of black politics across the rural South, from contests for local power during Reconstruction, to emigrationism, biracial electoral alliances, social separatism, and, eventually, migration.
Hahn suggests that Garveyism and other popular forms of black nationalism absorbed and elaborated these earlier struggles, thus linking the first generation of migrants to the urban North with those who remained in the South. He offers a new framework--looking out from slavery--to understand twentieth-century forms of black political consciousness as well as emerging battles for civil rights. It is a powerful story, told here for the first time, and one that presents both an inspiring and a troubling perspective on American democracy.
Emphasizing the importance of kinship, labor, and networks of communication, A Nation under Our Feet explores the political relations and sensibilities that developed under slavery and shows how they set the stage for grassroots mobilization. Hahn introduces us to local leaders, and shows how political communities were built, defended, and rebuilt. He also identifies the quest for self-governance as an essential goal of black politics across the rural South, from contests for local power during Reconstruction, to emigrationism, biracial electoral alliances, social separatism, and, eventually, migration.
Hahn suggests that Garveyism and other popular forms of black nationalism absorbed and elaborated these earlier struggles, thus linking the first generation of migrants to the urban North with those who remained in the South. He offers a new framework--looking out from slavery--to understand twentieth-century forms of black political consciousness as well as emerging battles for civil rights. It is a powerful story, told here for the first time, and one that presents both an inspiring and a troubling perspective on American democracy.
624 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 2003
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About the author
Steven Hahn
21 books67 followersSteven Hahn is the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Professor in American History at the University of Pennsylvania.
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February 4, 2025
How Southern Blacks Empowered Themselves
Steven Hahn's history "A Nation Under Our Feet" (2004) tells an inspiring and broad story: how rural Southern African Americans took steps towards political empowerment as a group beginning with the period of slavery and continuing through the Great Migration to the Northern states beginning early in the Twentieth Century. Hahn is a Professor of American History at the University of Pennsylvania.His book received, and justly so, the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize and the Merle Curti Prize in Social History.
The purpose of Professor Hahn's study is to show how African Americans from their earliest days in the South attempted to organize to take control of their own destiny. The book challenges the view of many historians that African American political activism was predominantly only a reaction to white oppression and to the unwillingness of Southern whites to have African Americans assume a full role in political life.
Professor Hahn's book is arranged chronologically in three broad Parts. Part I covers African American political activity during the pre-Civil War and Civil War period. He describes how blacks, even in the condition of slavery, used their position to wrest concessions from the slaveholders, including the right to farm their own plots, to make limited sales of produce, and to visit neighboring plantations. He describes the growth of an informational network during these years, an early commitment to education to literacy, and the beginnings of a political organization. These early efforts intensified during the Civil War with the advance of Union Armies in the South, the defection of many slaves, and the service of Southern African Americans in the Union Army.
The second part of the book covers the complexities of the Reconstruction period from the close of the War through about 1877. This is the heart of Hahn's account, and it has been influenced heavily by Eric Foner, W.E.B. DuBois, and John Hope Franklin. Professor Hahn shows the strong efforts of many African Americans throughout the South to take control of their destinies and to make active and responsible contributions to the body politic. During this period, African Americans had many leaders who had been slaves or free blacks prior to the War and who had acquired literacy and political ability. They achieved a degree of success for a time in different parts of the South but their efforts were doomed by Southern Paramilitary movements, such as the Ku Klux Klan, and by the unwillingness of the United States government to stand wholeheartedly behind black civil rights. Professor Hahn tells a chilling story of murder and political intimidation which, as did the efforts of the black leadership, had its roots in the years before the Civil War.
Part three of the book covers the years following the end of Reconstruction, a period which sometimes is greatly oversimplified. Even with the end of Reconstruction, African Americans made efforts to empower themselves by forging alliances with white groups. During the first decade or so following Reconstruction, Southern whites were sufficiently divided among themselves to allow African Americans a degree of political leverage and power. Also during these years, there was an active black emigrationist movement which encouraged blacks to move to Liberia or to a location outside the South -- such as Kansas. And this movement had some limited success in forcing concessions from economic powers in the South. Again, the political structure African Americans created during this time survived the Jim Crow era in the South and contributed directly to the Great Migration to the North of the twentieth Century and, ultimately to the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-twentieth century. Professor Hahn has interesting and largely sympathetic things to say about Marcus Garvey and his movement in the 1920s for the repatriation of American blacks to Liberia.
This study is dense, highly detailed, and thoroughly documented. Professor Hahn displays a wealth of learning in the primary literature and in secondary studies. The footnote documentation is extensive. This book is probably not suitable for the reader coming to this subject matter for the first time. The book makes for heavy reading and it presupposes some basic knowledge in the reader about slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the many post-reconstruction movements in Southern politics in the different Southern states. It seems to me as well that the book owes a considerable debt to C Vann Woodward's study, now over 50 years old, "The Origins of the New South 1877 -- 1913" which covers some of the same material on African American political activism. Professor Hahn has written an outstanding work of American History, African American History, and Southern History. This book will be invaluable to serious students of our Nation's history.
Robin Friedman
Steven Hahn's history "A Nation Under Our Feet" (2004) tells an inspiring and broad story: how rural Southern African Americans took steps towards political empowerment as a group beginning with the period of slavery and continuing through the Great Migration to the Northern states beginning early in the Twentieth Century. Hahn is a Professor of American History at the University of Pennsylvania.His book received, and justly so, the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize and the Merle Curti Prize in Social History.
The purpose of Professor Hahn's study is to show how African Americans from their earliest days in the South attempted to organize to take control of their own destiny. The book challenges the view of many historians that African American political activism was predominantly only a reaction to white oppression and to the unwillingness of Southern whites to have African Americans assume a full role in political life.
Professor Hahn's book is arranged chronologically in three broad Parts. Part I covers African American political activity during the pre-Civil War and Civil War period. He describes how blacks, even in the condition of slavery, used their position to wrest concessions from the slaveholders, including the right to farm their own plots, to make limited sales of produce, and to visit neighboring plantations. He describes the growth of an informational network during these years, an early commitment to education to literacy, and the beginnings of a political organization. These early efforts intensified during the Civil War with the advance of Union Armies in the South, the defection of many slaves, and the service of Southern African Americans in the Union Army.
The second part of the book covers the complexities of the Reconstruction period from the close of the War through about 1877. This is the heart of Hahn's account, and it has been influenced heavily by Eric Foner, W.E.B. DuBois, and John Hope Franklin. Professor Hahn shows the strong efforts of many African Americans throughout the South to take control of their destinies and to make active and responsible contributions to the body politic. During this period, African Americans had many leaders who had been slaves or free blacks prior to the War and who had acquired literacy and political ability. They achieved a degree of success for a time in different parts of the South but their efforts were doomed by Southern Paramilitary movements, such as the Ku Klux Klan, and by the unwillingness of the United States government to stand wholeheartedly behind black civil rights. Professor Hahn tells a chilling story of murder and political intimidation which, as did the efforts of the black leadership, had its roots in the years before the Civil War.
Part three of the book covers the years following the end of Reconstruction, a period which sometimes is greatly oversimplified. Even with the end of Reconstruction, African Americans made efforts to empower themselves by forging alliances with white groups. During the first decade or so following Reconstruction, Southern whites were sufficiently divided among themselves to allow African Americans a degree of political leverage and power. Also during these years, there was an active black emigrationist movement which encouraged blacks to move to Liberia or to a location outside the South -- such as Kansas. And this movement had some limited success in forcing concessions from economic powers in the South. Again, the political structure African Americans created during this time survived the Jim Crow era in the South and contributed directly to the Great Migration to the North of the twentieth Century and, ultimately to the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-twentieth century. Professor Hahn has interesting and largely sympathetic things to say about Marcus Garvey and his movement in the 1920s for the repatriation of American blacks to Liberia.
This study is dense, highly detailed, and thoroughly documented. Professor Hahn displays a wealth of learning in the primary literature and in secondary studies. The footnote documentation is extensive. This book is probably not suitable for the reader coming to this subject matter for the first time. The book makes for heavy reading and it presupposes some basic knowledge in the reader about slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the many post-reconstruction movements in Southern politics in the different Southern states. It seems to me as well that the book owes a considerable debt to C Vann Woodward's study, now over 50 years old, "The Origins of the New South 1877 -- 1913" which covers some of the same material on African American political activism. Professor Hahn has written an outstanding work of American History, African American History, and Southern History. This book will be invaluable to serious students of our Nation's history.
Robin Friedman
July 25, 2021
I was disappointed with the first 2/3 of the book.. there wasn't much new or that I hadn't read before.
The last third of the book made it worth the effort.
While other books have covered the post Civil War/Reconstruction Eras, this book took it to the next step.
Instead of talking about black America and the South in overly broad terms, Hahn details how each of the Confederate states differed.
The Readjustors, the Insurrectionist, the Greenbackers, the American Farmers Market Alliance, etc are all covered.
If you've never heard of them, don't worry neither had I. To overly simplify things, they are different political movements in different states that appealed to segments of the black and white community.
While the details varied, invariably these movements abandoned the black community or fizzled out.
But learning about what motivated each state was fascinating.
The last third of the book made it worth the effort.
While other books have covered the post Civil War/Reconstruction Eras, this book took it to the next step.
Instead of talking about black America and the South in overly broad terms, Hahn details how each of the Confederate states differed.
The Readjustors, the Insurrectionist, the Greenbackers, the American Farmers Market Alliance, etc are all covered.
If you've never heard of them, don't worry neither had I. To overly simplify things, they are different political movements in different states that appealed to segments of the black and white community.
While the details varied, invariably these movements abandoned the black community or fizzled out.
But learning about what motivated each state was fascinating.
December 14, 2019
Monumental, Pulitzer-winning narrative history of African-American efforts before, during and after the Civil War to forge a cohesive community. Hahn (A Nation Without Borders) demonstrates that, long before emancipation, slaves in the South created intricate, informal networks of communication to keep abreast of politics and social developments; these laid the groundwork for the postwar emergence of an African-American political class. Thus, freedmen and women needed no encouragement from white Republicans, Freedman’s Bureau educators and Northern philanthropists to take control of their own destiny; they eagerly sought out education, literature and religious connections that enabled them to overcome the ossified racism of Southern states. Nonetheless, even with the emergence of a generation of remarkable individuals (Mississippi activist John Roy Lynch, politicians Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce, writers Ida Wells and Booker T. Washington) their success was largely contingent on events outside their control. The withdrawal of Federal support (and the renascence of white supremacy) resulted in a violent overthrow of the New Order. Not that this ended anything: even after Reconstruction’s end, black Americans found new to assert themselves, whether in immigrating abroad, forging self-sufficient communities (both urban and rural) or forging biracial coalitions with Republicans, populists and others to exert their strength. Not a happy story (and one that ends somewhat arbitrarily in the early 20th Century), but an insightful, well-written one; it shows that African-Americans, even as they were victimized and targeted by institutional racism, never lost agency, drive or willingness to forge ahead.
January 13, 2015
Steven Hahn’s A Nation Under our Feet presents the history of black political struggles in the rural South from the last decades of slavery to the Great Migration. He reimagines African-American political history by expanding the definition of politics and focusing on black attempts to assert control over their own lives, shape and protect their communities, and gain political power. He succeeds less in dramatically reframing Southern political history from the Civil War to the turn of the century than in reframing the nature and salience of black participation in this history.
In historiographical terms, Hahn takes issue with the “liberal integrationist framework” of much of the prominent historiography of postwar black political history. Hahn says this school of thought, including historians such as Eugene Genovese and Eric Foner, commits two major errors. First, it does not treat slaves as political beings and sees their politicization as something largely imposed from the outside by emancipation, the Union Army, the Freedman’s Bureau, and the Republican Party. Hahn argues in contrast that slave life had always been political, but in order to see this scholars have to accept a more flexible view of politics. Slaves obviously lacked formal political recognition, but they were political in the sense that they sought to “contest and transform the relations of domination under which they lived” (52). Slave political activity included building kinship networks against the constant threat of separation, gaining information about broader political events, protecting themselves from violence and exploitation, acquiring more time for personal labor, and eventually rebelling against their masters during the Civil War. Slaves fought for the basic rights they did not have, and the victories won and kinship networks founded here were foundational for the future political action of freedpeople.
Hahn’s second problem with the dominant historiographical paradigm is that it focuses on liberal integrationist goals such as the pursuit of rights or inclusion in formal politics at the expense of goals such as protonationalism, emigrationism, community development, and self-defense. As pragmatic political actors, Hahn emphasizes that blacks were willing to pursue many strategies to achieve their goals of rights, dignity, prosperity and community. For instance, a huge percentage of southern blacks showed interest in emigrating to the North or to Africa to escape the violence and persecution of the postwar South. Although relatively few actually did emigrate in this period due to various obstacles, Hahn duly shows that the consistent and widespread interest in leaving the South and forming more independent communities in Kansas or Liberia demonstrates a powerful non-integrationist trend in black political history in this period.
The bulk of this book is about black political struggles in the postwar period. Hahn discusses both the more well-known struggle against white supremacy and the less examined conflicts within the black community, including tensions between rural and urban activists. He documents with rich, often biographical detail the remarkable rise of Southern blacks to local and state power and the white political and paramilitary campaign to restore their version of racial order, disenfranchise blacks, and exclude them from formal politics. Blacks built a variety of political and social structures to pursue their political goals, including organizations like Union Leagues, the Colored Farmers’ Alliance, chapters of the Republican Party, and emigrationist organizations. Equally important for grassroots activism were local structures such as schools, churches, labor unions, self-defense groups, and local newspapers. Ultimately, Hahn succeeds in recovering the importance of black political action shaping their own history and the broader history of the post-bellum American South.
Two moderate criticisms are in order for Hahn’s book. First, the book purports to be about rural black politics, but a great deal of it focuses on urban blacks and/or intermediaries between these communities, such as politicians and activists. There seems to be no compelling reason to draw this line between rural and urban histories. A more concerted attempt to integrate rural and urban politics would have yielded a more complete account of black politics in this period. Second, acolytes of the more traditional historiography of postwar black history could legitimately contend that Hahn has not really challenged the standard trajectory of Southern political history. There was still a relatively brief flowering of the possibility of black empowerment that declined in the face of white violence and political exclusion, inconsistent support and eventual abandonment from the federal government, and the failures of biracial politics.
However, the value of Hahn’s study is that he shows the crucial impact of black political action in shaping this period, regardless of the end point now known to historians but then unknown to all actors. Hahn’s most important point in this regard for all American historians is his idea that a large number black activists in this period put forth a multi-racial and democratic vision of the nation in which birth and loyalty determined rights and citizenship rather than race. Because African-Americans put forth this remarkably modern view of America so much earlier than most other political groups, American historians and Americans in general need to fundamentally reexamine the questions of who built and defined this nation. Hahn does both groups a great service in pointing them in this direction.
In historiographical terms, Hahn takes issue with the “liberal integrationist framework” of much of the prominent historiography of postwar black political history. Hahn says this school of thought, including historians such as Eugene Genovese and Eric Foner, commits two major errors. First, it does not treat slaves as political beings and sees their politicization as something largely imposed from the outside by emancipation, the Union Army, the Freedman’s Bureau, and the Republican Party. Hahn argues in contrast that slave life had always been political, but in order to see this scholars have to accept a more flexible view of politics. Slaves obviously lacked formal political recognition, but they were political in the sense that they sought to “contest and transform the relations of domination under which they lived” (52). Slave political activity included building kinship networks against the constant threat of separation, gaining information about broader political events, protecting themselves from violence and exploitation, acquiring more time for personal labor, and eventually rebelling against their masters during the Civil War. Slaves fought for the basic rights they did not have, and the victories won and kinship networks founded here were foundational for the future political action of freedpeople.
Hahn’s second problem with the dominant historiographical paradigm is that it focuses on liberal integrationist goals such as the pursuit of rights or inclusion in formal politics at the expense of goals such as protonationalism, emigrationism, community development, and self-defense. As pragmatic political actors, Hahn emphasizes that blacks were willing to pursue many strategies to achieve their goals of rights, dignity, prosperity and community. For instance, a huge percentage of southern blacks showed interest in emigrating to the North or to Africa to escape the violence and persecution of the postwar South. Although relatively few actually did emigrate in this period due to various obstacles, Hahn duly shows that the consistent and widespread interest in leaving the South and forming more independent communities in Kansas or Liberia demonstrates a powerful non-integrationist trend in black political history in this period.
The bulk of this book is about black political struggles in the postwar period. Hahn discusses both the more well-known struggle against white supremacy and the less examined conflicts within the black community, including tensions between rural and urban activists. He documents with rich, often biographical detail the remarkable rise of Southern blacks to local and state power and the white political and paramilitary campaign to restore their version of racial order, disenfranchise blacks, and exclude them from formal politics. Blacks built a variety of political and social structures to pursue their political goals, including organizations like Union Leagues, the Colored Farmers’ Alliance, chapters of the Republican Party, and emigrationist organizations. Equally important for grassroots activism were local structures such as schools, churches, labor unions, self-defense groups, and local newspapers. Ultimately, Hahn succeeds in recovering the importance of black political action shaping their own history and the broader history of the post-bellum American South.
Two moderate criticisms are in order for Hahn’s book. First, the book purports to be about rural black politics, but a great deal of it focuses on urban blacks and/or intermediaries between these communities, such as politicians and activists. There seems to be no compelling reason to draw this line between rural and urban histories. A more concerted attempt to integrate rural and urban politics would have yielded a more complete account of black politics in this period. Second, acolytes of the more traditional historiography of postwar black history could legitimately contend that Hahn has not really challenged the standard trajectory of Southern political history. There was still a relatively brief flowering of the possibility of black empowerment that declined in the face of white violence and political exclusion, inconsistent support and eventual abandonment from the federal government, and the failures of biracial politics.
However, the value of Hahn’s study is that he shows the crucial impact of black political action in shaping this period, regardless of the end point now known to historians but then unknown to all actors. Hahn’s most important point in this regard for all American historians is his idea that a large number black activists in this period put forth a multi-racial and democratic vision of the nation in which birth and loyalty determined rights and citizenship rather than race. Because African-Americans put forth this remarkably modern view of America so much earlier than most other political groups, American historians and Americans in general need to fundamentally reexamine the questions of who built and defined this nation. Hahn does both groups a great service in pointing them in this direction.
May 19, 2018
Now we know better what those Great Migrationist carried with them and how incredible the Civil Rights movement was to overcome not just segregation and discrimination but a pervasive paramilitary politics that included assassination and mass murder as a matter of course. No wonder Liberia and Detroit and Oakland looked so appealing. No wonder that churches and women's social clubs loomed so large in the south and north. These and secret societies kept a political tradition going. Booker T. and Marcus G. are more comprehensible and laudable after reading this book. So is Ned Cobb and the connections between the labor movement and efforts to achieve interracial democracy. Attacks on unions are attacks on civil rights.
January 13, 2020
Steven Hahn’s book tells the story of the Afro-Americans’ political struggle in the rural South.
Unlike in the other book’s on Reconstruction I’ve read, here the author aims to show that the African Americans’ striving for independence was not simply a result of white oppression, but had initiated in the earliest days of slavery.
Steven Hahn’s work starts with the pre-Civil War and Civil War periods. Hahn describes the slaves’ efforts to achieve at least a minimum level of control over their own destinies by farming small plots of their own and selling their own production.
Those early efforts developed into something more during the Civil War, when a large number of African Americans served in the Union Army.
The second part of the book covers the Reconstruction period. Here, the author profoundly the describes the freedmen’s strong pursuit of literacy, political activity and leadership.
What impressed me is that “A Nation Under Our Feet” is the first book I’ve read that depicts the reconstruction of the white supremacy in the South through the constants and unswerving efforts of the Afro-Americans to oppose it.
For example, the book focuses more on the resistance of the freedmen to the Ku Klux Klan than on the Ku Klux Klan outrages. Here, the author demonstrates the freedmen’s longtime strife for organization and unity, which are finally achieved during this period, but also emphasizes that the government didn’t support the Afro-Americans wholeheartedly.
After the Reconstruction, Hahn traces the Afro-American emigration to the Northern States, which had largely contributed and influenced the 20th century Civil Rights movement.
The emigration makes the South more vulnerable.
In general, the book is highly inspiring, well-written and insightful.
I would definitely recommend it to any US History student, who, however, has some background knowledge on the subject.
Unlike in the other book’s on Reconstruction I’ve read, here the author aims to show that the African Americans’ striving for independence was not simply a result of white oppression, but had initiated in the earliest days of slavery.
Steven Hahn’s work starts with the pre-Civil War and Civil War periods. Hahn describes the slaves’ efforts to achieve at least a minimum level of control over their own destinies by farming small plots of their own and selling their own production.
Those early efforts developed into something more during the Civil War, when a large number of African Americans served in the Union Army.
The second part of the book covers the Reconstruction period. Here, the author profoundly the describes the freedmen’s strong pursuit of literacy, political activity and leadership.
What impressed me is that “A Nation Under Our Feet” is the first book I’ve read that depicts the reconstruction of the white supremacy in the South through the constants and unswerving efforts of the Afro-Americans to oppose it.
For example, the book focuses more on the resistance of the freedmen to the Ku Klux Klan than on the Ku Klux Klan outrages. Here, the author demonstrates the freedmen’s longtime strife for organization and unity, which are finally achieved during this period, but also emphasizes that the government didn’t support the Afro-Americans wholeheartedly.
After the Reconstruction, Hahn traces the Afro-American emigration to the Northern States, which had largely contributed and influenced the 20th century Civil Rights movement.
The emigration makes the South more vulnerable.
In general, the book is highly inspiring, well-written and insightful.
I would definitely recommend it to any US History student, who, however, has some background knowledge on the subject.
Currently reading
January 13, 20082004 Pulitzer Prize winner in History, This book is a very well written history of African American political struggles from the Civil war through reconstruction. I am enjoying this book a lot, and learning so much about a period in history I know so little about.
August 22, 2018
A very strong four stars. This book takes a wider period view of the reconstruction era that other works on the topic such as Foner's Reconstruction, which provides critical contextualization to reconstruction's causes and effects, but also situates the racial nadir of the late 1800s\early 1900s as being a long tail of slavery rather than as a lead in to the long civil rights movement as it is usually presented. The foregrounding of black citizenship politics over this timeframe, even in the large portions in which black political power was extremely limited, provides a strong unifying framework through which to assess the quickly changing balance of power in the fight over black Americans' access to the political system over this period which spans what are often thought of as three distinct eras (slavery, reconstruction, and Jim Crow) with their own methods for thinking about race and power. My main issue with the book is that it doesn't find a natural stopping point. The erosion of reconstruction and establishment of the new racial order in the two decades surrounding the turn of the century does not have an obvious event to close out the period, and the book's commitment to analyzing the different shapes taken on by black political activity even under conditions of extreme disempowerment means that this new stasis in the official order ought open many more areas of inquiry into the range of dynamic responses during this period, making it truly impossible to fade out on the tragedy of the New Sout
November 19, 2018
This powerful work of narrative history examines the political networks of black Americans before, during, and after the Civil War. Steven Hahn argues that slave political networks translated well, and easily, to post-Civil War politics, helping black Americans to organize along community, kin, and religious lines. Hahn covers a substantial amount of labor history, studying how black workers used strikes well past Reconstruction and into the Jim Crow era to obtain better treatment from white landowners. Hahn's ultimate thesis is that the political networks which began under slavery combined with the ideas and demographic patterns of black emigration to produce after 1900 a modern black political consciousness and the Great Migration. While the transition from earlier patterns of black relocation to the Great Migration itself is not covered in much depth, Hahn largely succeeds in showing continuities and escalations of black political culture over the course of the nineteenth century. Very insightful reading, this book would make a fine companion to "Battle Cry of Freedom," "Reconstruction," and other classic works of nineteenth-century American history. The one place where the book is dated now is where Hahn describes how slaves were sometimes paid on Sundays. Edward Baptist's 2014 book, "The Half Has Never Been Told," showed that in fact almost no slaves were paid.
August 7, 2018
By far the most extensive history of United States Black Nationalism I've ever read. It's so dense, I'll only rate it second to Sterling Stuckey's Slave Culture because Stuckey is much more readable, but if you want information about Black US political struggles ?This is the go to book. Covering everything from The Black Church to plantation strikes to slave revolts to the Civil War to the Emigrationist Movement to the Exoduster Movement, there is so much valuable information in here that shows a radical and uncompromising tradition of Black resistance in the US. Not all of us wanted to integrate and Black nationalism does not begin with Malcolm X nor Marcus Garvey. Must read, but get a pen and a highlighter
December 11, 2017
A long road on this one. My reading has been completely wrecked by this semester. I finished this book solely because it was part of a project for an elective class I was teaching. That being said, what a book.
It has been a long time since I have read a historical monograph this closely and enjoyed one this thoroughly. Hahn's research is deep and wide, his arguments are subtle and graceful. More than anything, however, Hahn treats the subjects of his history with respect and dignity without every slipping into hagiography.
If you have any interest in Black history or American history in the 19th and 20th century. This book is required reading.
It has been a long time since I have read a historical monograph this closely and enjoyed one this thoroughly. Hahn's research is deep and wide, his arguments are subtle and graceful. More than anything, however, Hahn treats the subjects of his history with respect and dignity without every slipping into hagiography.
If you have any interest in Black history or American history in the 19th and 20th century. This book is required reading.
April 5, 2016
Full disclosure, I didn't read every single source in here, but it was an absolutely useful book nonetheless. This should not be the first book you read about this topic, but if you've read a general history (or two) of slavery in the US, the Civil War, and reconstruction and want to read primary sources, this is the best book out there for it. It's absolutely great for reference, especially if the book or article you are reading skims over the voices of black people during this period.
December 4, 2012
Craploads of information, decently readable, would be excellent for research or background information on black politics in the rural south 1830-1900. That said, it's long and gets quite tedious, and it can be quite repetitive at times.
The research is brilliant and thorough, it's certainly an accomplished work, but reading it is not particularly enjoyable.
The research is brilliant and thorough, it's certainly an accomplished work, but reading it is not particularly enjoyable.
January 15, 2014
A magisterial history of African American politics during the revolutionary upheavals that redefined American citizenship. There's nothing quite like this book in the vast literature of slavery and freedom. The research is certainly brilliant, the writing superb. But the insights are what set it apart. "A Nation Under Our Feet" is a synthesis destined for a long shelf life.
June 23, 2017
Chronicles struggles of Union Leagues, Colored Farmers' Alliance, Black sugarcane workers in the Knights of Labor, and other rural Black political struggles as foundational to the history of the Civil War and Reconstruction, the history of capitalism, and the history of work and class in the United States. Too many quotes to recommend it--better than Foner, imho.
December 6, 2010
Wow, our LAST book for American history seminar! I still can't believe I read 24 books in 15 weeks.
May 23, 2013
Stephen Hahn published A Nation Under Our Feet in 2003 to dispute treatments of Reconstruction which emphasized government decision making and Northern public opinion. Writing that “most of the relevant scholarship has been governed by something of a liberal integrationist framework,” Hahn criticized “a framework of analysis . . . that measures politicization chiefly by what came to freedpeople from the outside, and that privileges and lends legitimacy to certain sets of aspirations (inclusion and assimilation, the pursuit of individual rights) while presenting other sets of aspirations (separatism and community development, the pursuit of collective rights, protonationalism) as the response to failures and defeats.” While the revisionist school synthesized by Foner had as one of its primary missions the recovery of the historical agency of African-Americans, the assumption of functioning interracial democracy as the penultimate goal, and the lament for the lost chances of progressive political movement following the consolidation of a reactionary South, tended make the choices of white liberal allies the most crucial turning points.
Hahn instead pursues the themes common among writers inclined toward the Black Power movement and more commonly set in the 1970s than the 1870s, such as Matthew Countryman’s Up South; the class divisions within the Black community between the radical poor and the more stayed integrationist elite leadership, and the ultimately illusory character of lasting interracial alliances with white liberals, loom large in his account of Reconstruction. His pessimistic account of the prospects for interracial collaboration within the Populist Movement is a welcome respite from the romance and moonlight which have so often surrounded that theme since Woodward’s elaboration of it in his biography of Tom Watson. Hahn’s more notable contributions to the field come from his broadening of the temporal frame however. In searching for the roots of the vibrant political culture which sprang so forcefully into the open following emancipation he traces the furtive solidarities and rumor networks that shaped the political world of slaves. Following Redemption he details the renewal of interest in emigration either internally in the case of the “Exoduster” effort to establish black townships in Kansas or in the revival of petitions for relocation to Liberia. Tracing the inward turn of Black communities toward self-support through Booker T. Washington’s call for pragmatic uplift, Hahn attempts to connect both the Great Migration and Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association to late 19th century precursors, although his evidence is more suggestive than definitive.
Hahn instead pursues the themes common among writers inclined toward the Black Power movement and more commonly set in the 1970s than the 1870s, such as Matthew Countryman’s Up South; the class divisions within the Black community between the radical poor and the more stayed integrationist elite leadership, and the ultimately illusory character of lasting interracial alliances with white liberals, loom large in his account of Reconstruction. His pessimistic account of the prospects for interracial collaboration within the Populist Movement is a welcome respite from the romance and moonlight which have so often surrounded that theme since Woodward’s elaboration of it in his biography of Tom Watson. Hahn’s more notable contributions to the field come from his broadening of the temporal frame however. In searching for the roots of the vibrant political culture which sprang so forcefully into the open following emancipation he traces the furtive solidarities and rumor networks that shaped the political world of slaves. Following Redemption he details the renewal of interest in emigration either internally in the case of the “Exoduster” effort to establish black townships in Kansas or in the revival of petitions for relocation to Liberia. Tracing the inward turn of Black communities toward self-support through Booker T. Washington’s call for pragmatic uplift, Hahn attempts to connect both the Great Migration and Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association to late 19th century precursors, although his evidence is more suggestive than definitive.
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September 12, 2020Unnecessary for me to offer my validation to another Pulitzer winner but I liked this.
It's interesting to me that this book is discussed as the "black people freed themselves" text. Not how I read it at all - more so, that out of slavery arose repertoires of political participation that explains how black American political consciousness is different from the "mainstream," American, liberal Tocqueville narrative. As I understand it, Hahn argues that from slavery through the civil rights movement, black activists who have successfully organized have done so around beliefs in community development, collective rights, and black nationalism. This seems pretty consistent with other historians of the black liberation movement like Barbara Ransby and Manning Marable. I think this raises some timely questions about the distinction between normative dominant American ideals and the ability of time and liberal institutions to change them. Hahn pretty compellingly demonstrates how this consciousness righteously arose out of the legacies of slavery and legal discrimination. Can black political aspirations to collective rights and community development rightfully be denied given these undeniable American institutional origins? If these discrepancies - white American investment in individual liberal rights and black American desires for group rights - are never directly addressed, is it no wonder that ruptures continue to arise? If the black political tradition continues to demand group rights because it was the answer to slavery, will this demand ever effectively be refuted by a liberal tradition that believes itself to be the answer to slavery while disparaging groups as identity politics? That the "black people freed themselves" interpretation seems to dominate here is funny to me because it elevates black people's collective ability to overcome institutional oppression and better realize mainstream American ideals of freedom in a way that downplays this distinction between black and white American political philosophy that I think Hahn and others make.
One tidbit I was really fascinated by was Hahn's discussion of enslaved people's "naive monarchism." Nearly every slave mutiny after 1790 was sparked by rumors that an all-powerful ruler had freed them and it was simply their immediate masters to continued to hold them. Hahn interprets that slaves had to imagine more powerful allies and that these false ideas were necessary sources of inspiration and collective mobilization. I think the suggestion that imagination and delusion might be necessary for marginalized people to think otherwise for liberation is very romantic and provocative. Like a lot things lately, it reminded me of QAnon, though haha
It's interesting to me that this book is discussed as the "black people freed themselves" text. Not how I read it at all - more so, that out of slavery arose repertoires of political participation that explains how black American political consciousness is different from the "mainstream," American, liberal Tocqueville narrative. As I understand it, Hahn argues that from slavery through the civil rights movement, black activists who have successfully organized have done so around beliefs in community development, collective rights, and black nationalism. This seems pretty consistent with other historians of the black liberation movement like Barbara Ransby and Manning Marable. I think this raises some timely questions about the distinction between normative dominant American ideals and the ability of time and liberal institutions to change them. Hahn pretty compellingly demonstrates how this consciousness righteously arose out of the legacies of slavery and legal discrimination. Can black political aspirations to collective rights and community development rightfully be denied given these undeniable American institutional origins? If these discrepancies - white American investment in individual liberal rights and black American desires for group rights - are never directly addressed, is it no wonder that ruptures continue to arise? If the black political tradition continues to demand group rights because it was the answer to slavery, will this demand ever effectively be refuted by a liberal tradition that believes itself to be the answer to slavery while disparaging groups as identity politics? That the "black people freed themselves" interpretation seems to dominate here is funny to me because it elevates black people's collective ability to overcome institutional oppression and better realize mainstream American ideals of freedom in a way that downplays this distinction between black and white American political philosophy that I think Hahn and others make.
One tidbit I was really fascinated by was Hahn's discussion of enslaved people's "naive monarchism." Nearly every slave mutiny after 1790 was sparked by rumors that an all-powerful ruler had freed them and it was simply their immediate masters to continued to hold them. Hahn interprets that slaves had to imagine more powerful allies and that these false ideas were necessary sources of inspiration and collective mobilization. I think the suggestion that imagination and delusion might be necessary for marginalized people to think otherwise for liberation is very romantic and provocative. Like a lot things lately, it reminded me of QAnon, though haha
December 13, 2017
This book gives a dive into a 'missing' period of US political history -- the politics of rural black southerners between the end of Reconstruction and when the same people move north and start playing a part in northern politics. This period is often referred to as the 'nadir' of race relations -- when repression by white supremacist governments reached its full swing and Jim Crow was imposed, with the fully-capitalist Republican party turning a blind eye. Hahn doesn't object to that description, but he investigates the still-vibrant black politics of the period to show the descent was not uncontested and attempts to restore the agency of those fighting it. This is covered in the third part of the book; the first two parts cover black politics during slavery and the Civil war, and the black politics of Reconstruction. The book as a whole does a good job of centering the forgotten players of this part of history: rural black farmworkers who organized and went out to vote and to free themselves. Hahn makes the argument that the networks and methods developed during the 50 years he covers laid the ground for the civil rights movements of the 20th century. On the day after black voters organized and turned out en masse in rural areas in Alabama to win a senate race, that's a powerful thought.
September 30, 2015
Five stars for content and three stars for writing. The history covered here is extremely important and the author clearly did extensive research. I learned a great deal that I didn't know before. But, this book really suffers for lack of editing. There were hundreds of places where I had to re-read to find the verb, or to remind myself of the beginning of a sentence after a too-lengthy parenthetical statement.
That limits the book's audience to readers who are already committed to the topic, leaving out those who might be drawn into the topic if the prose were better.
That limits the book's audience to readers who are already committed to the topic, leaving out those who might be drawn into the topic if the prose were better.
December 11, 2013
I read this for one of my college courses and it is a surprisingly good read! The author, Steven Hahn, paints a very vivid picture of what life was like for blacks following the Civil War. If you are a history buff then you will enjoy this book! American History is not my favorite thing, I'm a Russian History specialist, but I did enjoy this novel.
March 14, 2016
After reading this book, the notion of laid back African Americans who are perpetually waiting for others to help them becomes untenable. Even in slavery they were players albeit subtle ones and immediately the institution of slavery was abolished they become overtly involve in shaping their own destiny.
May 1, 2016
It was a little slow in the middle, but a very interesting history of how black folks worked the system as Ray they could under shitty circumstances. I personally had no idea how much they negotiated "privileges" from their owners pre-emancipation, or
how much political activity there was during repressive times after reconstruction ended. Very interesting, but it took a while to get through.
how much political activity there was during repressive times after reconstruction ended. Very interesting, but it took a while to get through.
May 20, 2013
actually learned a lot in this one. it's all like kapow why dem blacks be up north? CAUSE THE SOUTH A SHIT HOLE, SON
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September 29, 2015Great study of Reconstruction from the perspective of former slaves and their descendants.
January 11, 2018
Hahn is an excellent historian
May 27, 2018
Important read. Well written.
November 19, 2018
An excellent chronology of African Americans in this country, from slavery to today. Comprehensive and very well written.
June 2, 2019
The Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Jim Crow South. Each of these terms describes a distinct period in Southern history, a period that scholars have used reams of paper to describe and document. Steven Hahn, however, chooses a different approach in his book A Nation Under Our Feet. For Hahn, this entire period from the end of the Civil War to the Great Migration of blacks out of the South is one of continuous struggle by the freedmen in an active effort to shape their political world. In this telling of the black political experience in the postwar South, slavery does not simply provide the background to the story. Instead, it is the formative event that shapes what follows. In Hahn’s words, “without consideration of this legacy, we cannot begin to understand how activism and mobilization did take place, and around what sorts of issues.” (6)
From this foundation, Hahn proceeds to describe the ways in which slaves actively shaped the political world of African Americans. Despite the lack of any rights whatsoever during their time in bondage, they were not hapless or helpless in the face of planter authority. Hahn writes “owing to their skills and labor, slaves could exert power and leverage in relations with their owners, giving the lie to claims about absolute authority on the one side and abject submission on the other.” (29-30) This was true both economically and socially, as slaves often left the home plantation in order to visit a spouse or family members on other plantations. When the fire-eaters in South Carolina fired on Fort Sumter in 1861, bringing on the Civil War, slaves grasped another political opportunity, in fact, the ultimate political opportunity. As Union armies captured Confederate territory, plantation discipline broke down and many slaves headed for the Union lines and freedom. It would be a mistake, however, to say that the Union armies liberated the slaves; more accurately, those armies liberated some slaves while many others liberated themselves. The now ex-slaves followed up this triumph in various ways, including enlisting in the Union army and occupying the abandoned estates of their former masters.
After the war was over, and Congress and the states passed the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments in an effort to secure civil rights for the freedmen, black political maneuvering entered a new phase. Hahn exhaustively details the process by which African Americans took to politics with great enthusiasm. They joined the Union Leagues in droves and acquired sundry political offices throughout the former Confederacy. When Hiram Revels, a black man from Mississippi, took the former Senate seat of Jefferson Davis, the significance was lost on no one.
Unfortunately, the momentum gained by the early 1870s was not to last. Electoral fraud, racism, violence, and the loss of northern will to enforce Reconstruction policies took a heavy toll on the political fortunes of black Americans. Widespread disfranchisement followed in the 1880s and 1890s, and southern lawmakers eventually legalized it through such means as the poll tax and grandfather clause. In Hahn’s view, however, this did not signify an end to black political activities by any means. The freedmen had to change their tactics, but they did not abandon the field entirely to their opponents.
Blacks in the South did not simply bow out of politics meekly when confronted with white paramilitary violence. In some areas they fought back, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. In others, emigration to the west or to Liberia emerged as a potential response to the violence and racism. Political fusion with minority parties such as the Readjusters in Virginia or the Greenbackers was still another viable approach to insuring some measure of political influence.
Interestingly, one of the key insights advanced by Hahn is that he often portrays white violence as a reaction to African American action, whereas most observes tend to see the opposite situation, with blacks responding to the actions of whites. Hahn claims that one reason whites turned to vigilante violence against blacks was that the whites felt threatened by the martial music, parades, and potential voting power of the Union Leagues. Similarly, whites did not attempt to disenfranchise blacks because they might become a political threat at some future time; they did it because they feared the potential of African Americans to influence elections in the present.
With all this great research, why a 3-star rating? After all, the book won a Pulitzer, and those don’t just get handed out for nothing. I guess it was the combination of the length of the book and that I struggled with the readability. So, for me, this book really deserves a split rating. It scores high for the quality of research and the importance of that research. It scores low if you just want a book to read where you’ll enjoy the journey.
From this foundation, Hahn proceeds to describe the ways in which slaves actively shaped the political world of African Americans. Despite the lack of any rights whatsoever during their time in bondage, they were not hapless or helpless in the face of planter authority. Hahn writes “owing to their skills and labor, slaves could exert power and leverage in relations with their owners, giving the lie to claims about absolute authority on the one side and abject submission on the other.” (29-30) This was true both economically and socially, as slaves often left the home plantation in order to visit a spouse or family members on other plantations. When the fire-eaters in South Carolina fired on Fort Sumter in 1861, bringing on the Civil War, slaves grasped another political opportunity, in fact, the ultimate political opportunity. As Union armies captured Confederate territory, plantation discipline broke down and many slaves headed for the Union lines and freedom. It would be a mistake, however, to say that the Union armies liberated the slaves; more accurately, those armies liberated some slaves while many others liberated themselves. The now ex-slaves followed up this triumph in various ways, including enlisting in the Union army and occupying the abandoned estates of their former masters.
After the war was over, and Congress and the states passed the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments in an effort to secure civil rights for the freedmen, black political maneuvering entered a new phase. Hahn exhaustively details the process by which African Americans took to politics with great enthusiasm. They joined the Union Leagues in droves and acquired sundry political offices throughout the former Confederacy. When Hiram Revels, a black man from Mississippi, took the former Senate seat of Jefferson Davis, the significance was lost on no one.
Unfortunately, the momentum gained by the early 1870s was not to last. Electoral fraud, racism, violence, and the loss of northern will to enforce Reconstruction policies took a heavy toll on the political fortunes of black Americans. Widespread disfranchisement followed in the 1880s and 1890s, and southern lawmakers eventually legalized it through such means as the poll tax and grandfather clause. In Hahn’s view, however, this did not signify an end to black political activities by any means. The freedmen had to change their tactics, but they did not abandon the field entirely to their opponents.
Blacks in the South did not simply bow out of politics meekly when confronted with white paramilitary violence. In some areas they fought back, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. In others, emigration to the west or to Liberia emerged as a potential response to the violence and racism. Political fusion with minority parties such as the Readjusters in Virginia or the Greenbackers was still another viable approach to insuring some measure of political influence.
Interestingly, one of the key insights advanced by Hahn is that he often portrays white violence as a reaction to African American action, whereas most observes tend to see the opposite situation, with blacks responding to the actions of whites. Hahn claims that one reason whites turned to vigilante violence against blacks was that the whites felt threatened by the martial music, parades, and potential voting power of the Union Leagues. Similarly, whites did not attempt to disenfranchise blacks because they might become a political threat at some future time; they did it because they feared the potential of African Americans to influence elections in the present.
With all this great research, why a 3-star rating? After all, the book won a Pulitzer, and those don’t just get handed out for nothing. I guess it was the combination of the length of the book and that I struggled with the readability. So, for me, this book really deserves a split rating. It scores high for the quality of research and the importance of that research. It scores low if you just want a book to read where you’ll enjoy the journey.
October 6, 2020
Steven Hahn's book offers a detailed interpretation of African Americans sought to influence and participate in politics from the days of enslavement though the Great Migration of the 1910s, when very large numbers of African Americans moved from the rural reaches of the Deep South to the urban centers of the northern and midwestern states.
Hahn is a Professor of American History at New York University. Rightly recognized as a crucial volume, this book received the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize and the Merle Curti Prize in Social History. In particular, Hahn argues for African Americans as shapers of political discourse and activity, within the confines of slavery and even the post-emancipation period imposed by white wealth, racism, economic power, and frankly a willingness to use murder and other violent means to limit or destroy African American institutions.
Well worth your reading time.
Hahn is a Professor of American History at New York University. Rightly recognized as a crucial volume, this book received the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize and the Merle Curti Prize in Social History. In particular, Hahn argues for African Americans as shapers of political discourse and activity, within the confines of slavery and even the post-emancipation period imposed by white wealth, racism, economic power, and frankly a willingness to use murder and other violent means to limit or destroy African American institutions.
Well worth your reading time.
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