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Feeding The Wolf: John B. Rayner and the Politics of Race, 1850 - 1918
While the story of John B. Rayner is not widely known, this African American educator and Populist leader, the son of a politically powerful white slaveholder from North Carolina, was a political maverick who dared to challenge the Democratic Party and the Post-Civil War South's racial orthodoxy. Indeed, John B. Rayner's story sometimes triumphant, occasionally shameful, mostly tragic has much to tell us about the tumultuous era in which he lived. His early experiences as a local Republican officeholder in the 1870s illustrate many of the contradictory features of Reconstruction. Likewise, his rise to prominence as an orator, organizer, and political strategist for the Texas People's Party in the 1890s illuminates both the promise and disappointment of the agrarian movement and the limits of political inclusion. Finally, Rayner's zigzag course after 1900 depicts the nearly impossible position that a talented, politically active African American found himself in during the age of Jim Crow. Ideal for use as supplementary reading for courses in Southern, Texas, and African American history, Professor Cantrell's compelling study is certain to be enjoyed by history students of all levels.
- GenresHistory
149 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2001
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About the author
Gregg Cantrell
15 books4 followersGregg Cantrell holds the Erma and Ralph Lowe Chair in Texas History at Texas Christian University.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 28, 2017
It was a pretty good novel. Even though I was forced to read it for a class, I would ABSOLUTELY recommend it to those who love historical novels and others who simply would like to learn more about the post-civil war era.
March 8, 2023
As with a lot of books about race relations in America at the time of and after the Civil War, this book is a rather bracing and sobering read. But it says some fairly valuable and needful things that we should pay attention to now, if we want to actually improve things in America for poor people of all races. There are some specific messages which the modern-day left (particularly left anti-war voices) would do well to heed.
John Baptis Rayner was the illegitimate son of a slaveholding white North Carolina planter, Kenneth Rayner, in the year 1850. His mother, 15-year-old Mary Ricks, was at the time Kenneth Rayner’s slave—and a mulatto, herself the product of an exploitative union between white master and black slave. Even though he could pass for white, John B Rayner spent the first thirteen years of his life as his biological father’s property.
There were certain elements of Rayner’s upbringing which were clothed in layers of genteel mendacity. Such occurrences were all too common, as one quickly realises upon reading Frank Tannenbaum’s history Slave and Citizen. Biracial children—mulattos—occurred wherever slavery occurred. However, how they were treated depended a great deal on the cultural context they grew up in. Although the African slave trade and chattel slavery were every bit as brutal and exploitative in Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries as they were in English-speaking countries, attitudes toward freedmen and mulattos were very different. In general, Latin American mestizos were accorded the rights of free men, and their social status was not considered automatically inferior to white men of a similar class—partly on account of residual, humane Catholic sensibilities that had never sat too comfortably alongside the brute fact of slavery and colonial expansion. This was not the case for English-speaking mulattos of slave parentage, who were automatically considered slaves under the law, and who were socially considered inferior to whites.
Such was the case with John B Rayner’s upbringing. His father Kenneth Rayner was dynamic, energetic, well-spoken, well-educated, independent-minded, politically-active and (considering his time, place and social position) fairly humane, albeit possessed of a certain degree of condescending paternalism. These were all traits he passed on to his illegitimate son. Rayner received a high-quality education at his biological father’s behest, grounded in the classics of the Western canon (from which he frequently enjoyed quoting). But despite his clear intellectual and political talents, on account of his mixed-race parentage he was both legally unfree, and barred irrevocably from the upper echelons of Southern society in which his father moved, in which he was considered a ‘white n—r’. And then, after the Civil War and the defeat of the landlord class, Kenneth Rayner packed up and moved his family northward, leaving his former slaves, including his own son, behind without any further social contact, without any compunctions or qualms...
Read the full review here.
John Baptis Rayner was the illegitimate son of a slaveholding white North Carolina planter, Kenneth Rayner, in the year 1850. His mother, 15-year-old Mary Ricks, was at the time Kenneth Rayner’s slave—and a mulatto, herself the product of an exploitative union between white master and black slave. Even though he could pass for white, John B Rayner spent the first thirteen years of his life as his biological father’s property.
There were certain elements of Rayner’s upbringing which were clothed in layers of genteel mendacity. Such occurrences were all too common, as one quickly realises upon reading Frank Tannenbaum’s history Slave and Citizen. Biracial children—mulattos—occurred wherever slavery occurred. However, how they were treated depended a great deal on the cultural context they grew up in. Although the African slave trade and chattel slavery were every bit as brutal and exploitative in Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries as they were in English-speaking countries, attitudes toward freedmen and mulattos were very different. In general, Latin American mestizos were accorded the rights of free men, and their social status was not considered automatically inferior to white men of a similar class—partly on account of residual, humane Catholic sensibilities that had never sat too comfortably alongside the brute fact of slavery and colonial expansion. This was not the case for English-speaking mulattos of slave parentage, who were automatically considered slaves under the law, and who were socially considered inferior to whites.
Such was the case with John B Rayner’s upbringing. His father Kenneth Rayner was dynamic, energetic, well-spoken, well-educated, independent-minded, politically-active and (considering his time, place and social position) fairly humane, albeit possessed of a certain degree of condescending paternalism. These were all traits he passed on to his illegitimate son. Rayner received a high-quality education at his biological father’s behest, grounded in the classics of the Western canon (from which he frequently enjoyed quoting). But despite his clear intellectual and political talents, on account of his mixed-race parentage he was both legally unfree, and barred irrevocably from the upper echelons of Southern society in which his father moved, in which he was considered a ‘white n—r’. And then, after the Civil War and the defeat of the landlord class, Kenneth Rayner packed up and moved his family northward, leaving his former slaves, including his own son, behind without any further social contact, without any compunctions or qualms...
Read the full review here.
March 31, 2021
Didn't necessarily like it, but learned a lot. Anyone interested in post-Reconstruction Texas and the Populist movement will find this fascinating. The historiography and research involved in this biography is admirable, too.
January 22, 2024
A look at an influential figure in Texas who is often forgotten! I enjoyed reading about Rayner and political movements in the latter 19th century Texas. Might be worth a read for anyone interested in historical Texas politics.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews