The Countryside Transformed: The Eastern Shore of Virginia, the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the Creation of a Modern Landscape |
| William G. Thomas III, University of Nebraska
Brooks Miles Barnes, Eastern Shore Public Library Tom Szuba, University of Virginia |
Essay Sections:
Introduction | On
The Edge of Modernity | The Railroad and the Modern
Landscape | The Railroad's Direct and Indirect Effects
| Nature's Limits | Conclusion
| Notes | Recommended Resources
The Railroad's Direct and Indirect Effects:
 |
Chapter Sections:
|
Race, Wealth, and Labor:
Despite the widely-shared prosperity, segregation developed
on the Eastern Shore in the same way it did across much of the South and
with the same restrictive effects. Separate schools were constitutionally
mandated and separate churches the norm. In the towns, blacks lived in
separate neighborhoods. In the countryside, white and black residences
might be interspersed or in discrete settlements. Segregation by custom
on local public transportation preceded the railroad. In 1882 the Eastern
Shore Steamboat Company's new steamer "The Eastern Shore" was
constructed with a 38-cylinder, 9-foot stroke engine and a hold capacity
of 3,000 barrels of potatoes. It also featured spacious staterooms and
cabins, "fitted up separately" by race and gender. In contrast,
the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad ran racially-mixed cars
for a well-attended excursion to a circus at Pocomoke City in 1885. Not
for another twenty years would Virginia require separate railroad coaches.
The commonwealth effectively disenfranchised its black voters in 1902,
smothering decades of intense political activism and engagement. On the
Eastern Shore, as in other places of well-organized black political activity,
some African Americans persisted in registering and voting, but their
numbers were greatly reduced. In black-majority Northampton County only
about a quarter of adult black males managed to hurdle the "understanding
clause" and register. When an aspiring black voter was asked by the
registrar the meaning of a section of the constitution, he replied, "It
means the Negro is done voting." 59
Eastern Shore blacks made less money than whites, were more likely to be day laborers, lived in poorer housing, possessed fewer amenities, were less well educated, and were less mobile. Nevertheless, Eastern Shore blacks enjoyed a higher standard of living, were more likely to have their ballots honestly counted, and suffered less from legal and extra-legal violence than their counterparts in many other Southern locales. Race relations in the South varied from region to region, state to state, county to county, doorstep to doorstep. For example, Somerset County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland was economically and demographically similar to Accomack on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, but blacks in Somerset were far more likely to be lynched or executed. From the end of the Civil War through 1935, only one black was lynched and two legally executed in Accomack (and two of the three incidents occurred before 1871). Meanwhile, in adjoining Somerset at least three were lynched and ten legally executed. Moreover, in 1906 the white sheriff and posse of Northampton County stood down a mob that had come by train from Somerset intent on lynching a young black man accused of raping a white woman in that county.60
African-American migration onto the Eastern Shore picked up pace after the arrival of the railroad with job opportunities opening in its wake. Black population increased nearly as rapidly as white in Accomack and Northampton. Black people migrating to the Eastern Shore appear to have arrived in family groups (just as did white newcomers). They were drawn to the peninsula by abundant jobs at good wages. The black community’s relative prosperity found tangible expression in the construction of numerous houses, churches, schools, businesses, lodge halls, and a bank.61
Although Virginia led the nation in the number and percentage of black landowner farmers, on the Eastern Shore the rates of black farm owners were well below the state average. Blacks were more likely to be agricultural laborers than tenant farmers, more likely to be tenants than landowners. In 1925, blacks owned 169 farms in each of the two counties ― 15.6 percent of the farms in Northampton but only 5.2 percent of those in Accomack. Whites, if less likely to be laborers than farmers, were as likely to be tenants as owners. In 1925, 59.8 percent of the farms in Accomack and 45.7 percent in Northampton were operated by tenants. Because crops brought consistently high prices, Eastern Shore tenants preferred share to cash rental. No matter how they paid the rent, the booming agricultural economy brought them good returns for their labor. Most Eastern Shore farmers, black or white, were small operators as likely to know well the backside of a mule as the laborers, black or white, whom they employed. At the harvest, everyone, irrespective of race, gender, or age gathered the potatoes from the fields.62
In the fisheries, blacks worked as hands on oyster dredgeboats (skippers were overwhelmingly white), as independent watermen (oyster planters were white), and as shuckers and pickers in the seafood houses (seafood dealers were white). Whites also worked as dredger hands, independent watermen, and shuckers and pickers. Some workplace segregation was apparent. Oyster houses employed either black shuckers or white. The reputed world’s largest oyster house on Folly Creek probably employed black shuckers while the houses on Chincoteague employed white. Black shuckers came from Delaware, Maryland, and North Carolina for the good wages on the Eastern Shore. Some oyster grounds were racially exclusive as the place name Tar Bay implies. In the lumber industry, both blacks and whites worked as timber cutters, cartmen, and sawmill hands. The crew chiefs usually were white and the lumber dealers exclusively so.63
Nearly every business and farm on the Eastern Shore needed good labor and African Americans took advantage of the opportunities around them. When white landholders organized to recruit immigrant workers in New York City, local blacks organized to counteract it with pressure of their own. The white landowners admitted that they could neither recruit enough immigrants to change the labor market nor could they always compete with the seafood industries where "at certain seasons of the year . . . larger wages are given them [African-American workers] at the fish factories and in the oyster business than they [white landowners] can afford to pay." Thus, the Eastern Shore's mixed and booming economy gave laborers, black and white, leverage in their quest for better wages.64
The economic mobility and opportunity African Americans enjoyed on the Shore also came alongside rising political expectations and opportunities. In the 1880s Virginia Senator William Mahone made the "Readjuster" movement into a biracial political coalition aimed at defeating the Conservative Democratic Party and its blend of white supremacy and elite class protection. Mahone's brand of Readjuster politics was especially attractive to the Eastern Shore's black voters. White Democrats there took notice, and they conveniently mistook the booming labor market for its political effects. Because of Mahonism, they sneered, "the negro seems to be above labor on the farm."65
Eastern Shore blacks made less money than whites, were more likely to be day laborers, lived in poorer housing, possessed fewer amenities, were less well educated, and were less mobile. Nevertheless, Eastern Shore blacks enjoyed a higher standard of living, were more likely to have their ballots honestly counted, and suffered less from legal and extra-legal violence than their counterparts in many other Southern locales. Race relations in the South varied from region to region, state to state, county to county, doorstep to doorstep. For example, Somerset County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland was economically and demographically similar to Accomack on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, but blacks in Somerset were far more likely to be lynched or executed. From the end of the Civil War through 1935, only one black was lynched and two legally executed in Accomack (and two of the three incidents occurred before 1871). Meanwhile, in adjoining Somerset at least three were lynched and ten legally executed. Moreover, in 1906 the white sheriff and posse of Northampton County stood down a mob that had come by train from Somerset intent on lynching a young black man accused of raping a white woman in that county.60
African-American migration onto the Eastern Shore picked up pace after the arrival of the railroad with job opportunities opening in its wake. Black population increased nearly as rapidly as white in Accomack and Northampton. Black people migrating to the Eastern Shore appear to have arrived in family groups (just as did white newcomers). They were drawn to the peninsula by abundant jobs at good wages. The black community’s relative prosperity found tangible expression in the construction of numerous houses, churches, schools, businesses, lodge halls, and a bank.61
 |
Although Virginia led the nation in the number and percentage of black landowner farmers, on the Eastern Shore the rates of black farm owners were well below the state average. Blacks were more likely to be agricultural laborers than tenant farmers, more likely to be tenants than landowners. In 1925, blacks owned 169 farms in each of the two counties ― 15.6 percent of the farms in Northampton but only 5.2 percent of those in Accomack. Whites, if less likely to be laborers than farmers, were as likely to be tenants as owners. In 1925, 59.8 percent of the farms in Accomack and 45.7 percent in Northampton were operated by tenants. Because crops brought consistently high prices, Eastern Shore tenants preferred share to cash rental. No matter how they paid the rent, the booming agricultural economy brought them good returns for their labor. Most Eastern Shore farmers, black or white, were small operators as likely to know well the backside of a mule as the laborers, black or white, whom they employed. At the harvest, everyone, irrespective of race, gender, or age gathered the potatoes from the fields.62
In the fisheries, blacks worked as hands on oyster dredgeboats (skippers were overwhelmingly white), as independent watermen (oyster planters were white), and as shuckers and pickers in the seafood houses (seafood dealers were white). Whites also worked as dredger hands, independent watermen, and shuckers and pickers. Some workplace segregation was apparent. Oyster houses employed either black shuckers or white. The reputed world’s largest oyster house on Folly Creek probably employed black shuckers while the houses on Chincoteague employed white. Black shuckers came from Delaware, Maryland, and North Carolina for the good wages on the Eastern Shore. Some oyster grounds were racially exclusive as the place name Tar Bay implies. In the lumber industry, both blacks and whites worked as timber cutters, cartmen, and sawmill hands. The crew chiefs usually were white and the lumber dealers exclusively so.63
Nearly every business and farm on the Eastern Shore needed good labor and African Americans took advantage of the opportunities around them. When white landholders organized to recruit immigrant workers in New York City, local blacks organized to counteract it with pressure of their own. The white landowners admitted that they could neither recruit enough immigrants to change the labor market nor could they always compete with the seafood industries where "at certain seasons of the year . . . larger wages are given them [African-American workers] at the fish factories and in the oyster business than they [white landowners] can afford to pay." Thus, the Eastern Shore's mixed and booming economy gave laborers, black and white, leverage in their quest for better wages.64
The economic mobility and opportunity African Americans enjoyed on the Shore also came alongside rising political expectations and opportunities. In the 1880s Virginia Senator William Mahone made the "Readjuster" movement into a biracial political coalition aimed at defeating the Conservative Democratic Party and its blend of white supremacy and elite class protection. Mahone's brand of Readjuster politics was especially attractive to the Eastern Shore's black voters. White Democrats there took notice, and they conveniently mistook the booming labor market for its political effects. Because of Mahonism, they sneered, "the negro seems to be above labor on the farm."65
Essay Sections:
Introduction | On
The Edge of Modernity | The Railroad and the Modern
Landscape | The Railroad's Direct and Indirect Effects
| Nature's Limits | Conclusion
| Notes | Recommended Resources
Published: 31 July 2007
© 2007 William G. Thomas III, Brooks Miles Barnes, Tom Szuba and Southern Spaces
© 2007 William G. Thomas III, Brooks Miles Barnes, Tom Szuba and Southern Spaces
