Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Stamped from the Beginning, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Discrimination, Racist Ideas, and Ignorance
Segregationists and Assimilationists vs. Antiracists
Media, Institutions, and the Transmission of Knowledge
The Invention of Blackness and Whiteness
The Illogic of Racism
Summary
Analysis
Following Lincoln’s assassination, Andrew Johnson assumes the presidency and introduces sweeping conciliatory measures to Confederate leaders. Crucially, the Thirteenth Amendment outlaws slavery “except as punishment for a crime,” and it is via this caveat that the postwar South comes to strikingly resemble the South of the antebellum period. The oppressive “Black Codes” are introduced, purportedly to solve the problem of Black people’s apparent vices. In reality, of course, these “vices” are nothing more than racist fictions. The formerly enslaved are quick to illuminating the absurd hypocrisy of these fictions, pointing out that if anyone can be accused of laziness and incapability of independence, it is white enslavers.
The caveat in the abolition of slavery—which outlaws slavery “except as punishment for a crime”—is one of the most important piece of legislation in American history. It is the reason why Black people have been subjected to enhanced surveillance, criminalization, and incarceration from 1865 to the present. It indicates that the abolition of slavery is not a true historical break so much as a pivot during which the nature of slavery and anti-Blackness takes on a new form.
Themes
In 1865, Thaddeus Stevens suggests that land from the wealthiest 10% of Southerners is taken and redistributed to the formerly enslaved, so that each would get 40 acres. The rest of the land would be auctioned to pay for the cost of war. Ultimately, this plan is not enforced; the only people whose land is seized are the Native Americans who allied with the Confederacy. Opponents of land redistribution claim that giving Black people land will have a corrupting effect—they need to work for it. Garrison, meanwhile, focuses on the importance of assimilation for Black people in the North. Once the Thirteenth Amendment is officially added to the Constitution, The Liberator shuts down. Without it and the project of abolition to fight for, Garrison is somewhat aimless.
Kendi implies that Thaddeus Stevens’ proposal, despite being moderate and stopping short of true economic justice, could have had a transformative impact on lives for the formerly enslaved. Moreover, taking some of the land of the richest 10% of Southerners would have diminished the stark hierarchies that exist in the South between rich and poor (including both poor white people and the formerly enslaved).
Themes
In 1866, Douglass attempts to persuade Andrew Johnson to grant Black people voting rights, but Johnson is resistant. He argues that Black people look down on poor white people and thus would vote against them even if it meant aligning with wealthy white planters. Douglass denies it, but there is truth in this statement. Some claim the term “white trash” was invented by enslaved people, although there is no solid evidence for this. In any case, idea of “white trash” underlines the false belief that most white people are wealthy, powerful, and elite by making poor white people seem like the exception, rather than the majority.
This passage elaborates on how race creates divisions between people who would otherwise have shared economic and political interests. While the lives of formerly enslaved people differ in many ways from those of poor white workers, there are also similarities, particularly when it comes to the source of the injustices and exploitation they face (wealthy white planters). Yet white racism prevents solidarity from existing between the two.
Themes
President Johnson attempts to veto the Freedmen’s Bureau bill in February 1866, claiming that it will make Black people lazy. Members of Johnson’s Democratic Party claim that if Black people are allowed the vote, this will lead to “nigger domination.” Congress overrides Johnson’s veto in April. During this time, an epidemic of brutal racist violence takes over the South, including a horrific riot in Memphis. While uplift continues taking place among the Black elite in the North, this does not deescalate racist violence nor racism in general. Meanwhile, Congresses votes to pass the notoriously vague Fourteenth Amendment, which could be used to bolster either antiracist or racist policies.
In this passage, Kendi recounts some of the most egregious and ludicrous racist ideas shared during this historical period. The notion that the formerly enslaved—who have been forced to work without pay for their entire lives until this point—are “lazy” is, of course, deeply insulting and absurd. Moreover, the idea that granting Black people basic rights such as the right to vote would lead to Black “domination” shows how warped and nonsensical racist thinking truly is.
Themes
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This same year, white women suffragists join their Black male peers in founding the American Equal Rights Association to campaign for the extension of voting rights. Throughout the 1860s, dozens of Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are founded across the country. While the purpose of these institutions to provide a high-quality learning environment for Black students, many who run them believe that it is best that they employ white teachers. Moreover, liberal arts HBCUs often refuse to accept darker-skinned applicants, a phenomenon that reflects a growing wave of colorism across the country.
The issue of colorism has been a part of American history since the nation’s founding. Under slavery, light-skinned enslaved people were often granted comparative “privileges,” such as working in the house rather than engaging in brutal labor in the fields. Now that slavery has been abolished, it is light-skinned Black people who are granted access to the elite, assimilationist institutions that arise during this period.
Themes
In 1867 and 1868, Congress passes four Reconstruction Acts that set out stipulations for Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union. In an address to Congress, President Johnson warns about “tyranny” if Black men are given voting rights. In 1865, the Ku Klux Klan is founded as a social club in Tennessee; it quickly becomes a terror group, assassinating Republicans and forcibly stopping Black people from voting. Nonetheless, millions of Black men do cast a ballot in the 1868 presidential election, mostly for the Republican war hero Ulysses S. Grant. Yet many within the Republican Party itself express revulsion about the idea of Black people voting. Meanwhile, a number of white women suffragists spout racist objections to the fact that Black men have been granted the vote before they have.
The 1868 presidential election illuminates an important political hypocrisy. Black men use their new voting rights to help elect Ulysses S. Grant, yet many members of Grant’s own Republican Party oppose Black enfranchisement—despite the fact that it gives them greater political power.
Themes
At its 1869 convention, the National Labor Union welcomes Black people, asserting that the organization “knew neither color nor sex on the question of the rights of labor.” This color- and gender-blind approach may not be ideal, but it is something. In 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment, which extends voting rights to Black men, is ratified despite fervent opposition from Democrats, who call it a “nigger superiority bill.” Celebrations take place among Black communities across the country.
The period immediately following the Civil War, known as Reconstruction, is one of the most important challenges to the idea of linear progress in American history. During this period, Black people have some rights and opportunities—such as the right to vote for Black men—that, despite stopping far short of justice, are more substantial than what will be in place for decades to come.
Themes
