Podcast appearances and mentions of keri leigh merritt

In this episode, we conclude our series on Lillian Smith and Religion, examining the intersections of religion, race, class, gender, and sexuality. We are joined by Rev. Dr. Benjamin Boswell, pastor of Myers Park Baptist Church, Rev. John Harrison, pastor of Nacoochee Presbyterian Church, Dr. Jennifer Morrison, Assistant Professor of English at Xavier University Louisiana, Dr. Keri Leigh Merritt, and Rev. Annanda Barclay, co-host of the podcast Moral Repair: A Black Exploration of Tech. We spoke about how Lillian Smith's work, for all of the "sorrowful story" that she relates, provides us with hope for the future. To learn more about Lillian Smith and our work at the LES Center, visit us at https://https://www.piedmont.edu/lillian-e-smith-center/

This is the part two in a five-part series examining Lillian Smith's thoughts on religion in relation to issues of race, class, and gender. We are joined by Dr. Keri Leigh Merritt, Rev. Dr. Benjamin Boswell, pastor of Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Rev. John Harrison, pastor of Nacoochee Presbyterian Church in Sautee Nacoochee, Georgia. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Merritt, Rev. Dr. Boswell and Rev. Harrison about Lillian Smith's essay "Two Men and a Bargain" and Dr. Merritt's essay "The Southern Gap: Capitalism and Underdevelopment in the American South" You can find Dr. Merritt's essay here: https://aeon.co/essays/capitalism-and-underdevelopment-in-the-american-south

THIS IS AN UNLOCKED BONUS EPISODE. To get access to all bonus episodes and support the show sign up at patreon.com/leftreckoning The relationship between capitalism, slavery, and democracy in the South is complex. Slavery was a form of unfree labor that prevented labor power and competition, which hindered the development of a capitalist system. The failure of Reconstruction after the Civil War and the subsequent rise of Jim Crow laws further entrenched the power of the ruling class in the South and suppressed the political and economic power of Black people and poor whites. To address the challenges in the South, a new reconstruction is needed, one that focuses on grassroots activism, community support, and addressing the systemic issues that have perpetuated inequality and underdevelopment. Historian Keri Leigh Merritt (@KeriLeighMerrit) joins us to discuss her recent piece in Aeon Magazine on underdevelopment in the American South from plantation slavery to today. https://aeon.co/essays/capitalism-and-underdevelopment-in-the-american-south 00:00 Introduction and Overview 00:53 The Underdevelopment of the South 05:09 Capitalism, Slavery, and Democracy 09:13 The Failure of Reconstruction and the Rise of Jim Crow 15:01 The Impact of Federal Programs 25:53 The Fight over the New History of Capitalism 28:36 Conclusion and Call to Action

Jodi Dean talks about being suspended from teaching at Hobart and William Smith Colleges for writing an article the administration didn't like. Keri Leigh Merritt, who recently wrote an essay for Aeon, discusses the lingering effects of antebellum Southern society. Finally, we hear excerpts from an interview first broadcast in June 2023 with Samuel Bazzi, co-author of a paper about the postbellum South, on the effects of white migration out of the region.Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Behind the News, 4/25/24 - guests: Jodi Dean on her cancellation, Keri Leigh Merritt on the backward social structure of the South, Sam Bazzi on the Confederate diaspora - Doug Henwood

Jodi Dean talks about being suspended from teaching at Hobart and William Smith Colleges for writing an article the administration didn't like • Keri Leigh Merritt on the lingering effects of antebellum Southern society (article here) • excerpts from an interview first broadcast in June 2023 with Samuel Bazzi, co-author of this paper, on the effects of the white migration out of the South after the Civil War on the recipient areas The post Professor silenced for controversial article, the lingering effects of antebellum Southern society appeared first on KPFA.

Keri Leigh Merritt returns to discuss her Aeon article, "The southern gap: In the American South, an oligarchy of planters enriched itself through slavery. Pervasive underdevelopment is their legacy." "Rotten History" follows the interview. Check out Keri's article here: https://aeon.co/essays/capitalism-and-underdevelopment-in-the-american-south Help keep This Is Hell! completely listener supported and access weekly bonus episodes by subscribing to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishell

This episode is a recording of "Celebrating Lillian E. Smith," an event that took place on March 20, 2024, at the Mason-Scharfenstein Museum of Art at Piedmont University. LES Center director Dr. Matthew Teutsch led a panel discussion on Smith's legacy and importance with Rev. Dr. Benjamin Boswell, Dr. Keri Leigh Merritt, and Dr. Jennifer Morrison. They engaged in a wide-ranging conversation about Smith's work, her pedagogy, and her role within the Civil Rights Movement.

Drs. Keri Leigh Merritt and Yohuru Williams discuss important research and reflection about what happened in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. The book's authors document and analyze the effects of the pandemic in ways inspired by the writers who documented American life during the Great Depression. Perhaps most importantly, they discuss how this lengthy tragedy provides the United States with an opportunity to rebuild its society. Episode 507.

In this episode, we discuss the LES Center's upcoming P-12 institute "The Civil Rights Movement and the Nine-Word Problem." This is an institute open for regional (Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina) educators to participate in a week-long program (June 12-16, 2023) at the LES Center with facilitators Dr. Rev. Benjamin Boswell, Dr. Keri Leigh Merritt, and Dr. Jennifer Morrison. Participants in the institute receive a $200 stipend and professional development hours. Applications are due May 1, 2023, and you can learn more about applying at www.lesp12.com. The second part of this episode highlights some of the records we found at the LES Center. We are in the process, thank to a Council of Libraries and Information Resources grant, of digitizing these recordings and creating tools for educators and scholars to access them and use them in the classroom. The recordings are from Laurel Falls Camp for Girls all the way to the 1960s.

Tuesday, March 14th 2023, historian Keri Leigh Merritt returns to This is Hell! is co-editor of the collection, "After Life: A Collective History of Loss and Redemption in Pandemic America." This episode also features this week in Rotten History and new responses to the Question from Hell! Keri Leigh was a guest on the show back in 2017 to discuss a book that was selected as one of our listeners favorites of the year, "Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South." Keri Leigh Merritt is a historian, editor and an independent scholar. She earned her B.A. from Emory University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. Her first book, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South (Cambridge University Press, 2017), won both the Bennett Wall Award from the Southern Historical Association, honoring the best book in Southern economic or business history published in the previous two years, as well as the President's Book Award from the Social Science History Association. Merritt is also co-editor, with Matthew Hild, of Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power (University Press of Florida, 2018), which won the 2019 Best Book Award from the UALE (United Association for Labor Education). She is currently working on two book-length projects for trade presses. Merritt also writes for the public, and has had letters and essays published in a variety of outlets. Most recently she released a self-narrated audiobook version of Masterless Men, and launched her history-based YouTube Channel “Merrittocracy.”

In this episode, historian Keri Leigh Merritt explores how a pandemic exacerbated simmering inequalities in American society to produce mass death at an unprecedented scale. The book she co-edited with Rhae Lynn Barnes and Yohuru Williams, "After Life: A Collective History of Loss and Redemption in Pandemic America," is a collection of essays where authors explore the damage that grief and fear had on our collective psyche. We discussed the impact that politics, race and class  had on who died and on who was left behind.Keri Leigh's website can be found at https://kerileighmerritt.com/More information about "After Life" can be found at https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1927-after-lifeSupport our show at https://patreon.com/axelbankhistory**A portion of every contribution is given to a charity for children's literacy** "Axelbank Reports History and Today" can be found on social media at https://twitter.com/axelbankhistory https://instagram.com/axelbankhistoryhttps://facebook.com/axelbankhistory

Join us for a discussion on the collective history of the experience of COVID-19, mass uprisings for racial justice, and more. Join Rhae Lynn Barnes, Keri Leigh Merritt, Yohuru Williams and Heather Ann Thompson as they discuss their the new book After Life: A Collective History of Loss and Redemption in Pandemic America. They will share their thoughts on the collective history of how Americans experienced, navigated, commemorated, and ignored mass death and loss during the global COVID-19 pandemic, mass uprisings for racial justice, and the near presidential coup in 2021 following the 2020 election. Get After Life from Haymarket: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1927-after-life Speakers: Rhae Lynn Barnes is an Assistant Professor at Princeton University and the Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. She was the 2020 President of the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography. Barnes is the author of the forthcoming book Darkology: When the American Dream Wore Blackface. Keri Leigh Merritt is a historian, writer, and activist based in Atlanta, Georgia. She is the author of Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South, and the co-editor of Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power. Yohuru Williams is Distinguished University Chair and Professor of History, and founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. He is the author of Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights Black Power and Black Panthers in New Haven, and Teaching Beyond the Textbook: Six Investigative Strategies, and, co-author with Bryan Shih of The Black Panthers: Portrait of an Unfinished Revolution. Heather Ann Thompson is a historian and the Pulitzer Prize and Bancroft Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water: the Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy, as well as a public intellectual who writes for such publications as The New York Times, The New Yorker, TIME, and The Nation. Thompson has received research fellowships from such institutions as Harvard University, Art for Justice, Cambridge University, and the Guggenheim, and her justice advocacy work has also been recognized with a number of distinguished awards. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/4i6x8KDkirc Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

Keri Leigh Merritt is a historian, writer, and activist based in Atlanta, Georgia. She is the author of Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South, and the co-editor of Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power. After Life is a collective history of how Americans experienced, navigated, commemorated, and ignored mass death and loss during the global COVID-19 pandemic, mass uprisings for racial justice, and the near presidential coup in 2021 following the 2020 election. Inspired by the writers who documented American life during the Great Depression and World War II for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the editors asked twenty-first-century historians and legal experts to focus on the parallels, convergences, and differences between the exceptional "long 2020", while it unfolds, and earlier eras in U.S. History.

Original Air Date 8/21/2021 Today we take a look at the history of bipartisanship and appeasement in the US dating back to before the Civil War and tracking it all the way up to the current negotiations over the infrastructure bill. Be part of the show! Leave us a message at 202-999-3991 or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com  Transcript BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Get AD FREE Shows & Bonus Content) SHOW NOTES Ch. 1: The Unnatural Endurance of Bipartisanship Part 1 - The Politics of Everything - Air Date 3-4-21 Joe Biden ran for president promising to “revive” the spirit of bipartisanship, put an end to factional battles, and bring Americans together after an era of painful division. Ch. 2: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren - The New Yorker: Politics and More - Air Date 10-19-20 Biden often speaks about bipartisanship as a cherished value that he would restore to Washington, but Ocasio-Cortez is dubious. Ch. 3: The Unnatural Endurance of Bipartisanship Part 2 - The Politics of Everything - Air Date 3-4-21 Ch. 4: Exhaustion of Bipartisanship - In The Thick - Air Date 6-25-21 Maria and Julio discuss remarks from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the 38th annual NALEO Conference, and they get into the vice president's visit to El Paso and the US-Mexico border. Ch. 5: Behind the Infrastructure of the Infrastructure Bill & The Real American Oligarchy - The Majority Report with Sam Seder - Air Date 7-23-21 Sam and Emma host Ari Rabin-Havt, the former Legislative Director and Chief Policy Advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders, to discuss the prospects of the Senate bipartisan infrastructure bill. Ch. 6: Manchin Capitol Riots Made Me MORE Bipartisan - The Young Turks - Air Date 4-9-21 In a recent interview, Senator Joe Manchin claimed that the Capitol Riots changed him, and made him double down on bipartisanship. Ch. 7: Why Appeasement Won't Work This Time Around - On the Media - Air Date 1-8-21 White southerners called it “redemption.” To Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, founder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum, it was a catastrophe of appeasement and an object lesson in the politics of reconciliation. Ch. 8: Keri Leigh Merritt on the New Lost Cause - CounterSpin - Air Date 1-15-21 Historians are shaking their heads as media talk about January 6 as "unprecedented"; while shocking and dispiriting, it has layers and layers of precedent that need to be learned and engaged, if we are ever to actually have a racial reckoning. MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S) Ch. 9: Frances Lee on why bipartisanship is irrational - Vox Conversations - Air Date 1-21-19 For most of American history, American politics has been under one-party rule. For decades, that party was the Republican Party. Then, for decades more, it was the Democratic Party. Ch. 10: What a More Responsible Republican Party Would Look Like - The Ezra Klein Show - Air Date 3-2-21 This is the modern G.O.P.: a post-policy party obsessed with symbolic fights and curiously uninterested in the actual work of governing. But does it have to be that way? FINAL COMMENTS Ch. 11: Final comments on the merits of taking liars at face value MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions): Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr  Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent Activism Music: This Fickle World by Theo Bard (https://theobard.bandcamp.com/track/this-fickle-world) Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent   Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Listen Anywhere! BestOfTheLeft.com/Listen Listen Anywhere! Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com

Analyzing land policy, labor, and legal history, Keri Leigh Merritt reveals what happens to excess workers when a capitalist system is predicated on slave labor. With the rising global demand for cotton and thus, slaves in the 1840s and 1850s, the need for white laborers in the American South was drastically reduced, creating a large underclass who were unemployed or underemployed. These poor whites could not compete for jobs or living wages with profitable slave labor. Though impoverished whites were never subjected to the daily violence and degrading humiliations of racial slavery, they did suffer tangible socio economic consequences as a result of living in a slave society. Merritt examines how these 'masterless' men and women threatened the existing Southern hierarchy and ultimately helped push Southern slaveholders toward secession and civil war.***Winner of the 2018 Bennett H. Wall Award, from the Southern Historical Association, for the best book published in the previous two years on southern business or economic history. ***Winner of the 2018 President's Book Award, from the Social Science History Association, awarded annually to a first work by an early career scholar.

Analyzing land policy, labor, and legal history, Keri Leigh Merritt reveals what happens to excess workers when a capitalist system is predicated on slave labor. With the rising global demand for cotton and thus, slaves in the 1840s and 1850s, the need for white laborers in the American South was drastically reduced, creating a large underclass who were unemployed or underemployed. These poor whites could not compete for jobs or living wages with profitable slave labor. Though impoverished whites were never subjected to the daily violence and degrading humiliations of racial slavery, they did suffer tangible socio economic consequences as a result of living in a slave society. Merritt examines how these 'masterless' men and women threatened the existing Southern hierarchy and ultimately helped push Southern slaveholders toward secession and civil war.***Winner of the 2018 Bennett H. Wall Award, from the Southern Historical Association, for the best book published in the previous two years on southern business or economic history. ***Winner of the 2018 President's Book Award, from the Social Science History Association, awarded annually to a first work by an early career scholar.

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Keri Leigh Merritt. She is a historian who focuses on issues of equality and poverty in America. Her book, "Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery is the Antebellum South" won the 2018 Bennett H. Wall Award from the Southern Historical Association. Along with Dr. Matthew Hild, she edited "Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power" the 2019 Best Book Awards winner from the United Association for Labor Education. She hosts the podcast Merrittocracy, and she is currently working on a Civil War documentary and a project on Lillian Smith. We speak with her about history, class, race, and Lillian Smith.

Background reading:https://www.mississippifreepress.org/tag/raceDonate: The Mississippi Free Press is a nonprofit news organization. Donations from our readers and subscribers make it possible to do this important work.Donate at https://mfp.ms/donate

Air Date 8/21/2021 Today we take a look at the history of bipartisanship and appeasement in the US dating back to before the Civil War and tracking it all the way up to the current negotiations over the infrastructure bill.  Be part of the show! Leave us a message at 202-999-3991 or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com  Transcript BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Get AD FREE Shows & Bonus Content) BestOfTheLeft.com/Refer Sign up, share widely, get rewards. It's that easy! OUR AFFILIATE LINKS: BestOfTheLeft.com/Descript CHECK OUT OUR FANCY PRODUCTION SOFTWARE! BestOfTheLeft.com/Advertise Sponsor the show! SHOW NOTES Ch. 1: The Unnatural Endurance of Bipartisanship Part 1 - The Politics of Everything - Air Date 3-4-21 Joe Biden ran for president promising to “revive” the spirit of bipartisanship, put an end to factional battles, and bring Americans together after an era of painful division. Ch. 2: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren - The New Yorker: Politics and More - Air Date 10-19-20 Biden often speaks about bipartisanship as a cherished value that he would restore to Washington, but Ocasio-Cortez is dubious. Ch. 3: The Unnatural Endurance of Bipartisanship Part 2 - The Politics of Everything - Air Date 3-4-21 Ch. 4: Exhaustion of Bipartisanship - In The Thick - Air Date 6-25-21 Maria and Julio discuss remarks from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the 38th annual NALEO Conference, and they get into the vice president's visit to El Paso and the US-Mexico border. Ch. 5: Behind the Infrastructure of the Infrastructure Bill & The Real American Oligarchy - The Majority Report with Sam Seder - Air Date 7-23-21 Sam and Emma host Ari Rabin-Havt, the former Legislative Director and Chief Policy Advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders, to discuss the prospects of the Senate bipartisan infrastructure bill. Ch. 6: Manchin Capitol Riots Made Me MORE Bipartisan - The Young Turks - Air Date 4-9-21 In a recent interview, Senator Joe Manchin claimed that the Capitol Riots changed him, and made him double down on bipartisanship. Ch. 7: Why Appeasement Won't Work This Time Around - On the Media - Air Date 1-8-21 White southerners called it “redemption.” To Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, founder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum, it was a catastrophe of appeasement and an object lesson in the politics of reconciliation. Ch. 8: Keri Leigh Merritt on the New Lost Cause - CounterSpin - Air Date 1-15-21 Historians are shaking their heads as media talk about January 6 as "unprecedented"; while shocking and dispiriting, it has layers and layers of precedent that need to be learned and engaged, if we are ever to actually have a racial reckoning. MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S) Ch. 9: Frances Lee on why bipartisanship is irrational - Vox Conversations - Air Date 1-21-19 For most of American history, American politics has been under one-party rule. For decades, that party was the Republican Party. Then, for decades more, it was the Democratic Party. Ch. 10: What a More Responsible Republican Party Would Look Like - The Ezra Klein Show - Air Date 3-2-21 This is the modern G.O.P.: a post-policy party obsessed with symbolic fights and curiously uninterested in the actual work of governing. But does it have to be that way? FINAL COMMENTS Ch. 11: Final comments on the merits of taking liars at face value MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions): Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr  Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent Activism Music: This Fickle World by Theo Bard (https://theobard.bandcamp.com/track/this-fickle-world) Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent   Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Listen Anywhere! BestOfTheLeft.com/Listen Listen Anywhere! Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com

Dr. Keri Leigh Merritt joins us again to talk about her book, Reconsidering Southern Labour: Race, Class, and Power. We touch on the rise of policing as a way of controlling the newly freed Black population and the way that labour was at times complicit and at times a source of liberation, but almost always in conflict with the state. https://upf.com/book.asp?id=9780813056975

DL talks to Keri Leigh Merritt a historian, writer, and activist. Her first book, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South (Cambridge University Press, 2017), won both the Bennett Wall Award from the Southern Historical Association, honoring the best book in Southern economic or business history published in the previous two years, as well as the President’s Book Award from the Social Science History Association.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join author-activists Dr. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall and Dr. Keri Leigh Merritt for a conversation about radical, antiracist movements. ———————————————— From the early Abolitionist struggle to the Black Lives Matter movement of today, white people have faced a critical choice: to stand in solidarity with those resisting slavery, Jim Crow, and racism or consent to the brutal realities of white supremacy. As the veteran Civil Rights organizer Anne Braden noted in 1958, "No white person, then as now, can be neutral on this question . . . There was no middle ground." Join author-activists Dr. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall and Dr. Keri Leigh Merritt for an insightful conversation about the history and traditions of southern whites who defied the color line to help build radical, transformative movements against racism. ———————————————— Gwendolyn Midlo Hall is the award-winning author of many articles and multiple books, including Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century and Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas: Recovering the Links, as well as the editor of A Black Communist in the Freedom Struggle: The Life of Harry Haywood. Midlo Hall is Professor Emerita of Latin American and Caribbean History at Rutgers University. She is a lifelong political activist and spent 15 years researching and creating the Louisiana Slave Database, now accessible as part of Slave Biographies: Atlantic Database Network. She was the wife and collaborator of Communist organizer and writer Harry Haywood. Her new book, Haunted by Slavery: A Memoir of a Southern White Woman in the Freedom Struggle, is forthcoming from Haymarket Books in March 2021. Keri Leigh Merritt is the author of Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South and co-editor of Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power. ————————————————————— Pre-Order Gwendolyn Midlo Hall's forthcoming book Haunted by Slavery: https://bookshop.org/a/1039/9781642592740 Get Keri Leigh Merritt's book Masterless Men: https://bookshop.org/a/1039/9781316635438 Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/FpoLcTJV4As Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

Historians are shaking their heads as media talk about January 6 as "unprecedented"; while shocking and dispiriting, it has layers and layers of precedent that need to be learned and engaged, if we are ever to actually have the racial reckoning that corporate media are forever insisting we've already had.  

In this episode, we speak with Keri Leigh Merritt, the author of "Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South." While much of southern history rightly focuses on the impact slavery had on African-Americans, Merritt explains how important it is to also understand the impact it had on poor whites. Her scholarship shows how slavery's echoes are heard today not just in the descendants of slaves, but in those who lived alongside the system.She is active on Twitter at www.twitter.com/kerileighmerritt and her book is available on her website kerileighmerritt.comAxelbank Reports History and Today is active on Twitter at www.twitter.com/axelbankhistory and on instagram @axelbankhistory

In the decades after America’s founding and the establishment of the Constitution, did the nation get better, more just, more democratic? Or did it double down on violent conquest and exploitation?   Reported, produced, written, and mixed by John Biewen, with series collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika. The series editor is Loretta Williams. Interviews with Robin Alario, Edward Baptist, Kidada Williams, and Keri Leigh Merritt. Music by Algiers, John Erik Kaada, Eric Neveux, and Lucas Biewen. Music consulting and production help from Joe Augustine of Narrative Music. 

Keri Leigh Merritt discusses her book, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South (Cambridge University Press, 2017), and intersections of race, class, politics, and slavery in the pre-Civil War South. Analyzing land policy, labor, and legal history, Merritt reveals what happens to excess workers when a capitalist system is predicated on slave labor. With the rising global demand for cotton - and thus, slaves - in the 1840s and 1850s, the need for white laborers in the American South was drastically reduced, creating a large underclass who were unemployed or underemployed. These poor whites could not compete - for jobs or living wages - with profitable slave labor. Though impoverished whites were never subjected to the daily violence and degrading humiliations of racial slavery, they did suffer tangible socio-economic consequences as a result of living in a slave society. Merritt examines how these 'masterless' men and women threatened the existing Southern hierarchy and ultimately helped push Southern slaveholders toward secession and civil war. Beth A. English is director of the Liechtenstein Institute's Project on Gender in the Global Community at Princeton University. She also is a past president of the Southern Labor History Association.

Keri Leigh Merritt discusses her book, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South (Cambridge University Press, 2017), and intersections of race, class, politics, and slavery in the pre-Civil War South. Analyzing land policy, labor, and legal history, Merritt reveals what happens to excess workers when a capitalist system is predicated on slave labor. With the rising global demand for cotton - and thus, slaves - in the 1840s and 1850s, the need for white laborers in the American South was drastically reduced, creating a large underclass who were unemployed or underemployed. These poor whites could not compete - for jobs or living wages - with profitable slave labor. Though impoverished whites were never subjected to the daily violence and degrading humiliations of racial slavery, they did suffer tangible socio-economic consequences as a result of living in a slave society. Merritt examines how these 'masterless' men and women threatened the existing Southern hierarchy and ultimately helped push Southern slaveholders toward secession and civil war. Beth A. English is director of the Liechtenstein Institute's Project on Gender in the Global Community at Princeton University. She also is a past president of the Southern Labor History Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Keri Leigh Merritt discusses her book, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South (Cambridge University Press, 2017), and intersections of race, class, politics, and slavery in the pre-Civil War South. Analyzing land policy, labor, and legal history, Merritt reveals what happens to excess workers when a capitalist system is predicated on slave labor. With the rising global demand for cotton - and thus, slaves - in the 1840s and 1850s, the need for white laborers in the American South was drastically reduced, creating a large underclass who were unemployed or underemployed. These poor whites could not compete - for jobs or living wages - with profitable slave labor. Though impoverished whites were never subjected to the daily violence and degrading humiliations of racial slavery, they did suffer tangible socio-economic consequences as a result of living in a slave society. Merritt examines how these 'masterless' men and women threatened the existing Southern hierarchy and ultimately helped push Southern slaveholders toward secession and civil war. Beth A. English is director of the Liechtenstein Institute's Project on Gender in the Global Community at Princeton University. She also is a past president of the Southern Labor History Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Keri Leigh Merritt discusses her book, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South (Cambridge University Press, 2017), and intersections of race, class, politics, and slavery in the pre-Civil War South. Analyzing land policy, labor, and legal history, Merritt reveals what happens to excess workers when a capitalist system is predicated on slave labor. With the rising global demand for cotton - and thus, slaves - in the 1840s and 1850s, the need for white laborers in the American South was drastically reduced, creating a large underclass who were unemployed or underemployed. These poor whites could not compete - for jobs or living wages - with profitable slave labor. Though impoverished whites were never subjected to the daily violence and degrading humiliations of racial slavery, they did suffer tangible socio-economic consequences as a result of living in a slave society. Merritt examines how these 'masterless' men and women threatened the existing Southern hierarchy and ultimately helped push Southern slaveholders toward secession and civil war. Beth A. English is director of the Liechtenstein Institute's Project on Gender in the Global Community at Princeton University. She also is a past president of the Southern Labor History Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Keri Leigh Merritt discusses her book, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South (Cambridge University Press, 2017), and intersections of race, class, politics, and slavery in the pre-Civil War South. Analyzing land policy, labor, and legal history, Merritt reveals what happens to excess workers when a capitalist system is predicated on slave labor. With the rising global demand for cotton - and thus, slaves - in the 1840s and 1850s, the need for white laborers in the American South was drastically reduced, creating a large underclass who were unemployed or underemployed. These poor whites could not compete - for jobs or living wages - with profitable slave labor. Though impoverished whites were never subjected to the daily violence and degrading humiliations of racial slavery, they did suffer tangible socio-economic consequences as a result of living in a slave society. Merritt examines how these 'masterless' men and women threatened the existing Southern hierarchy and ultimately helped push Southern slaveholders toward secession and civil war. Beth A. English is director of the Liechtenstein Institute's Project on Gender in the Global Community at Princeton University. She also is a past president of the Southern Labor History Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

Keri Leigh Merritt discusses her book, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South (Cambridge University Press, 2017), and intersections of race, class, politics, and slavery in the pre-Civil War South. Analyzing land policy, labor, and legal history, Merritt reveals what happens to excess workers when a capitalist system is predicated on slave labor. With the rising global demand for cotton - and thus, slaves - in the 1840s and 1850s, the need for white laborers in the American South was drastically reduced, creating a large underclass who were unemployed or underemployed. These poor whites could not compete - for jobs or living wages - with profitable slave labor. Though impoverished whites were never subjected to the daily violence and degrading humiliations of racial slavery, they did suffer tangible socio-economic consequences as a result of living in a slave society. Merritt examines how these 'masterless' men and women threatened the existing Southern hierarchy and ultimately helped push Southern slaveholders toward secession and civil war. Beth A. English is director of the Liechtenstein Institute's Project on Gender in the Global Community at Princeton University. She also is a past president of the Southern Labor History Association.

Matthew Hild and Keri Leigh Merritt discuss their new edited volume, Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power (University Press of Florida, 2018), the nexus of race, class and power in the history of labor in the South, and how a new generation of southern labor scholars are changing our understanding of labor's past, present and future in the region. The American Dream of reaching success through sheer sweat and determination rings false for countless members of the working classes. This volume shows that many of the difficulties facing workers today have deep roots in the history of the exploitation of labor in the South. Contributors make the case that the problems that have long beset southern labor, including the legacy of slavery, low wages, lack of collective bargaining rights, and repression of organized unions, have become the problems of workers across the country. Spanning nearly all of U.S. history, the essays in this collection range from West Virginia to Florida to Texas. They examine vagrancy laws in the early republic, inmate labor at state penitentiaries, mine workers and union membership, and strikes and the often-violent strikebreaking that followed. They also look at pesticide exposure among farmworkers, labor activism during the civil rights movement, and foreign-owned auto factories in the rural South. They distinguish between different struggles experienced by women and men, as well as by African American, Latino, and white workers. Beth A. English is director of the Liechtenstein Institute's Project on Gender in the Global Community at Princeton University. She also is a past president of the Southern Labor History Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

Matthew Hild and Keri Leigh Merritt discuss their new edited volume, Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power (University Press of Florida, 2018), the nexus of race, class and power in the history of labor in the South, and how a new generation of southern labor scholars are changing our understanding of labor's past, present and future in the region. The American Dream of reaching success through sheer sweat and determination rings false for countless members of the working classes. This volume shows that many of the difficulties facing workers today have deep roots in the history of the exploitation of labor in the South. Contributors make the case that the problems that have long beset southern labor, including the legacy of slavery, low wages, lack of collective bargaining rights, and repression of organized unions, have become the problems of workers across the country. Spanning nearly all of U.S. history, the essays in this collection range from West Virginia to Florida to Texas. They examine vagrancy laws in the early republic, inmate labor at state penitentiaries, mine workers and union membership, and strikes and the often-violent strikebreaking that followed. They also look at pesticide exposure among farmworkers, labor activism during the civil rights movement, and foreign-owned auto factories in the rural South. They distinguish between different struggles experienced by women and men, as well as by African American, Latino, and white workers. Beth A. English is director of the Liechtenstein Institute's Project on Gender in the Global Community at Princeton University. She also is a past president of the Southern Labor History Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew Hild and Keri Leigh Merritt discuss their new edited volume, Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power (University Press of Florida, 2018), the nexus of race, class and power in the history of labor in the South, and how a new generation of southern labor scholars are changing our understanding of labor's past, present and future in the region. The American Dream of reaching success through sheer sweat and determination rings false for countless members of the working classes. This volume shows that many of the difficulties facing workers today have deep roots in the history of the exploitation of labor in the South. Contributors make the case that the problems that have long beset southern labor, including the legacy of slavery, low wages, lack of collective bargaining rights, and repression of organized unions, have become the problems of workers across the country. Spanning nearly all of U.S. history, the essays in this collection range from West Virginia to Florida to Texas. They examine vagrancy laws in the early republic, inmate labor at state penitentiaries, mine workers and union membership, and strikes and the often-violent strikebreaking that followed. They also look at pesticide exposure among farmworkers, labor activism during the civil rights movement, and foreign-owned auto factories in the rural South. They distinguish between different struggles experienced by women and men, as well as by African American, Latino, and white workers. Beth A. English is director of the Liechtenstein Institute's Project on Gender in the Global Community at Princeton University. She also is a past president of the Southern Labor History Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew Hild and Keri Leigh Merritt discuss their new edited volume, Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power (University Press of Florida, 2018), the nexus of race, class and power in the history of labor in the South, and how a new generation of southern labor scholars are changing our understanding of labor's past, present and future in the region. The American Dream of reaching success through sheer sweat and determination rings false for countless members of the working classes. This volume shows that many of the difficulties facing workers today have deep roots in the history of the exploitation of labor in the South. Contributors make the case that the problems that have long beset southern labor, including the legacy of slavery, low wages, lack of collective bargaining rights, and repression of organized unions, have become the problems of workers across the country. Spanning nearly all of U.S. history, the essays in this collection range from West Virginia to Florida to Texas. They examine vagrancy laws in the early republic, inmate labor at state penitentiaries, mine workers and union membership, and strikes and the often-violent strikebreaking that followed. They also look at pesticide exposure among farmworkers, labor activism during the civil rights movement, and foreign-owned auto factories in the rural South. They distinguish between different struggles experienced by women and men, as well as by African American, Latino, and white workers. Beth A. English is director of the Liechtenstein Institute's Project on Gender in the Global Community at Princeton University. She also is a past president of the Southern Labor History Association.

Matthew Hild and Keri Leigh Merritt discuss their new edited volume, Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power (University Press of Florida, 2018), the nexus of race, class and power in the history of labor in the South, and how a new generation of southern labor scholars are changing our understanding of labor's past, present and future in the region. The American Dream of reaching success through sheer sweat and determination rings false for countless members of the working classes. This volume shows that many of the difficulties facing workers today have deep roots in the history of the exploitation of labor in the South. Contributors make the case that the problems that have long beset southern labor, including the legacy of slavery, low wages, lack of collective bargaining rights, and repression of organized unions, have become the problems of workers across the country. Spanning nearly all of U.S. history, the essays in this collection range from West Virginia to Florida to Texas. They examine vagrancy laws in the early republic, inmate labor at state penitentiaries, mine workers and union membership, and strikes and the often-violent strikebreaking that followed. They also look at pesticide exposure among farmworkers, labor activism during the civil rights movement, and foreign-owned auto factories in the rural South. They distinguish between different struggles experienced by women and men, as well as by African American, Latino, and white workers. Beth A. English is director of the Liechtenstein Institute's Project on Gender in the Global Community at Princeton University. She also is a past president of the Southern Labor History Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trae Wisecarver is the "Outlaw Historian," and he's not messing around. A native of southern Arkansas, he's working on his Ph.D in history at Texas A & M University, where he is writing about the Civil War in his home state. Trae became a Twitter sensation in 2019. He took a cue from Keri Leigh Merritt and posted a video about the need for a new Civil War documentary that improves upon Ken Burns's 1990 film. Not one to shy away from a fight, Trae has run afoul of the dubious character Dinesh D'Souza as well as online Nazis, neo-Confederates, and other unsavory characters. Trae keeps up a spirited Twitter account, and after his original feed was suspended, he is back (and more fired up than ever.) In addition to his interview show The Outlaw Historian, you can also catch his wrestling podcast, The Oh My Godcast: An ECW Retrospective, which he co-hosts with his friend Ben Dangerously. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/colin-woodward/support

Trae Wisecarver is the "Outlaw Historian," and he's not messing around. A native of southern Arkansas, he's working on his Ph.D in history at Texas A & M University, where he is writing about the Civil War in his home state. Trae became a Twitter sensation in 2019. He took a cue from Keri Leigh Merritt and posted a video about the need for a new Civil War documentary that improves upon Ken Burns's 1990 film. Not one to shy away from a fight, Trae has run afoul of the dubious character Dinesh D'Souza as well as online Nazis, neo-Confederates, and other unsavory characters. Trae keeps up a spirited Twitter account, and after his original feed was suspended, he is back (and more fired up than ever.) In addition to his interview show The Outlaw Historian, you can also catch his wrestling podcast, The Oh My Godcast: An ECW Retrospective, which he co-hosts with his friend Ben Dangerously.  

Keri Leigh and I hash out some of her ideas recently featured in the Smithsonian article: "Why We Need a New Civil War Documentary" and also Punk Rock music. Because why not. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-rogue-historian/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-rogue-historian/support

Dr. Keri Leigh Merritt joins us to argue for a new documentary series about the US Civil War. It’s been nearly 30 years since PBS aired the famous series. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of that classic series, as well as why PBS’s new series on Reconstruction might serve as a template for a new Civil War documentary. Dr. Merritt schools old Professor Buzzkill about the possibilities of new media and new media venues for dynamic historians. Listen and Learn! PBS’s Reconstruction Series may be found on-line at: https://www.pbs.org/show/reconstruction-america-after-civil-war/ Professor Merritt’s website is: kerileighmerritt.com

Poor whites were mistreated, excluded, jailed, and generally abused by the white slave owning class. So why did they align with them then, and why do they continue that alignment today? There are moments of collaboration between poor whites and enslaved or emancipated blacks, but only moments before the ruling class changes their strategy. Keri Leigh Merritt's book, Masterless Men unpacks the history of the Deep South during the antebellum period. It explains much about deep seated beliefs today, and contains clues about how to move forward. Transcript available here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wOF2Rr0jyVSKmrrQadArRKwnhnRVpOTk

We are kicking off our new series: Workers' Book Club! In this ongoing series, we will record workers chatting with authors about books that relate to the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class. To get things started, our host, Maximillian Alvarez, sat down to chat with author, historian, and independent scholar Keri Leigh Merritt about the recent volume she co-edited with Matthew Hild, Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, & Power(University Press of Florida).    Additional links/info below... Keri's website and Twitter page Keri Leigh Merritt & Matthew Hild (eds), University Press of Florida, Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, & Power  Keri Leigh Merritt, Cambridge University Press, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South    Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org) Maya Angelou reading 'Workers' Song' Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall" The Trumpeteers, "Little Wooden Church"

On this week’s show: Fifty years ago, Reverend Ralph David Abernathy and 100 others were arrested while picketing a hospital in Charleston, South Carolina in a demand for union recognition. Charleston was – and still is -- a notoriously difficult place to organize, and our guest Leon Fink says it “stirred the soul of the whole city.” Matthew Hild and Keri Leigh Merritt’s new book, “Reconsidering Southern Labor History,” explores the nexus of race, class and power in the history of labor in the South, and how a new generation of southern labor scholars are changing our understanding of labor's past, present and future in the region. Beth English talked with Keri Leigh and Matthew on a recent episode of the Working History podcast. Questions, comments or suggestions welcome, and to find out how you can be a part of Labor History Today, email us at LaborHistoryToday@gmail.com Labor History Today is produced by Union City Radio and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Produced & engineered by Chris Garlock and Patrick Dixon. Oh Freedom! - The Golden Gospel Singers https://youtu.be/veiJLhXdwn8 Ain' Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round – Sweet Honey In The Rock https://youtu.be/D2wdkDaipNo

Episode Notes coming soon

A native of Georgia with humble roots and a love for music (including Johnny Cash), historian Keri Leigh Merrit has been busy. She is the author of Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South (2017) and is the co-editor of Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power (2018). As she tells Colin, since she graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia in 2014, her scholarly path has not been a traditional one. Throughout her life, Keri has been fascinated by questions of class and race in America, whether in discussion of the antebellum period, labor movements, or the southern prison system. Listen as she discusses how historians outside academia have to carve their own path and how very often, it involves doing things no one ever talked about in graduate school.    

Matthew Hild and Keri Leigh Merritt discuss their new edited volume, Reconsidering Southern Labor History, the nexus of race, class and power in the history of labor in the South, and how a new generation of southern labor scholars are changing our understanding of labor's past, present and future in the region.

We live in a time when race and class have smashed together in ways that threaten to tear about the social fabric. Historian and author Keri Leigh Merritt has written one of the best books on how we got here. Her book Masterless Men explains the how the social and economic fabric of the “white working class” came to be. And in our interview, she talks about what we need to do to get out of the mess we're in today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Keri Leigh Merritt is a historian of American class, race, and inequality, with a particular focus on the South during and after the Civil War. Her book Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South deftly navigates discourses on race, power, and capitalism, telling us what happens to “excess labor” under a slave economy. In this conversation, she talks about the South’s influence on her direction as a scholar, and explains how vital elements of the Southern political economy (from “right to work” to convict leasing) have spread to the rest of the country.

Analyzing land policy, labor, and legal history, Keri Leigh Merritt reveals what happens to excess workers when a capitalist system is predicated on slave labor. With the rising global demand for cotton - and thus, slaves - in the 1840s and 1850s, the need for white laborers in the American South was drastically reduced, creating a large underclass who were unemployed or underemployed. These poor whites could not compete - for jobs or living wages - with profitable slave labor. Though impoverished whites were never subjected to the daily violence and degrading humiliations of racial slavery, they did suffer tangible socio-economic consequences as a result of living in a slave society. Merritt examines how these 'masterless' men and women threatened the existing Southern hierarchy and ultimately helped push Southern slaveholders toward secession and civil war.Keri Leigh Merritt works as an independent scholar in Atlanta, Georgia. She received her B.A. in History and Political Science from Emory University and her M.A. and Ph.D. (2014) in History from the University of Georgia. Her research focuses on race and class in U.S. history. Merritt's work on poverty and inequality has garnered multiple awards. Her first book, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2017. She has also co-edited a book on southern labor history with Matthew Hild, Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power (2018), and is currently conducting research for books on radical black resistance during Reconstruction, and on the role of sheriffs and police in the nineteenth century South.In her spare time, Keri Leigh loves to read, listen to music (everything from jazz and rocksteady to old punk rock), and travel. She also writes historical pieces for the public, with letters and essays appearing in Aeon, Bill Moyers, Salon, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. Follow Keri Leigh on Twitter: @kerileighmerrit.

Why discuss poor whites when thinking about race and class in nineteenth-century America and beyond? In this dialogue between literary studies and history Matthew Teutsch (Auburn University) and Keri Leigh Merritt (Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South (Cambridge UP, 2017)) talk about how wealthy white landowners manipulated the antiblackness of poor whites in the antebellum period, the image of poor whites in the cultural imagination, and the legacies of this racially divisive class warfare today. They discuss interdisciplinarity in the field, the effective use of archives in pedagogy, and academics on social media. Episode produced by Matthew Teutsch.

Today we chat with Dr. Keri Leigh Merritt about the topic of her new book, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South (Cambridge University Press, 2017).   Dr. Merritt is on Twitter as @KeriLeighMerrit and her professional website is https://kerileighmerritt.com.   You can join the discussion on the subreddit here.

Keri Leigh Merritt discusses her book, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South, and intersections of race, class, politics, and slavery in the pre-Civil War South.

Keri Leigh Merritt is the author of Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South. Keith and Keri Leigh Merritt discuss the link between economic hardship and the spread of racism throughout American history.

Analyzing land policy, labor, and legal history, Masterless Men: Poor Whites in the Antebellum South (Cambridge University Press, 2017) reveals what happens to excess workers when a capitalist system is predicated on slave labor. With the rising global demand for cotton – and thus, slaves – in the 1840s and 1850s, the need for white laborers in the American South was drastically reduced, creating a large underclass who were unemployed or underemployed. These poor whites could not compete – for jobs or living wages – with profitable slave labor. Though impoverished whites were never subjected to the daily violence and degrading humiliations of racial slavery, they did suffer tangible socio-economic consequences as a result of living in a slave society. The author examines how these ‘masterless’ men and women threatened the existing Southern hierarchy and ultimately helped push Southern slaveholders toward secession and civil war. Keri Leigh Merritt is an independent scholar from Atlanta, Georgia. She received her B.A. in History and Political Science from Emory University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Georgia. Her research generally focuses on race and class in American history. Merritt’s work on poverty and inequality has garnered multiple awards, and she also writes historical pieces for the public, with letters and essays appearing in Aeon, on BillMoyers.com, and in The New York Times. In addition to Masterless Men, Merritt has a forthcoming co-edited book on southern labor history with University of West Georgia historian Matthew Hild tentatively titled Reviving Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power. She is also currently conducting research for two additional book-length projects; the first is on black resistance in the vastly understudied Reconstruction era, and the second project examines the changing role of law enforcement in the mid-nineteenth century south. Masterless Men: Poor Whites in the Antebellum South is her first book. James P. Stancil II is an educator, multimedia journalist, and writer. He is also the President and CEO of Intellect U Well, Inc. a Houston-area NGO dedicated to increasing the joy of reading and media literacy in young people. He can be reached most easily through his LinkedIn page or at james.stancil@intellectuwell.org.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Analyzing land policy, labor, and legal history, Masterless Men: Poor Whites in the Antebellum South (Cambridge University Press, 2017) reveals what happens to excess workers when a capitalist system is predicated on slave labor. With the rising global demand for cotton – and thus, slaves – in the 1840s and 1850s, the need for white laborers in the American South was drastically reduced, creating a large underclass who were unemployed or underemployed. These poor whites could not compete – for jobs or living wages – with profitable slave labor. Though impoverished whites were never subjected to the daily violence and degrading humiliations of racial slavery, they did suffer tangible socio-economic consequences as a result of living in a slave society. The author examines how these ‘masterless’ men and women threatened the existing Southern hierarchy and ultimately helped push Southern slaveholders toward secession and civil war. Keri Leigh Merritt is an independent scholar from Atlanta, Georgia. She received her B.A. in History and Political Science from Emory University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Georgia. Her research generally focuses on race and class in American history. Merritt’s work on poverty and inequality has garnered multiple awards, and she also writes historical pieces for the public, with letters and essays appearing in Aeon, on BillMoyers.com, and in The New York Times. In addition to Masterless Men, Merritt has a forthcoming co-edited book on southern labor history with University of West Georgia historian Matthew Hild tentatively titled Reviving Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power. She is also currently conducting research for two additional book-length projects; the first is on black resistance in the vastly understudied Reconstruction era, and the second project examines the changing role of law enforcement in the mid-nineteenth century south. Masterless Men: Poor Whites in the Antebellum South is her first book. James P. Stancil II is an educator, multimedia journalist, and writer. He is also the President and CEO of Intellect U Well, Inc. a Houston-area NGO dedicated to increasing the joy of reading and media literacy in young people. He can be reached most easily through his LinkedIn page or at james.stancil@intellectuwell.org.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Analyzing land policy, labor, and legal history, Masterless Men: Poor Whites in the Antebellum South (Cambridge University Press, 2017) reveals what happens to excess workers when a capitalist system is predicated on slave labor. With the rising global demand for cotton – and thus, slaves – in the 1840s and 1850s, the need for white laborers in the American South was drastically reduced, creating a large underclass who were unemployed or underemployed. These poor whites could not compete – for jobs or living wages – with profitable slave labor. Though impoverished whites were never subjected to the daily violence and degrading humiliations of racial slavery, they did suffer tangible socio-economic consequences as a result of living in a slave society. The author examines how these ‘masterless' men and women threatened the existing Southern hierarchy and ultimately helped push Southern slaveholders toward secession and civil war. Keri Leigh Merritt is an independent scholar from Atlanta, Georgia. She received her B.A. in History and Political Science from Emory University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Georgia. Her research generally focuses on race and class in American history. Merritt's work on poverty and inequality has garnered multiple awards, and she also writes historical pieces for the public, with letters and essays appearing in Aeon, on BillMoyers.com, and in The New York Times. In addition to Masterless Men, Merritt has a forthcoming co-edited book on southern labor history with University of West Georgia historian Matthew Hild tentatively titled Reviving Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power. She is also currently conducting research for two additional book-length projects; the first is on black resistance in the vastly understudied Reconstruction era, and the second project examines the changing role of law enforcement in the mid-nineteenth century south. Masterless Men: Poor Whites in the Antebellum South is her first book. James P. Stancil II is an educator, multimedia journalist, and writer. He is also the President and CEO of Intellect U Well, Inc. a Houston-area NGO dedicated to increasing the joy of reading and media literacy in young people. He can be reached most easily through his LinkedIn page or at james.stancil@intellectuwell.org.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

Analyzing land policy, labor, and legal history, Masterless Men: Poor Whites in the Antebellum South (Cambridge University Press, 2017) reveals what happens to excess workers when a capitalist system is predicated on slave labor. With the rising global demand for cotton – and thus, slaves – in the 1840s and 1850s, the need for white laborers in the American South was drastically reduced, creating a large underclass who were unemployed or underemployed. These poor whites could not compete – for jobs or living wages – with profitable slave labor. Though impoverished whites were never subjected to the daily violence and degrading humiliations of racial slavery, they did suffer tangible socio-economic consequences as a result of living in a slave society. The author examines how these ‘masterless’ men and women threatened the existing Southern hierarchy and ultimately helped push Southern slaveholders toward secession and civil war. Keri Leigh Merritt is an independent scholar from Atlanta, Georgia. She received her B.A. in History and Political Science from Emory University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Georgia. Her research generally focuses on race and class in American history. Merritt’s work on poverty and inequality has garnered multiple awards, and she also writes historical pieces for the public, with letters and essays appearing in Aeon, on BillMoyers.com, and in The New York Times. In addition to Masterless Men, Merritt has a forthcoming co-edited book on southern labor history with University of West Georgia historian Matthew Hild tentatively titled Reviving Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power. She is also currently conducting research for two additional book-length projects; the first is on black resistance in the vastly understudied Reconstruction era, and the second project examines the changing role of law enforcement in the mid-nineteenth century south. Masterless Men: Poor Whites in the Antebellum South is her first book. James P. Stancil II is an educator, multimedia journalist, and writer. He is also the President and CEO of Intellect U Well, Inc. a Houston-area NGO dedicated to increasing the joy of reading and media literacy in young people. He can be reached most easily through his LinkedIn page or at james.stancil@intellectuwell.org.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Analyzing land policy, labor, and legal history, Masterless Men: Poor Whites in the Antebellum South (Cambridge University Press, 2017) reveals what happens to excess workers when a capitalist system is predicated on slave labor. With the rising global demand for cotton – and thus, slaves – in the 1840s and 1850s, the need for white laborers in the American South was drastically reduced, creating a large underclass who were unemployed or underemployed. These poor whites could not compete – for jobs or living wages – with profitable slave labor. Though impoverished whites were never subjected to the daily violence and degrading humiliations of racial slavery, they did suffer tangible socio-economic consequences as a result of living in a slave society. The author examines how these ‘masterless’ men and women threatened the existing Southern hierarchy and ultimately helped push Southern slaveholders toward secession and civil war. Keri Leigh Merritt is an independent scholar from Atlanta, Georgia. She received her B.A. in History and Political Science from Emory University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Georgia. Her research generally focuses on race and class in American history. Merritt’s work on poverty and inequality has garnered multiple awards, and she also writes historical pieces for the public, with letters and essays appearing in Aeon, on BillMoyers.com, and in The New York Times. In addition to Masterless Men, Merritt has a forthcoming co-edited book on southern labor history with University of West Georgia historian Matthew Hild tentatively titled Reviving Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power. She is also currently conducting research for two additional book-length projects; the first is on black resistance in the vastly understudied Reconstruction era, and the second project examines the changing role of law enforcement in the mid-nineteenth century south. Masterless Men: Poor Whites in the Antebellum South is her first book. James P. Stancil II is an educator, multimedia journalist, and writer. He is also the President and CEO of Intellect U Well, Inc. a Houston-area NGO dedicated to increasing the joy of reading and media literacy in young people. He can be reached most easily through his LinkedIn page or at james.stancil@intellectuwell.org.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Analyzing land policy, labor, and legal history, Masterless Men: Poor Whites in the Antebellum South (Cambridge University Press, 2017) reveals what happens to excess workers when a capitalist system is predicated on slave labor. With the rising global demand for cotton – and thus, slaves – in the 1840s and 1850s, the need for white laborers in the American South was drastically reduced, creating a large underclass who were unemployed or underemployed. These poor whites could not compete – for jobs or living wages – with profitable slave labor. Though impoverished whites were never subjected to the daily violence and degrading humiliations of racial slavery, they did suffer tangible socio-economic consequences as a result of living in a slave society. The author examines how these ‘masterless’ men and women threatened the existing Southern hierarchy and ultimately helped push Southern slaveholders toward secession and civil war. Keri Leigh Merritt is an independent scholar from Atlanta, Georgia. She received her B.A. in History and Political Science from Emory University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Georgia. Her research generally focuses on race and class in American history. Merritt’s work on poverty and inequality has garnered multiple awards, and she also writes historical pieces for the public, with letters and essays appearing in Aeon, on BillMoyers.com, and in The New York Times. In addition to Masterless Men, Merritt has a forthcoming co-edited book on southern labor history with University of West Georgia historian Matthew Hild tentatively titled Reviving Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power. She is also currently conducting research for two additional book-length projects; the first is on black resistance in the vastly understudied Reconstruction era, and the second project examines the changing role of law enforcement in the mid-nineteenth century south. Masterless Men: Poor Whites in the Antebellum South is her first book. James P. Stancil II is an educator, multimedia journalist, and writer. He is also the President and CEO of Intellect U Well, Inc. a Houston-area NGO dedicated to increasing the joy of reading and media literacy in young people. He can be reached most easily through his LinkedIn page or at james.stancil@intellectuwell.org.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During this episode, award winning scholar & researcher, Dr. Keri Leigh Merritt discusses how her upbringing as a European American ("white") person in the rural south fueled her desire to study American History as a profession. She takes us into her research about how slavery impacted poor whites, which is a perspective that is missing from American History textbooks.  Professionally, Dr. Keri Leigh examines the intersection of class, race, labor, and law in the nineteenth century United States. As a published scholar who regularly presents research at academic conferences, her specialties include African American History, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the American South, Labor History, and the History of Capitalism. She is an expert in historical problems that are very relevant to today's world, including: -Poverty and economic inequality -Unemployment/living wage -Criminal justice and mass incarceration -American race relations