Making the Body Politic

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Suzanne and Caleb Loring Research Fellow Ann Holder of the Pratt Institute discussed her research on post-Civil War citizenship, race, and public spaces in a presentation titled “Making the Body Politic: Sexual Histories, Racial Uncertainties, and Vernacular Citizenship in the Post-Emancipation U.S.” The presentation drew on one chapter from a book-length project exploring “public space as a battleground for citizenship.” In this particular chapter, Holder focuses on segregation debates and practices on streetcars and railways from the late 1860s into the early 20^th century. She looks comparatively at Boston, Richmond (Virginia), and New Orleans in order to explore how the public space of streetcars and railway carriages were negotiated with regards to race, class, and sexuality, as these public transit systems developed and became necessary for urban life over the course of the 19^th century.

Historians have often assumed that, following emancipation, the categories of black/white were easily mapped onto American society as a substitute for slave/free. Holder argues instead that racial segregation, in custom and law, actually rose in response to the uncertainty of racial categories in the Reconstruction era.  Inter-racial sexual relationships during the era of slavery had created racial ambiguity that slavery regulated; once slavery ended, the instability of racial identities exposed the fallacy of a clear demarcation between black and white. Segregation, she suggests, was a “newly-created borderland” between white and black communities, and one which required new mechanisms for enforcement – such as physical segregation in public spaces. Where once whites were relatively free to travel “at will” in black spaces, in the latter half of the 19^th century they became subject to new laws restricting them to white spaces. This led to complaints, for example, by whites about crowded whites-only streetcars (particularly when black cars passed by relatively empty, as during organized boycotts), and the rise in arrests of whites for violating segregation laws. In other words, whites had to be disciplined into the “white role” in a similar (though lesser, less violent) fashion as blacks.

Here at the MHS, Holder is exploring the history of segregation in Boston transit, which was practiced customarily in the early 19^th century before it fell victim to the campaigns to “strip the legal system of reference to race” in the early 19^th century, and to repeal laws banning inter-racial marriage. She notes how the “forced democratization” of crowded public spaces, and the “physicality of encounters with the ‘other’” whether of another class, sex, and/or race, often discomfited those of higher social standing and introduced an unmistakable undertone of sexuality to the experience of traveling. In her presentation, she quoted an anonymous diarist who recounted his unhappy experience of traveling from New York to Boston on the railway, using the word “amalgamation” to describe class mixing in train cars – a word that would, in the Reconstruction era, come to mean inter-racial sexual relations.

Discussion following Holder’s presentation explored the various ways in which imposed order was attempted on the disorganization of public transit, whether by the creation of “first class” rail cars, smoking cars, women-only cars, or racially-segregated trolleys and trains.

We look forward to seeing where Anne Holder takes her research from here, and are very pleased to have her with us throughout the academic year pursuing her work in our Reading Room.

This Week @ MHS

Bouncing back from the November holidays, we have a very busy week ahead at the MHS.

Tuesday, 27 November at 6:00 PM, Waite Rawls, Museum of the Confederacy, presents The Confederacy in History, Myth, & Memory.  A pre-event reception begins at 5:30 PM. Reservations are requested for this free event. To RSVP call 617-646-0560 or click here.

Immediately following the program, current and prospective associate members (age 40 and under) are invited to adjorn to The Hawthorne in Kenmore Square to continue the conversation at our first historical happy hour from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM.  A separate reservation is required for this event and can be made by calling 617-646-0560 or clicking here.

Friday, 30 November, we close out the month with our signature fundraising event.  Tickets are still available for Cocktails with Clio.  The evening begins at 6:00 PM with an elegant cocktail buffet at the Society’s building, followed by a trip to the Harvard Club for dessert and a conversation with cultural critic, Harvard scholar, host of PBS series Finding Your Roots, and MHS Overseer Henry Louis Gates, Jr.  Tickets cost $200 per person. All net proceeds from the event will support the Society's outreach efforts. For more information or to purchase tickets, please contact Carol Knauff at cknauff@masshist.org or 617-646-0554.

Please note that in order to transform our building for the event, the library and exhibition galleries will close at 2:00 PM on Friday, 30 November.

Credit Where Credit Is Due: Thank You from the MHS

At this time of giving thanks, we at the Society reflect on all of those friends who have made our work possible. As part of the recent renovations to the building, we installed plaques to honor our supporters, both past and present, and we take the time now to thank them and all who have become part of our community at the MHS.

On January 24, 1791, the Rev. Jeremy Belknap convened a meeting with nine like-minded gentlemen with the goal of gathering and protecting the basic sources of American history. By the end of that meeting, and through their pledges of manuscripts, books, pamphlets, newspapers, and historical artifacts, the “Historical Society,” the nation’s first, was formed. A lot has changed since then. Today we have many more Members and a beautiful home at 1154 Boylston Street. But what hasn’t changed is our dedication to the Society’s original purpose of serving as a repository and a publisher, collecting, preserving, and disseminating resources for the study of American history. Through exhibitions, our library, lending to other institutions, online resources, publications, public programming, and film and television, the Society’s collections reach local, national, and international audiences.

None of this work would be conceivable without the countless numbers of people who have supported the Society’s work intellectually, financially, and through the contribution of documents and objects. Our first recorded gift was $20 from Ebenezer Hazard in 1798, and many others followed, both financial and material. Due to many generous donations, we hold in our collections millions of letters and diary entries, as well as photographs, maps, broadsides, artifacts, works of art, prints, and early newspapers. As a sign of our gratitude and respect, the First Two Centuries plaque on the right wall  of the lobby honors the top 100 donors to the MHS through 1991. On the opposite wall, the Third Century plaque honors recent major donors and will be updated annually.

Scholars, researchers, Board members, donors, Fellows, staff, and visitors – we couldn’t do it without you! Thank you, from the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Image: MHS Board Chair Charlie Ames and Trustee Bill Cotter pose in front of the new third century donor plaque. Photo by Laura Wulf.

Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch Diary, Post 18

The following excerpt is from the diary of Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch.

Saturday, Nov. 29^th, 1862

The election in Massachusetts disappointed the party just named [the People’s party], & maintained the high patriotic position of the state. On the other hand, an opposition ticket has prevailed in New York, Ohio, and other states where it had hardly been anticipated. Among the reasons that account for this are dissatisfaction at the slow progress of the war, and the absence of many in the army who would have voted the Republican ticket. The election was soon followed by the removal of Gen. McClellan, - on the ground of slowness and disobedience of orders, - and the appointment of Gen. Burnside in his place. The country and the army acquiesce in these changes. Burnside, of whom I have a very high opinion from what I hear, has advanced & is encamped before Fredericksburg, Va. The rebel army under Lee is opposite him, & a large rebel force, under ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, is or was in the valley of the Shenandoah. An expedition has been preparing, & is now embarking under Gen. Banks, from Long Island; - destination unknown, - rumor points to Texas or Georgia; but many, of whom I am one, hope that it will cooperate with Burnside in Virginia, and Foster in N.C. against Richmond & its defenders. I have two young parishioners, - the Weymouths -, in the 42d Mass. in this expedition.