Table of Contents
Introduction
Industrialization within the United States had a major effect on American life. As new businesses began to open and position themselves in the center of many Northern states, massive growth occurred in record numbers. Among those numbers, lied a bulk of African Americans who migrated upward from the war-torn South, with its foundation solely resting on the existence of racism, Jim Crow, and de jure segregation. With a dependence upon hand labor and mass production, African Americans had come to make better lives for both themselves and their families, up until what was known as the “Steel Belt” started to rust.
With rust came deindustrialization, and with deindustrialization came the decline of some of the country’s most advanced economies. While deindustrialization affected the U.S. as a whole, there was a portion of the population that bore the brunt force of this phenomenon- Blacks. As the loss of jobs displaced a great deal of workers within the African American community, many would soon realize that it was indeed deindustrialization which ultimately led to their demise in terms of unemployment, housing, and ultimately mass incarceration.
Literature Review
Post-Civil War: Slavery and Black Codes
After the Confederate South suffered a huge loss at the end of the Civil War, the practice of slavery came to a screeching halt on June 19, 1865, leading to the freeing of roughly four million slaves (American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) 2014). Following the war, the South was left in complete destruction as millions of dollars’ worth of damage to mills, factories, towns, etc. destroyed by the Union in the midst of the war called for repair; thus, the Reconstruction period soon rose into formation.
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Since slavery was now essentially abolished, African Americans were presented with an opportunity to push for equal legal and political rights as they began campaigning and organizing what would become some of the country’s earliest equal rights movements. Shortly thereafter, the ratification of the United States Constitution’s 13th Amendment took place which was responsible for legally outlawing both chattel slavery and involuntary servitude altogether “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”
While the amendment’s ratification had given the country a false impression of moving toward structural equality for all, unfortunately, the amendment failed to completely shield Blacks from forced labor. With the presence of the amendment’s exception clause, states were now able to validate continued slavery via the only other way possible- criminal punishment. Although there was quite a bit of ground to be covered in the fight towards equality across the board, the very little progress that was made (if any at all) was short-lived and eventually halted by the implementation of what were known as “black codes”.
Nearing the end of the 1860s, black codes were created as a result of sheer fear. So as not to violate a freshly ratified Constitution, this particular set of laws stood to limit the freedoms, rights, and liberties of all African Americans, while simultaneously setting restrictions upon the newly freed slaves as a means of social and actual containment, as well as control; by turning African American into “criminals”, Confederate states were able to bypass newly established laws and needed no explanation behind their intent to re-erect all that was lost in a way that would allow southern dollars to remain in abundance.
Since many slave masters were left with destroyed plantations (among other things) at the close of the Civil War, combined with a new amendment to the Constitution which abolished slavery, they knew that many African Americans would soon leave plantations and begin migrating North in search of better economic opportunities, leaving no one capable of restoring the South. While many masters agreed to pay former slaves to stay behind and work their land, still, the 13th Amendment left the South at an extensive disadvantage.
In order to prevent cheap labor from making its way up to cities capable of large financial gains, the South successfully implemented what were known as black codes. This new plan of action allowed local authorities to arrest freedmen and women for minor infractions and ensured that African Americans would remain available as a source of inexpensive labor. Under these codes, many Blacks were forced to sign yearly labor contracts guaranteeing their obligations to provide labor while receiving little to no pay. Black codes were another means of systematic exploitation.
The many brave, yet resistant African Americans who refused to sign the contracts offered to them faced criminal arrest in county jails accompanied with heavy fines, and were forced into unpaid labor camps in order to pay the costs of those fines; reasons to keep the original plan of action in motion- rebuilding and restoring the loss of Southern value by purchasing cheap labor at pennies on the dollar from individuals who were physically stronger, lived longer life spans, and able to perform back-breaking work well into old age.
Considering how little Blacks were compensated for their blood, sweat, and tears due to an economy based on extremely low wages, it would take months, years, and in some of the worst cases, many generations to pay off accumulated debts; however, the opportunity to escape the threat of generational debt finally presented itself, or so it seemed.
Industrialization
The Industrial Revolution, occurring sometime between the 1760s and the 1840s (although the exact time is still up for debate), was the transition to a new method of manufacturing in which hand production methods were replaced with machines for the mass production of goods (Khan Academy, 2018). In addition to new production processes were improved technologies such as the efficiency of water power, increased use of steam power, the development of machine tools, and new supplies of labor (Vries, 2011).
With origins in Great Britain, the revolution eventually made its way to the Western hemisphere after the use of trees had resulted in a severe shortage of wood needed to build houses, ships, cooking, and burn in the cold seasons for heat (Khan Academy, 2018). Being that something else was needed in order to replace limited amounts of wood, the British immediately turned to coal since it was easily accessible by extracting nearby mines (Khan Academy, 2018).
While the construction of railroads hit an all-time high from 1830-1870, it was the American Civil War that truly marked the takeoff for the American Industrial Revolution (Khan Academy, 2018). The need for military materials is what sparked the North’s urbanization and factory-based placement in comparison to an agricultural-based South, thus creating the massive growth of industrialization within the United States, overtaking Britain by producing nearly twenty-four percent of the world’s production output by the start of World War I (Khan Academy, 2018).
A number of states ranging across the entire Northeast quadrant of the U.S., including all those located in the Midwest and bordering parts of Canada (Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New York, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana, and Ontario), make up the most industrious portion of the country, creating what was previously coined the “Steel Belt” (Campbell, 2017).
The Great Migration
While the Jim Crow era had taken off into full swing in the “new South” (which would go on to drag a total of four generations of African Americans through institutionalized racism by way of legally enforced racial order), something far more significant was in the works (Guffey, 2012). In an attempt to flee the disgust of various states whose very foundations were deeply rooted in hatred, racism, and Black exploitation, a whopping six million African Americans picked up and moved out of rural Southern United States, making their way towards an urban Northeast, West, and Midwest. This ground-shaking movement would come to be known as The Great Migration.
The Great Migration, taking place between 1900 to the 1960s, served as a way for African Americans to escape not only blatant segregation, but the horrors that coincided with Jim Crow and its long-term effects. Although segregation and racism did exist in Northern cities as well, its effects were not as blatant when compared to those occurring in the South. Consequently, Black migrants were very selective in terms of residency. African Americans were more attracted to locations that offered stronger ethnogenic support in order to ease the adjustment phase for all the newcomers (Tolnay, 2003).
The presence of organizations tailored to fighting for the equal rights of all African Americans such as the NAACP, Black churches, and even newspapers were all the more reason for African Americans to swarm into particular areas of the city and establish homes for themselves, their families, and those who would soon arrive from the South (Tolnay, 2003).
As patterns of “chain migration” served as a way of funneling information about specific destinations to potential migrants, word on the availability of jobs, living arrangements, and the ease of transitioning also made its way down South, persuading others to gather their belongings and follow suit to the North where they would start from the humblest beginnings in rented rooms and small and overcrowded kitchenette apartments (Tolnay, 2003). Unfortunately, these “Black” neighborhoods were often located in the inner-most and least-desirable parts of the city, filled with dilapidated buildings and subpar facilities while native northerners resided in less racially concentrated and distressed neighborhoods within the city (Tolnay, 2003).
New industries and the doors that they opened toward large financial rewards heavily attracted African Americans to major industrial cities such as those located in Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and New York City where they worked in factories, slaughterhouses, and foundries in long-shift increments where working conditions were dangerous and had the potential to cause death in the most severe cases (History, 2010). Notwithstanding the lower levels of education held, Southern African Americans were more likely to become employed, attained higher incomes, and as a result, were less likely to end up in poverty or on any kind of governmental assistance (Tolnay, 2003).
As the number of economic opportunities enhanced for African Americans, so did the populations within these large cities. Despite the fact that African Americans and whites had already resided in northern cities alike prior to the migration of Southern Blacks, such hefty numbers of illiterate and downright “different” Blacks led them to encounter greetings that were filled with suspicion and hostility to say the least (Tolnay, 2003).
Since whites along with many Northern Blacks did not have to deal with all that came with living in the south and having already occupied employment positions in a fast-growing economy of mass production, this placed them at higher positions on the socioeconomic totem pole. The mere existence of poor Blacks arriving from unknown territories not only stirred up a sense of nervousness and discomfort among the whites living in these areas, but the Blacks who occupied them as well (Tolnay, 2003). As whites feared the sudden shift in racial balance, Blacks too feared the unfavorable association that would come as a result of being attributed to the other African Americans who came fresh off the plantations (Tolnay, 2003).
Southern ways were seen as lazy, ignorant, and outright dangerous; these were the stereotypes associated with migrant African Americans. In addition to these labels southern migrants were also blamed for a number of social problems that came to affect many urban communities like crim, alcoholism, venereal disease, and illegitimacy (Tolnay, 2003). Consequently, native northerners began to move from the cities that were once deemed home, and away from those who were thought to have shifted the cultural dynamics of the north (Tolnay, 2003).
Industrial Outsourcing
Although the Industrial Revolution was one of the United States’ biggest achievements in history thus far, all good things must come to an end. Over time, many mass productions plants responsible for a large percentage of the country’s domestic output began to decline in terms of industrial activity due to many social and economic changes. The doors belonging to a large percentage of factories closed as it was more beneficial for owners to move them due to both international competition and the leniency of labor laws (Campbell, 2017).
As early as the 1960s, unfair trade practices (i.e. import dumping and currency manipulation) wreaked heavy trade imbalances among the United States and foreign countries. Initially, automation, or the use of machinery rather then human manual labor, became widespread which replaced employees with ease by doubling and tripling the amount of production in about a third to half the time that it takes a human to produce the same quantity (Campbell, 2017). Money, being an integral potion of any company and is solely responsible for keeping many businesses afloat, became the top priority for many plant owners.
Subsequently, these factories were outsourced offshore, where they were moved to many Southern states and foreign countries (Campbell, 2017). Quite naturally and as expected, many foreign individuals were willing to bear harsh working conditions for the amount of pay that they were to receive for a job well done. Doing this allowed plant owners to keep a significant portion of revenue in their pockets and ultimately turn profits at larger and faster rates than ever.
The second reason for outsourcing the factories and plants which occupied a large portion of the United States- less strict labor laws, allowed many plant owners to move their factories to destination locations where the laws drastically differed from those of the U.S. which requires that employers provide workplaces that are free from hazards, ensure that they conform to state and/or federal standards, provide safe tools and equipment, etc.
In various foreign countries, high and low-skilled workers work in conditions that are not conducive to the longevity of their health and overall wellness. During this time period, there were very few laws to protect foreign workers from long hours, in locations having no air to keep them cool in the summer or warm in the winter months, with insulting pay, and no opportunity to partake in employee benefits (Benach et al., 2011). These workers suffered a great deal of potential risks every day that they came into work and fill the employment occupancy at these “3-D” (dangerous, dirty, and degrading) jobs (Benach et al., 2011).
As the harsh reality that some of the country’s mass producers no longer occupied the Midwestern portion of the United States set in, an economy that was once known for the mass production of goods, became one that shifted in the direction of services, and what had been coined the “Steel Belt” had completely depleted and came to be known by a new name- the Rust Belt (Campbell, 2017). While this switch-up could be looked at in a positive light, this was not the case for the millions of African Americans who were previously employed at these businesses. From picking up and moving from the segregated South to the north which now suffered an unspeakable amount of inner-city job loss, in the end, it was Blacks who were left holding the short end of the stick.
Unemployment
The countless numbers of African Americans who had risked everything for the purpose of moving to the North in search of a better life were now back to square one; they had nothing. The loss of hundred and thousands of productions jobs due to automation and outsourcing left them to disproportionally bear the brunt of deindustrialization (Special to the Afro, 2016).
Although employment opportunity was at an all-time high during The American Industrial Revolution and The Great Migration, the African Americans who were actually able to move and successfully attain work still made low wages, although significantly higher than those offered in the south. However, this did not stop their economic independence as they now possessed the power to build up the communities that they resided in, but that ability was short-lived at the onset of deindustrialization (Special to the Afro, 2016).
With a severe lack of personal finances piled atop of the housing discrimination that existed in the north, African Americans were left unable to move as easily as their white counterparts who were also suffering as a result of deindustrialization and job loss (Special to the Afro, 2016). At this time, white flight, or the abandonment of inner-city homes to the suburbs by white dwellers in order to escape minorities and the behaviors and stereotypes associated with them, was in full swing (Haines, 2010).
Unemployment left millions of inner-city residents fighting for the little job opportunities that remained in the Rust Belt, but this was not the only change affecting areas with high populations of African Americans. With rising numbers of unemployment, and a lack of jobs and resources available to Blacks, crime soon began to appear well within the neighborhoods that they occupied (Haines, 2010).
Unbeknownst to the African American residents of cities like Flint and Detroit, Michigan, Gary, Indiana, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and New York, the crime which had ultimately erupted due to a lack of resources deeply rooted in the outsourcing of industrial employment opportunities would soon be not only the leading cause of heavy drug activity and criminal activity, but the beginning of a decade of increased law enforcement among inner-city neighborhoods, over policing, the war on drugs, and the mass incarceration of Blacks.
Conclusion
Deindustrialization can be said to have led to the ultimate demise of millions of African Americans and their families. From picking up everything to their names in search of increased financial advancement, only to have those little gains pulled from underneath their feet, Blacks more than anyone were hit the hardest when jobs were moved from the industrial north. From there, things only continued to go downhill as crime increased and the amount of money circulating in inner-city neighborhoods steadily decreased. Moving well into crime, the infiltration of synthetic drugs into African American neighborhoods where they became the targets of increased policing, African Americans have had it worse than any other group of individuals during this time frame.
