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Dissertation Information for Virginia Estes Causey

NAME:
- Virginia Estes Causey

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- Arizona State University (USA) (1983)

ADVISORS:
- Dan T. Carter

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Inspected

Title: GLEN ALLAN, MISSISSIPPI: CHANGE AND CONTINUITY IN A DELTA COMMUNITY, 1900 TO 1950

Abstract: Glen Allan, a village in the southern Mississippi Delta, served as a mercantile center for the cotton plantations surrounding it from 1900 to 1950. Within Glen Allan society were three classes before 1940: upper and middle-class whites and blacks. The culturally homogeneous upper-class planters dominated all areas of leadership in the Delta and often the entire state. But the merchant middle-class were quite diverse in ethnic background, including Jews, Italians, and Chinese. A fourth class entered Glen Allan in 1940 when the Farm Security Administration bought and divided Greenfield Plantation into small plots and sold them to "disadvantaged hill families." Glen Allan whites resented the "poor white" element and avoided contact with them. Black/white relationships were regulated by a rigid caste system which established the black "place" in society and the economy. Any breeches were dealt with by intimidation and occasional violence.

Plantations around Glen Allan were organized into tenant farms, usually share-cropped by blacks on a half-and-half arrangement with the landowner. The system created profits for the planters, and they regarded it as profitable for the tenant as well since he was furnished food and shelter. But the sharecropper received little cash and sometimes remained in debt to the landowner, so he perceived the system as unprofitable. The development of tractors and a mechanical cotton-picker made complete mechanization possible by 1950, radically altering the agricultural system. Machines may have displaced some labor but many of the best laborers had migrated by 1930.

Social progress and modernization from 1900 to 1950 affected whites to a much greater extent than blacks. Because of the availability of black labor, whites were able to pursue frequent leisure activities. Black leisure activities, such as school and church socials, were more informal.

Racial relationships shaped the history of Glen Allan, reinforcing the basically static nature of its society and contributing to resistance to economic change. But by 1950, revolutionary economic and social progress had begun the process of breaking down rigid racial barriers.

MPACT Scores for Virginia Estes Causey

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-06-03 09:55:51

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Students under Virginia Estes Causey

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None