"This is Not Dixie:" The Imagined South, the Kansas Free State Narrative, and the Rhetoric of Racist Violence
This essay explores how white Kansans employed images of the "South" and its association with racist violence in constituting the identity of Kansas as the "Free State" from 1865 until 1914. It argues that prevailing assumptions about the South offered a sectional imaginary throu...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Emory Center for Digital Scholarship
2007-09-01
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| Series: | Southern Spaces |
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| Online Access: | https://southernspaces.org/node/42637 |
| _version_ | 1811332759506911232 |
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| author | Brent M. S. Campney |
| author_facet | Brent M. S. Campney |
| author_sort | Brent M. S. Campney |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This essay explores how white Kansans employed images of the "South" and its association with racist violence in constituting the identity of Kansas as the "Free State" from 1865 until 1914. It argues that prevailing assumptions about the South offered a sectional imaginary through which white Kansans interpreted the racist violence in their own midst. On the one hand, the South, and the violence that occurred there, provided a means to obscure, dismiss, and justify incidents in Kansas, allowing commentators to cultivate a sort of historical amnesia, to deem each subsequent episode an anomaly, the exception that proved the rule of Midwestern virtue. On the other hand, the idea of the South constituted a powerful enticement for resistance to racist violence among white Kansans fearful of becoming associated with it. The essay relies primarily on the analysis of contemporary white state newspaper coverage of racist violence. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T16:41:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4890f72fd9854c0abf339264a0cf2f99 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1551-2754 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T16:41:49Z |
| publishDate | 2007-09-01 |
| publisher | Emory Center for Digital Scholarship |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Southern Spaces |
| spelling | doaj.art-4890f72fd9854c0abf339264a0cf2f992022-12-22T02:39:12ZengEmory Center for Digital ScholarshipSouthern Spaces1551-27542007-09-0110.18737/M7B30P"This is Not Dixie:" The Imagined South, the Kansas Free State Narrative, and the Rhetoric of Racist ViolenceBrent M. S. Campney0Emory UniversityThis essay explores how white Kansans employed images of the "South" and its association with racist violence in constituting the identity of Kansas as the "Free State" from 1865 until 1914. It argues that prevailing assumptions about the South offered a sectional imaginary through which white Kansans interpreted the racist violence in their own midst. On the one hand, the South, and the violence that occurred there, provided a means to obscure, dismiss, and justify incidents in Kansas, allowing commentators to cultivate a sort of historical amnesia, to deem each subsequent episode an anomaly, the exception that proved the rule of Midwestern virtue. On the other hand, the idea of the South constituted a powerful enticement for resistance to racist violence among white Kansans fearful of becoming associated with it. The essay relies primarily on the analysis of contemporary white state newspaper coverage of racist violence.https://southernspaces.org/node/42637Criminal JusticePolitics and GovernmentJournalismRegional StudiesWhiteness Studies |
| spellingShingle | Brent M. S. Campney "This is Not Dixie:" The Imagined South, the Kansas Free State Narrative, and the Rhetoric of Racist Violence Southern Spaces Criminal Justice Politics and Government Journalism Regional Studies Whiteness Studies |
| title | "This is Not Dixie:" The Imagined South, the Kansas Free State Narrative, and the Rhetoric of Racist Violence |
| title_full | "This is Not Dixie:" The Imagined South, the Kansas Free State Narrative, and the Rhetoric of Racist Violence |
| title_fullStr | "This is Not Dixie:" The Imagined South, the Kansas Free State Narrative, and the Rhetoric of Racist Violence |
| title_full_unstemmed | "This is Not Dixie:" The Imagined South, the Kansas Free State Narrative, and the Rhetoric of Racist Violence |
| title_short | "This is Not Dixie:" The Imagined South, the Kansas Free State Narrative, and the Rhetoric of Racist Violence |
| title_sort | this is not dixie the imagined south the kansas free state narrative and the rhetoric of racist violence |
| topic | Criminal Justice Politics and Government Journalism Regional Studies Whiteness Studies |
| url | https://southernspaces.org/node/42637 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT brentmscampney thisisnotdixietheimaginedsouththekansasfreestatenarrativeandtherhetoricofracistviolence |