ipl-logo

White Supremacy In The Underground Railroad

780 Words4 Pages

In Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad,” white supremacy is portrayed as a pervasive and destructive force that shaped the lives of African Americans. Through vivid depictions of brutal violence and systematic oppression portrayed through various chapters, Whitehead reveals two distinct but similar ways white supremacy perpetuated slavery. White hegemony and White fear displayed how white supremacy was used to justify the violence and exploitation against African Americans.
Whitehead demonstrates how white supremacy permeates every aspect of American society. Ridgeway was the essence of White hegemony in the novel. Ridgeway's acts are justified by his worldview, the American Imperative, which states that it is the American Imperative …show more content…

The fact about Social Darwinism is that many white people, particularly Ridgeway, had the same ideas regarding slavery and buying slaves. Ridgeway mentions to Cora–the protagonist's runaway slave–that she and her mother are the best of their race. Moreover, Ridegway continues to shine a light on white supremacy through this chapter as he describes how the weak “have been weeded out, they die in the slave ships,”(227) and they needed the slaves to be strong to endure the harsh labors they were put through but not so fit they could outrun them. With this attitude and thought in mind, Ridgeway goes to tremendous efforts to maintain fear among the slaves in order to establish order, and white supremacy continues through his generation. The white supremacist's strong belief in social Darwinism dictates that some races are inherently superior to others and that the "survival of the fittest" should be the guiding principle of society. This belief is used to justify the enslavement of black people and the brutal treatment they received at the hands of their oppressors. Ridgeway ties Social Darwinism to the American imperative throughout the final sections of Tennesse because white people are at the top of the ladder, holding all the power simply because they can steal land and kidnap Africans to bring them to the states and enslave

Show More
Related

  • Selfishness In The Underground Railroad

    159 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the beginning of the novel, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, Mabel is constantly represented as an awful mother when described by her daughter, Cora. Mabel spends her whole life on the Randall Plantation before one day running away, leaving Cora behind. Cora perceives this as an act of selfishness and is furious that Mabel didn’t say goodbye. Cora thought “it was incomprehensible that Mabel had abandoned her to that hell” (Whitehead 98). If the plantation was bad enough for Mabel to leave, it must be just as bad for Cora

    Read More

  • Book Review Of Gateway To Freedom The Hidden History Of The Underground Railroad

    932 Words  | 4 Pages

    While this book focuses on the escape of runaway slaves and especially the support and obstacles they encountered in New York City, he places his study within the wider context of American politics at the time. Foner really opened many Americans eyes and made them more informed on the Underground Railroad, he did a great job on informing us about this topic and letting us explore the idea of what he was trying to get through to us. Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad made people appreciate the people that really didn’t get any much credit for it, this book truly makes you want to understand and learn more. ““The “underground railroad” should be understood not as a single entity but as an umbrella term for local groups that employed numerous methods to assist fugitives, some public and entirely legal, some flagrant violations of the law,” (

    Read More

  • Underground Railroad Research Paper

    506 Words  | 3 Pages

    The ‘Underground Railroad’ and its significance to the study of American pre-civil war history Table of Contents 1. Civil war 2. Slavery in America 3. Underground Railroad 4. Runaway slaves 5.

    Read More

  • Delusion In The Underground Road

    1586 Words  | 7 Pages

    To begin, when Cora is examining the white exhibits, she thinks about how false they are and how they hide the truth: "The whites came to this land for a fresh start and to escape the tyranny of their masters, just as the freeman had fled theirs. But the ideals they held up for themselves, they denied others" (Whitehead 119). Cora describes how the white men wanted to conquer this land to achieve their own freedom and live by their ideals, which are only upheld for them and do not apply to black people. The white people did not believe that they needed to treat black people equally as them, rather, they were just objects that they could use for their own benefit. Furthermore, while Lander speaks about common delusions, he brings up America: "'And America, too, is a delusion, the grandest one of all.

    Read More

  • Underground Railroad Research Paper

    486 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Underground Railroad of the United States of America was a complex system of knowledge and experience that made it possible for slaves to escape the harsh realities of laboring for the opportunistic region of the North. With this in mind, all fugitives faced tremendous odds, displaying unimaginable amounts of courage in order to bypass themselves from the conditions they lived under in the South. Similarly, there were many directly opposing ideas making their way through the minds of those in the legislature, in essence creating a social divide that would arguably continue until the end of the civil rights movement. Although today it is known as a singular concept, the Underground Railroad was composed of several independent organizations that in turn collectively had goals of abolishing slavery.

    Read More

  • The Impact Of The Underground Railroad On The Abolition Of Slavery

    1175 Words  | 5 Pages

    The book also highlights the role of the Underground Railroad in providing a means of escape for enslaved African Americans. Davis' book is a critical source in understanding the abolitionist movement's efforts to end slavery and how the Underground Railroad played a role in those

    Read More

  • The Underground Railroad Research Paper

    239 Words  | 1 Pages

    Harsh treatment on individuals that do not have the right to their freedom is far from happiness. The fact that anyone believes that slaves were happy in any shape or form is sad to hear. A lot of people would disagree with the teacher that said slaves were happy to be treated as so. The slaves were punished and handled like wild animals when they should have been given the same right as white individuals. Many songs were sung amongst the Africans in code, therefore, their owners would not know of their plans to escape.

    Read More

  • The Underground Railroad Research Paper

    1019 Words  | 5 Pages

    During the 1500s until 1865 the 3 most defining moments in African American History were Slavery, The Underground Railroad, and The Civil Rights. I chose these 3 events because they played a very important role in the United States. Slavery was important because, it provided labor power to settle in the economy and development of the modern world. The Underground is very unique to me because, it is like a secret hideout for slaves. It allowed them to escape safer and faster than a normal escape.

    Read More

  • Slavery And The Underground Railroad

    749 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Fugitive Slave Acts were an act of rebellion against slaves escaping. There was already the fugitive slave act that was created in 1793 to allow slave masters to force slaves back into captivity, but it was not enforced that much. By 1850, there were many slaves that escaped and the since there could not be any more slaves imported, the price of a slave rose exponentially. The new acts in 1850 forced any citizen who saw a runaway slave to catch them, and “It also denied slaves the right to a jury trial and increased the penalty for interfering with the rendition process to $1000 and six months in jail” (History.com). This was a method rebellion against slaves for escaping, but the act fell through quickly because by then, almost no one

    Read More

  • The Underground Railroad Essay

    766 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the early 1800’s many homeowners had slaves to do work for them. Slaves were treated terribly, had little to eat and had no rights to protect them. When the United States was established the Union split into two sides, pro-slavery and non-slavery states. The South was filled with slave owners and the North was filled with people who wanted to abolish it for good. After this the Union was highly motivated to end it, but there were many in the United States who wanted to increase it and some wanted to abolish it.

    Read More

  • The Underground Railroad Essay

    615 Words  | 3 Pages

    Did you know there was an Underground Railroad on Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia). If not, you're about to know about it. This is a fun thing to learn about. The Underground Railroad is a good topic to talk about if you're into older history. The Underground Railroad is a very important topic in history.

    Read More

  • The Underground Railroad Essay

    1358 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Underground Railroad. A metaphor as it was, it was neither a railroad nor was it even underground. In the time where slavery became a divided issue with the status of legality in various parts of the country, the underground railroad found its beginnings through collective organized efforts from abolitionists and allies alike to help enslaved African americans to escape to territories and states where they could be free from slavery. It was a loosely-developed system that also included series of routes led by “conductors” such as Harriet Tubman, for escaping slaves, or “passengers”.

    Read More

  • Literary Devices In The Underground Railroad

    1642 Words  | 7 Pages

    From this, derives a bond with the reader that pushes their understanding of the evil nature of slavery that society deemed appropriate therefore enhancing their understanding of history. While only glossed over in most classroom settings of the twenty-first century, students often neglect the sad but true reality that the backbone of slavery, was the dehumanization of an entire race of people. To create a group of individuals known for their extreme oppression derived from slavery, required plantation owner’s of the South to constantly embedded certain values into the lives of their slaves. To talk back means to be whipped.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Devices In The Underground Railroad

    1490 Words  | 6 Pages

    In the contemporary era, the issue of race remains a prevalent topic in public discussion. Thus, Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad is meaningful as it explores the legacy of racial injustice in the United States and its consequences in today’s society. In his development of the underground railroad as a literal and physical vehicle to freedom, Whitehead is able to candidly detail the ubiquitous nature of racial prejudice and the horrors associated with it. Over the course of his novel, the author utilizes a variety of rhetorical devices in order to further explore the many hardships that ‘freedom’ inevitably entails.

    Read More

  • Themes Of The Underground Railroad

    1754 Words  | 8 Pages

    The novel of The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead takes place in the early 1800’s during the slavery era, in the southern state of Georgia. This realistic- fiction novel expresses themes of freedom, violence, the classification “good” and “bad”, influential pasts, racial hardship. Whitehead portrays a magnificent story of a young slave named Cora, who travels across the southern states on a railroad cars that are physically underground. Cora is persuaded by a another slave named Caesar to escape her home of the Georgia plantation. However, hot on their trail is slave catcher Ridgeway, who has a personal axe to grind with Cora.

    Read More

More about White Supremacy In The Underground Railroad

Open Document