Spirit of rebellion : labor and religion in the new cotton South /
Jarod Roll.
- 1 online resource (xii, 266 pages) : illustrations, maps.
- The working class in American history .
- Working class in American history. .
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Front Matter -- Introduction / Amanda Porterfield, John Corrigan -- Exploration and Encounter (1492₆1692). Politics / Amanda Porterfield -- Cosmology / John Corrigan -- Community / Sarah Rivett -- Practice / Tracy N Leavelle -- The Atlantic World (1692₆1803). Politics / Jon Sensbach -- Cosmology / Stephen A Marini -- Community / Kenneth P Minkema -- Practice / Martha L Finch -- American Empire (1803₆1898). Politics / Mark A Noll -- Cosmology / Robert Fuller -- Community / Heather D Curtis -- Practice / Christopher White -- Global Reach (1898₆Present). Politics / Charles H Lippy -- Cosmology / Kathryn Lofton -- Community / Peter W Williams -- Practice / Candy Gunther Brown -- Acknowledgments -- Index.
Winner of the Herbert G. Gutman Prize from the Labor and Working-Class History Association In Spirit of Rebellion, Jarod Roll documents an alternative tradition of American protest by linking working-class political movements to grassroots religious revivals. He reveals how ordinary rural citizens in the south used available resources and their shared faith to defend their agrarian livelihoods amid the political and economic upheaval of the first half of the twentieth century. On the frontier of the New Cotton South in Missouri's Bootheel, the relationships between black and white farmers were complicated by racial tensions and bitter competition. Despite these divisions, workers found common ground as dissidents fighting for economic security, decent housing, and basic health, ultimately drawing on the democratic potential of evangelical religion to wage working-class revolts against commodity agriculture and the political forces that buoyed it. Roll convincingly shows how the moral clarity and spiritual vigor these working people found in the burgeoning Pentecostal revivals gave them the courage and fortitude to develop an expansive agenda of workers' rights by tapping into the powers of existing organizations such as the Socialist Party, the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the NAACP, and the interracial Southern Tenant Farmers' Union.
Tenant farmers--History.--Missouri African American farmers--History.--Missouri Labor movement--History.--Missouri Working class--Religious life--History.--Missouri SOCIAL SCIENCE--Discrimination & Race Relations. SOCIAL SCIENCE--Minority Studies. RELIGION--General. African American farmers. Labor movement. Tenant farmers. Working class--Religious life.