Deep South: A Social Anthropological Study of Caste and Class

313 Pages·2022·3.642 MB·English

by  Allison Davis, Burleigh B. Gardner, Mary R. Gardner, Isabel Wilkerson

Deep South

Deep South
A Social Anthropological Study of Caste and Class
Allison Davis
Burleigh B. Gardner
Mary R. Gardner
Enlarged Second Edition, with a New Foreword by Isabel Wilkerson
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 1941, 1965 by The University of Chicago
Foreword © 2022 by Isabel Wilkerson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief
quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact
the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2022
Printed in the United States of America
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 81798- 9 (paper)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 81799- 6 (e- book)
DOI: https:// doi .org /10 .7208 /chicago /9780226817996 .001 .0001
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Davis, Allison, 1902– 1983, author. | Gardner, Burleigh B. (Burleigh Bradford),
1902– author. | Gardner, Mary R., author. | Wilkerson, Isabel, writer of foreword. |
Warner, W. Lloyd (William Lloyd), 1898– 1970, writer of introduction.
Title: Deep south : a social anthropological study of caste and class / Allison Davis,
Burleigh B. Gardner, Mary R. Gardner.
Description: Enlarged second edition / with a new foreword by Isabel Wilkerson.
| Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2022. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021057700 | ISBN 9780226817989 (paperback) |
ISBN 9780226817996 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: African Americans—Southern States. | Social classes—Southern
States. | Southern States—Social conditions. | Southern States—Economic
conditions.
Classification: LCC HN79.A2 D3 2022 | DDC 305.5/12208996073075—dc23/eng/20211217
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021057700
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992
(Permanence of Paper).
To Edwin R. Embree
social engineer with a faith
in the sciences of human behavior
1941
We thank the University of Chicago— particularly Walter Massey,
emeritus trustee and special advisor to the president, and Professor
Amanda Woodward, dean of the Division of Social Sciences— for
the university’s deep commitment to honoring the life and work of
W.  Allison Davis. We express our profound thanks to David Varel for
tirelessly documenting in his elegant work The Lost Black Scholar so
much we did not know about the lives and legacies of Elizabeth Stubbs
Davis and W. Allison Davis. And lastly, we thank Isabel Wilkerson for
her magnificent foreword to this new edition of Deep South, for cham-
pioning Deep South as one of the most important works on race in
America, and for extolling the brilliance and courage of our remark-
able parents.
Allison S. Davis
Gordon J. Davis
2022

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
List of Tables xi
Foreword by Isabel Wilkerson xiii
Preface xxv
Part I
1 Introduction: Deep South— A Social Anthropological Study
of Caste and Class W. Lloyd Warner 3
2 The System of Color- Castes 12
3 The Class System of the White Caste 46
4 The White Upper- Class Family 65
5 The White Middle- Class Family 75
6 The White Lower- Class Family 84
7 Social Cliques in the White Society 99
8 Social Mobility within the White Caste 124
9 The Class System of the Colored Caste 151
Part II
10 Intimidation of Labor 171
11 The Plantation in Its Social Setting 178
12 Relation between the Caste System and the Economic System 195
13 Caste, Class, and Local Government: White Power 217
14 Retrospect, 1965: Power and Caste 259
Afterword, 1986 Burleigh B. Gardner 271
Index 279

Illustrations
1 Relation between the Caste System and the Class System in the
Deep South 9
2 The Social Perspectives of the Social Classes 51
3 Frequency of Interparticipation of a Group of Women in Old City:
1936— Group I 108
4 Frequency of Interparticipation of a Group of Women in Old City:
1936— Group II 108
5 Types of Members of, and Relationships between, Two Overlapping
Cliques 109
6 Distribution of 443 White Clique Members by Social Class 117
7 Interparticipation of Clique Groups I and II in an Age- Class Configuration 119
8 The Participation Line in an Age- Class Configuration 119
9 Scope of Possible Participations of an Upper- Middle- Class Woman 121
10 Social Participation through an Indirect Relation: “Up and Older” 122
11 Circulation of Money on a Plantation through a Manager- Patriarch-
Treasurer 189
12 Relative Status of Negroes and Whites in Non-economic Structures of
the Society 196
13 Relative Status of Negroes and Whites in Economic Structures of
the Society 196