Abstract

The focus of this paper is the social, economic, and political development of the black community once  known as South Asheville in the city of  Asheville, North Carolina. It spans the period of slavery, the Civil War, emancipation, Reconstruction and Fusion politics.  From 1865 to 1900, Blacks in Asheville experienced much progress mostly because they felt far less  racial discrimination than what was experienced in  other parts of the South  The mixed racial attitudes of the Whites in Asheville allowed them access to more of the positive things happening in the city so the newly emancipated became a significant part of the boom Asheville experienced after the Civil War.  Since there were very few plantations , formerly enslaved people were not concentrated in small geographic areas of the city,  Some, like Mr. William McDowell, who did,  however, run a slave plantation, did much to help his former slaves and Blacks in general thrive by breaking up his former plantation into small pieces of land which he gave to them or allowed them to purchase at a small price. This created the suburb of Black South Asheville.

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