ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to study the mechanism of social segregation and discrimination, somewhat in detail, as it operates in various regions of the country. The one-sidedness of the system of segregation is apparent in the fact that the better accommodations are always reserved for the white people. In the North, where the whole system of social segregation and discrimination is kept sub rosa, the sanctions of the law are ordinarily turned the other way—to protect Negro equality. Under the influence of the rising fear of slave revolts, the spread of abolitionism in the North, and the actual escape of many Negro slaves along the "underground railroad", the regimentation became increasingly strict during the decades preceding the Civil War. Certain attitudes, common in the South, become more understandable when we have recognized that, behind all rationalizing stereotyped beliefs and popular theories, a main concern of the white man is to preserve social inequality for its own sake.
