Thursday, November 08, 2012

1859, 1950, and 2012

This map is disturbing to see how some things don't change.

The same and territories states that allowed slavery or were open to slavery are practically the same ones that required segregation or didn't have specific legislation on segregation.  Not only that but a majority of them voted for Mitt Romney.

Colorado, Nevada, and Virginia seem to be the ones that have progressed over time.  Colorado, while open to slavery, prohibited segregation in 1950 and voted for Barack Obama.  Nevada was open to slavery and didn't have any specific legislation on segregation and also voted for Obama.  Virginia has been helped in recent years by the vast majority that live in the DC area more so than anywhere else in the state.

Idaho is a different case.  It was a free state/territory and prohibited segregation.

In New Mexico, they were open to slavery, segregation was allowed to varying degrees, and they voted for Obama.

Florida, while being a slave state and requiring segregation, voted for Obama.

Indiana is a strange case.  They were a free state, prohibited segregation, and voted for Romney.  But then again, Indiana also voted for Bob Dole and George H.W. Bush, too.

It's amazing to see how these maps look so similar.  The states that owned slaves really have not changed.


3 comments:

Amber said...

Do you know the source/origin of this map? I'm trying to track where the information came from but not having much luck. Thanks.

Danielle Solzman said...

No, I don't know. Saw it repeatedly on FB last night.

Jesse said...

This is an incredibly ignorant post.

These states swung conservative because they are agrarian based economies with little urbanization, not because they were slave owning states or territories. Notice how the red states in the election expanded to the other agrarian states, regardless of slave legislation?

There's no causation, only the correlation that historically, slave owning states would also remain rural/farm based, which tends towards conservative views.

People who continue to depict the south as some bastion of racism or that as a group they are voting a certain way because of racist views are perpetuating a lie. All areas of the country have deep problems with racism, and the easy scapegoat of pointing at the South as the only place it happens is asinine.