The Story Of Forsyth Georgia In Blood At The Root By Patrick Phillips

The story of forsyth georgia is a very long and very racist one. The novel Blood At The Root by Patrick Phillips captures this troubling 100 year period of American history perfectly. While this novel is only a historical recollection of events from someone who lived in Forsyth, the novel has a much larger effect on the reader. The novel tries to give the reader an idea of how blacks were discriminated against, and how they were virtually powerless to fight it. The novel also illustrates the effect of white victimization in areas like forsyth. These people, feel like the blacks have wronged them just by being there, which allowed and still allows to this day whites to feel like victims.

Forsyth county's story starts in the 1830’s when President

Jim crow laws and segregation were everywhere into the early 1960’s almost 100 years after the civil war. violence against blacks wasn't just confined to the years of slavery either. Blacks were still being lynched and burned at the stake INTO THE 1900’s. The KKK can be held responsible for that. This direct aggressive and violent form of discrimination boiled over in 1912, when in forsyth georgia, three black teenagers were accused of murdering and raping Mae Crow, an 18 year old white woman. One of the boys was hung by a mob within 48 hours of the incident, and the other two were sentenced to death and executed two months later. The three boys did not commit the crime, they were innocent, they confessed under duress in fear of their lives. Not long after, bands of angry citizens, and KKK members rode through the county and killed, burned and pillaged everything that belonged to a black person. They drove all of the 1,098 black people out of the county. Every single one. The records of this event were almost discussed. Phillips, who grew up in the town recalls his childhood, “the tale, stripped of names

Phillips also writes about how the whites were afraid of blacks taking revenge for slavery. This belief by whites allowed themselves to be seen as the victims. This belief, only furthered white hysteria in the south. This kind of whitewashing isn't a new thing in our world today. It's been going on for nearly 130 years. The way in which reconstruction was handled, as well as the handling of the KKK have contributed to belief in the Deep South, that they've been the victims of something. A great example of this can be seen from an interview