Southern Migrants, Northern Exiles
- List Price: $44.95
- Binding: Hardcover
- Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr
- Publish date: 03/01/2000
Southern out-migration drew millions of southern workers to the steel mills, automobile factories, and even agricultural fields and orchards of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. Through vivid oral histories, Chad Berry explores the conflict between migrants' economic success and their "spiritual exile" in the North. He documents the tension between factory owners who welcomed cheap, naive southern laborers and local "native" workers who greeted migrants with suspicion and hostility. He examines the phenomenon of "shuttle migration", in which migrants came north to work during the winter and returned home to plant spring crops on their southern farms. He also explores the impact of southern traditions -- especially the Southern evangelical church and "hillbilly" music -- brought north by migrants.
By allowing southern migrants to assess their own experiences and tell their own stones, Southern Migrants, Northern Exiles refutes persistent stereotypes about migrants' clannishness, life-style, work ethic, and success in the North.