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Book Cover
E-book
Author Mooney, Katherine Carmines, author.

Title Race horse men : how slavery and freedom were made at the racetrack / Katherine C. Mooney
Published Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2014
©2014

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Description 1 online resource (321 pages) : illustrations
Contents Prologue : The loss of the stirrup has won the race -- The glory of the four-mile horse -- Knowed a horse when he seed him -- A storm is approaching -- These are the verities -- The only practical means of reunion -- I ride to win -- I have got that nigger beat -- Epilogue : He didn't go in no back doors!
Summary "A popular pastime across American society, horse racing was most closely identified with an elite class of southern owners who bred horses and bet large sums of money on these spirited animals. The central characters in this story are not privileged whites, however, but the black jockeys, grooms, and horse trainers who sometimes called themselves race horse men and who made the racetrack run. Mooney describes a world of patriarchal privilege and social prestige where blacks as well as whites could achieve status and recognition and where favored slaves endured an unusual form of bondage. For wealthy white men, the racetrack illustrated their cherished visions of a harmonious, modern society based on human slavery. After emancipation, a number of black horsemen went on to become sports celebrities, their success a potential threat to white supremacy and a source of pride for African Americans. The rise of Jim Crow in the early twentieth century drove many horsemen from their jobs, with devastating consequences for them and their families. Mooney illuminates the role these too often forgotten men played in Americans' continuing struggle to define the meaning of freedom."-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Katherine C. Mooney is Assistant Professor of History at Florida State University
In English
Print version record
Subject Horse racing -- Social aspects -- United States -- History -- 19th century
Horse racing -- United States -- History -- 19th century
African American horsemen and horsewomen -- United States -- History -- 19th century
African American jockeys -- History -- 19th century
SPORTS & RECREATION -- Equestrian.
HISTORY -- United States -- 19th Century.
African American horsemen and horsewomen
African American jockeys
Horse racing
Horse racing -- Social aspects
Race relations
SUBJECT Southern States -- Race relations -- History -- 19th century
Subject Southern States
United States
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2013037080
ISBN 9780674419551
0674419553