Description
Book SynopsisLinked to the Caribbean and southern Europe as well as to the Confederacy, the Cigar City of Tampa, Florida, never fit comfortably into the biracial mold of the New South. Nancy A. Hewitt explores the interactions among distinct groups of women--native-born white, African American, Cuban and Italian immigrant women--that shaped women''s activism in the vibrant, multiethnic city.
Hewitt emphasizes the process by which women forged and reformulated their activist identities from Reconstruction through the U.S. declaration of war against Spain in April 1898, the industrywide cigar strike of 1901, and the emergence of progressive reform and labor militancy. She also recasts our understanding of southern history by demonstrating how Tampa''s triracial networks alternately challenged and re-inscribed the South''s biracial social and political order.
Trade ReviewJulia Cherry Spruill Prize, Southern Association for Women Historians, 2002.
"A splendid piece of work: rich in detail, soundly reasoned, and provocative in its implications for social historians' debates about identity. Hewitt's lucid, engaging prose makes the book a particularly good one for use in undergraduate classrooms, but specialists will also find it a most valuable read."--
Journal of American History"Hewitt's book revises previous notions about the biracialism of Jim Crow. . . . Outstanding scholarship."--
Choice"Enriches our understanding of women and gender in urban history through [the] astute analys[is] of women as key public actors and cultural symbols in the emerging city of Tampa."--
Urban HistoryTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Part 1: The Making of a Multiracial City, 1880-1901 1. Creating the Cigar City 21
2. An Activist Mosaic 38
3. Solidarity and Segregation 67
4. Race Conflicts and Class Currents 98
Part 2: Kaleidoscopic Connections, 1902-29 5. African American Women Confront Jim Crow 142
6. Anglo Women in the Era of Institution Building 170
7. Latin Women from Exiles to Immigrants 200
8. New Women 222
9. Recasting Activist Identities 248
Epilogue 271
Notes 277
Index 335
Illustrations follow page 136
