Strange Fruit: Racism and Community Life in the Chesapeake—1850 to the Present by John R. Wennersten

Abstract

Reviewed by: Strange Fruit: Racism and Community Life in the Chesapeake—1850 to the Present by John R. Wennersten John G. Deal Strange Fruit: Racism and Community Life in the Chesapeake—1850 to the Present. By John R. Wennersten. (Washington, D.C.: New Academia Publishing, 2020. Pp. xiv, 225. Paper, $24.00, ISBN 978-1-7359378-4-7.) In Strange Fruit: Racism and Community Life in the Chesapeake—1850 to the Present, John R. Wennersten examines race relations on Maryland’s Eastern Shore to challenge assumptions about race on the national level. Organized chronologically, Strange Fruit will appeal to a general audience, [End Page 145] thanks to its lively prose, vivid descriptions, dramatic photos, and historical overviews that serve as guideposts for each chapter. It is a relatively short book of just over two hundred narrative pages. Wennersten begins with a brief history of Somerset County, noting its geographic isolation, which caused residents to identify themselves regionally, rather than as Marylanders. Wennersten moves quickly through the trajectory of race relations beginning in 1850, when Somerset County had a proportionately large number of free Black and enslaved persons (4,571 and 5,089, respectively), while the white population stood at 15,332. Owing to its isolation, the county had about the same population in 2020 as it did in 1850. Wennersten describes the abuses and indignities heaped on enslaved persons, the domestic slave trade, and (thanks to Somerset County’s border state location) escapes to freedom. Despite efforts by the county’s slaveholding elite, Maryland’s new state constitution outlawed slavery in September 1864. In post–Civil War Somerset County, freedmen faced white intransigence as they entered a world of new political opportunities, demanded civil rights, and participated in a free labor economy. Many formerly enslaved people became watermen and contributed to the Eastern Shore’s expanding seafood industry. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, race relations deteriorated further with the advent of Jim Crow segregation and efforts to restrict Black voting rights in Maryland. Making effective use of local and state records, contemporary newspapers, and his own interviews, Wennersten hits his stride as the narrative enters the twentieth century. To show how violence against Black people in Somerset County intensified, he vividly describes the murder of George Armwood in 1933. Armwood was falsely accused of raping an elderly white woman. A white mob hauled him out of his jail cell, stabbed him to death, and dragged him through the streets, at which point he was hanged and burned. In response, a New York City teacher named Abel Meeropol wrote a poem that began with the verse, “Southern trees bearing strange fruit. Blood on the leaves and blood at the roots” (p. 137). The state of race relations on the Eastern Shore during the twentieth century mirrored conditions in other regions. The local canning industry exploited Black labor, and many young African Americans migrated elsewhere in search of work. While exploring these larger themes, Wennersten also reveals interesting details, such as the use of German prisoners of war as agricultural workers during World War II, a move that undercut Black wages. Like other communities around the country, African Americans on the Eastern Shore demanded an end to segregation in schools, restaurants, and hotels during the 1960s. Blacks had few white allies in their efforts, and protesters were met with violence that sometimes escalated into riots. Aligning with the present-day African American experience nationwide, Black people on the Eastern Shore continue to confront limited access to medical care, higher mortality rates, underrepresentation in public offices, and violence perpetrated against them. Reflecting on the persistence of racism in the Chesapeake, Wennersten titles his last chapter “Semper Eadem,” which translates to “always the same” (p. 205). [End Page 146] John G. Deal Library of Virginia Copyright © 2023 The Southern Historical Association