Long before it was called “Jim Crow,” the white citizens of the Northern United States had established a de facto system of segregation that was, in many ways, more odious than the deep-fried racism in the South.* The Northern form of American apartheid had less to do with property rights, economics, or fear of Black rule; it existed because whites sincerely believed they were more human than their Black counterparts. Pennsylvania disenfranchised Black voters in 1838 after initially allowing free Black men to vote. The Union army was divided into racial companies.
