During the late 19th century, scholars and authors wrote extensively on race relations in the South. One such text, entitled Ham and Dixie, deserves more attention, especially for its unique first-person perspective. Author Joseph Burritt Sevelli-Capponi was born in Florida in 1862. He left the state to attend Biddle University in North Carolina before moving to Texas, where he became an attorney. He eventually returned to Florida, where he practiced law shortly before going into education. At the time of publishing Ham and Dixie (1895), Sevelli-Capponi was the principal of Warden Academy, the Black public school located where Excelsior School was later built in 1925.
SAHS Research Library copy of “Ham and Dixie,” 1895.
Shortly after its publication, Ham and Dixie was promoted in the Jacksonville Florida Times-Union. The purpose of the text was largely distorted by the newspaper, however, as Ham and Dixie was described as a treatise directed at “northern missionaries” to explain to non-Southerners that “the negro race will be obliged if they are left alone.” Sevelli-Capponi dedicated the first seven chapters of Ham and Dixie to setting up the nature of the “Southern Problem.” After delineating his racial and educational background in the introduction, he utilizes Christian theology in his second chapter to support the idea that all men are created equal, but different circumstances produce different men. Chapter 3 describes the “circumstance” of slavery, and its devastating moral and financial effects on the formerly enslaved. Sevelli-Capponi advocates for racial pride, stating that he “loves… the Negro’s blackness, because [it is] original and God-given.”
The following chapters, however, undercut some of this self-confidence. After using the fourth chapter to describe the qualities that a successful nation requires to survive, the fifth then states his own race possesses none of these. Chapter 6 continues this theme, arguing that slavery has made Black people “irresponsible,” and that by acting more presentably, White society will start accepting them. However, he does not believe that Black individuals should act more like White people, as that would contribute to the “degradation of the Negro.” Chapter 7 addresses various plans to improve the status of Black individuals, such as the “40-acre-and-a-mule” promise, and transportation outside the United States. In both instances, Sevelli-Capponi blames Black people for the failure of these options. In his mind, they are unable to utilize the land promised or construct a nation of their own. He also advocates against a civil rights legislation, stating that it would cause more racial strife. While believing in racial equality, Sevelli-Capponi argues that Black people must become more respectable to progress within White society, and must accept its racial prejudices.
The next six chapters take a deep dive into the intricacies of Sevelli-Capponi’s proposed solution to the “Negro Problem” in the United Sates. He deems strong unity in the Black community as a necessity, along with the unified cause of greater good. It is noted specifically that as a unified community, a “Grand Union League” should be created across the country and be subdivided within each state, county, and precinct to “examine into, discuss, improve and develop every worthy interest of your race; and also, to examine into, discuss, discourage and remove every degrading custom to which your race has hitherto adhered.” Sevelli-Capponi then urges for a “gigantic Negro university,” not separated by race, religion, or sex. He later reiterates his plan of action, and adds that the Union League/Negro Assembly should create a memorandum stating their wants, needs, and rights as citizens of the United States. However, such a document, according to Sevelli-Capponi, should not only be given to legislators to read, but to Southern citizens as well. He also advocates for an interracial Congress amongst the Southern states as part of this plan of action.
The closing chapters of Ham and Dixie are creative writing pieces, and Sevelli-Capponi ends the book specifically with a play script. This script utilizes characters and settings to address all the arguments and opinions expressed throughout the book.
Overall, Ham and Dixie is a complex and often paradoxical view of the post-Reconstruction South. Written by a well-educated Black man, Sevelli-Capponi uses his unique perspective to address racial issues in America. His background is demonstrated by his advocacy for the founding of a multiracial “Negro university,” and a Grand Union League to encourage legislative and social change. He offers a complicated stance on Black pride, endorsing its necessity while blaming his own race for the position of African Americans in White society. In this work, Joseph Burritt Sevelli-Capponi documents his personal processing of the lived experience of Black people in the South, which influenced his proposed solutions for reaching racial equality in America.
Written by: Sydney Livingston – Special Collections Assistant & Shelby Fox – Information Specialist
Edited by: Robert Covert – Special Collections Manager & Editor-in-Chief
Works Cited
1900 United States Federal Census: San Antonio Ward 7, Bexar, Texas; Roll: 1612; Page: 5. Census Bureau. Ancestry.com.
“Ham and Dixie,” Times-Union, October 8, 1895, 3.
McCarthy, Kevin (ed.), The Book Lover’s Guide to Florida, Pineapple Press: Sarasota, FL, 1992, 73.
“School No. 2-Colored School Excelsior’s first name,” St. Augustine Record, (St. Augustine, FL), July 3rd, 1991.
Sevelli-Capponi, Joseph Burritt. Ham and Dixie: A Just, Simple and Original Discussion of the Southern Problem. 1895.
“St. Augustine, St. Johns County, Florida, 1899.” Sanborn Map Company. University of Florida Digital Collections. https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00074227/00006/images.
“Warden Academy Burned,” St. Augustine Record, (St. Augustine, FL), March 30, 1900.