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Sam McReynolds, Ph.D., professor and chair in the Department of Society, Culture and Language, was recently interviewed for an episode of Vermont Public Radio’s podcast Brave Little State that examined the question “Why Is Vermont So Overwhelmingly White?” In addition to interviewing people of color living in Vermont about what life is like for them, the program also shed light on the historical, economic and social forces that shaped Vermont’s “whiteness.” To examine these forces, the program delved into many topics, including immigration.

According to McReynolds, one theory of immigration is known as “push and pull.” He noted that there was no “pull” to Vermont for African-Americans. “There were no jobs, there was no African-American history, heritage, culture to attract African-Americans to come to the state to settle,” he said.

“My view is that not just for Vermont, for northern New England – for New Hampshire and Maine as well – that the situation was structured in a way that without large-scale farming, without large-scale industry, without having had a slave population to deal with large-scale farming, there simply wasn’t a foundation or a base for drawing people in,” said McReynolds.

He also pointed out that proximity – or lack of it – played an important role in determining who moved into Vermont to fill the mill jobs when the state became industrialized: “The low wage labor came from the Irish and the French Canadians. It was much easier for French Canadians to come across the border from Canada than for an African-American to make his way or her way to Vermont.”

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