Week 13 Blog Post

Comments on Chapter 12; “Reconstructing Southern Politics” in Major Problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction Documents and Essays:

The State Colored Convention Addresses the People of Alabama, May 1867: The African American delegates made a very good point by saying that they are not asking the white people to surrender very much compared to what whites expect them to surrender or endure. The African Americans are only asking the whites to give up acting on their prejudices in public. (P & T, 395) They seem resigned that the whites will continue to believe their prejudices even if they don’t act on them. Undoubtedly, the blacks felt the same way towards the whites. They likely would have preferred not to have had to interact with white people at all. The fact that they were writing or speaking an address to the white people showed that they realized the need for white cooperation to eliminate discrimination. Still, the African Americans made it clear that they would no longer be submissive. If the whites continued their discrimination against blacks that would be asking the blacks to sacrifice just about everything of importance: their “personal comfort, health, pecuniary interests, self-respect, and the future prospects of [their] children.” (P & T, 395) The editor terms the document as “remarkable.” (P & T, 394) Perhaps that is due to its forceful and threatening nature. It definitely issued a warning to the former slave owners to not only behave themselves but also to support Republican government so that the Republicans don’t see fit to confiscate their land. Their document also clearly details the reasons why blacks supported the Republican Party. (P & T, 396)

Former Governor James L. Orr Defends South Carolina’s Republican Government, June 1871: Former Gov. Orr was a respected judge and native South Carolina who supported Reconstruction. He had opposed South Carolina’s secession in 1851 when he was a congressman. It is interesting that a white South Carolinian would speak about blacks in some areas in terms of equality. Even when Orr was being questioned by a Democrat, Mr. Van Trump, he stated that he believed that bribery was being committed by both Negroes and whites. Mr. Van Trump interpreted Orr’s comment about the inadvisability of mixing the races in the militia to mean that they should not be mixed in government. Orr was careful not to equate the two by saying only that in terms of a mixed race government, “it has been a very difficult experiment.” (P & T, 398) It was Orr’s opinion that blacks would vote for white Republicans over Democrats. He reiterated many of the same reasons stated in the previous document about why blacks supported the Republicans. His last comment (before the ellipsis) was interesting. Orr seemed to suggest that if southern whites changed their support from the Democratic or the Republican Party that they could regain “absolute control” of southern affairs again. (P & T, 399) Clearly Orr was an astute politician.

Representative Robert B. Elliott of S. Carolina Demands Federal Civil Rights, Jan. 1874: I found it interesting to read in the “Black Americans in Congress” website http://baic.house.gov/member-profiles/profile.html?intID=4 that up to age 25, Elliot had a very different background from other South Carolina freedmen. He was born in Liverpool, England to West Indian parents and had a public school education there. He also served in the British Navy. He came to South Carolina during Reconstruction so he had the advantage of already being educated. Black Rep. Elliot occupied the same house seat as Preston Brooks who assaulted Charles Sumner. Additionally, Elliot was speaking in the House to help pass the Civil Rights bill sponsored by Sen. Sumner. Former Confederate Vice-President Alexander Stephens of Georgia had been reelected to the House in 1873. Stephens had criticized the Civil Rights bill, and Elliot was responding. Elliott’s oratory in this speech as compared to Stephen’s speech was praised by the Chicago Daily Tribune on January 8, 1874, page 4. The Tribune said that “fair-skinned men in Congress … might learn something from this black man.”

Clearly Elliott had studied American history, but he viewed slavery with British eyes when he said that Alexander Stephens had “shocked the civilized world by announcing the birth of a government which rested on human slavery as its corner-stone.” (P & T, 399) Stephens’ announcement in 1861 as vice-president of the Confederacy was not shocking to the United States. It was the result of a conflict that had been brewing for decades. Elliott referred to the lenient terms of Reconstruction when he said that if Stephens were to change his position on the Civil Rights bill, he would “best vindicate the wisdom of that policy which has permitted him to regain his seat upon this floor.” (P & T, 400) (Under the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in July 1868, Confederate officers were barred from serving in Congress.) Elliot reminded the members of the House of black service to the Union. The Civil Rights bill “will form the cap-stone of that temple of liberty.” (P & T, 401)

Representative Alexander White of Alabama Defends “Carpetbaggers,” Feb. 1875: Rep. White was a scalawag since he was a southern, white Republican. White asserted that the carpet baggers had provided a useful role in counseling the blacks during the election of 1868. Many of the carpet baggers had fought in the South for the Union and decided to stay after the war. He emphasized that those who had plantation land had purchased it for “large sums of money.” (P & T, 402) In other words, the carpet baggers did not confiscate the land; they paid for it honestly. One of the rumors spread about the carpet baggers was that they were dishonest. (McPherson & Hogue, 604) White also criticized northern white reporters who traveled south specifically to discredit the carpet baggers. He pointed out that the work of the carpet baggers and scalawags in organizing the blacks was what kept the Republican Party alive in the South. (P & T, 403)

Albert T. Morgan of Mississippi Recalls His Achievements as Sheriff, 1884: It sounds like we should use Yazoo, Mississippi as a model for municipal budgeting! That they could build a $75,000 court house and new roads right after the Panic of 1873 was impressive. Being a Yankee himself, he could give his fellow Yankees credit! He pointed out that education was a divisive issue. It was interesting that the planters wanted schools when they saw positive results from education at neighboring plantations. (P & T, 403-404)

Steven Hahn, “A Society Turned Bottomside UP”: Hahn gave a good definition of Black power for the Reconstruction Era. Black power was about “achiev[ing] community reconstitution and self-governance … Not the destruction of established institutions or the redistribution of private property but the pursuit of simple justice.” (P & T, 406) The blacks were trying to achieve equality with not supremacy over the whites. As former Gov. Orr observed if the southern whites had supported the Republican Party, fewer blacks may have been elected to office. Of course, that concept was not realistic with the racial attitudes of the times. Due to the lingering effects of racial prejudice today, I do not think that O’bama would have been elected president if he had not been a mulatto with an Ivy League education. His family and education is a part of who he is and allows him to identify with both whites and blacks. Southern planters saw blacks only as former slaves not as competent legislators. Because of this attitude, the gains that blacks made during Radical Reconstruction were truly substantial and impressive. Hahn documented how blacks in many counties of southern states finally achieved local representation proportional to their population and perhaps beyond. Until this course, I did not realize how many blacks became involved in local law enforcement and the court system. I can understand why white planters would not want to face a predominantly black court system, but Hahn does make it seem as though the black juries and magistrates where trying to render fair verdicts despite the planters’ complaints. (P & T, 411). Hahn related how some blacks were so eager to avail themselves of their rights to a “day in court” that they would look for offenses that they could bring before justice of the peace John Lynch. (P & T, 410) It is ironic that black Republicans gained control of the court house in Edgefield County, SC (Preston Brooks’ home town). (P & T, 411) Hahn also referred to the black Republican South Carolina representative Robert Elliot (mentioned above) who in the tradition of his eloquent oratory spoke for three hours after ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment. For a crowd of people to listen to a three hour speech, that is dedication to freedom and liberty! (P & T, 411)

Rebecca J. Scott, “Building Citizenship in Louisiana, 1867-1873”: Scott essay is interesting because it gives a sense that French and Haitian influence had in Reconstruction Louisiana, especially for the New Orleans parishes. (P & T, 413-423) She pointed out that Louisiana’s new Bill of Rights meant to ensure equality for all races in terms of “civil, political, and public rights.” This Bill disallowed the “separate but equal” argument of later years which was never equal. Public rights, prohibiting discrimination on public transportation and in hotels was very significant. She noted that the constitutional amendments did not specify public rights which later influenced the Plessy vs. Ferguson Supreme Court decision to declare “separate but equal” facilities constitutional in 1896. Scot interpreted the public rights as “a commitment” to the “moral equality of all human beings” which combined “Christianity with French and American revolutionary ideologies.” (P & T, 414-415) It was also informative to note that Louisiana’s constitutional convention delegates drew the line at including socialist economic legislation favoring land redistribution, the advocate of which was a “red Republican” born in France. Neither could they keep the constitution from being overturned at a later date. (P & T, 415-416)

Written by Molly Kettler