Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

To: donmeaker
Again, completely made up by you. Reconstruction was passed because the Republicans were losing elections in the North and they needed to create a permanent majority by rigging the election in the South. The Union Army troops stationed in the South were permitted to vote in local elections in the hope that this would deliver those states and districts to the Republicans. It worked for a few election cycles, but then the Union troops began voting for Southern Democrats, mainly out of revulsion at the wholesale looting being carried out by the Union officer corp, and out of anger at the freeing of the slaves. The purpose of Reconstruction was to disenfranchise large numbers of Southern voters.

Kindness and good government? South Carolina didn't finish paying off the last of its debts from Reconstruction until 1954. The Yankees stole everything that wasn't nailed down. They taxed nearly every plantation into bankruptcy. They closed every manufacturing business. They borrowed against the public credit until they couldn't get anymore. Then they went home. Yeah, it was good government for somebody all right.

Jim Crow didn't begin until after reconstruction.

131 posted on 07/13/2013 3:24:51 PM PDT by SeeSharp
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 124 | View Replies ]


To: SeeSharp

In the United States, the most notorious Black Codes were laws passed by Southern states in 1865 and 1866, after the Civil War. These laws had the intent and the effect of restricting Black people’s freedom, and of compelling them to work in a labor economy based on low wages or debt.

First paragraph in Wikipedia under the subject “Black Codes”.

The defining feature of the Black Codes was vagrancy law which allowed local authorities to arrest the freedpeople and commit them to involuntary labor.

The Black Codes outraged public opinion in the North because it seemed the South was creating a form of quasi-slavery to negate the results of the war.[108] When the Radical 39th Congress re-convened in December 1865, it was generally furious about the developments that had transpired during Johnson’s “Presidential Reconstruction”. The Black Codes, along with the appointment of prominent Confederates to Congress, signified that the South had been emboldened by Johnson and intended to maintain its old political order.[109] Railing against the Black Codes as returns to slavery in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Second Freedmen’s Bureau Bill.[110]

The Memphis Riots in May 1866 and the New Orleans Riot in July brought additional attention and urgency to the racial tension state-sanctioned racism permeating the South.[110]

After winning large majorities in the 1866 elections, the Republican Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts placing the South under military rule.

So, you are incorrect that Reconstruction was begun by Republicans to win elections. Rather, it was in response to the “Black Codes”, and only possible AFTER the Republicans had won a large majority.


146 posted on 07/13/2013 7:30:57 PM PDT by donmeaker (Blunderbuss: A short weapon, ... now superceded in civilized countries by more advanced weaponry.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 131 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson