Philadelphia Segretation
In 1860, according to the NY Times, streetcars were segregated.
Link
Income maldistribution in 1887
In 1887, the top 1 percent of Americans held 51 percent of the wealth.
In 2011, the figure is 35 percent (up from 20 percent in 1970–they’re getting there). –New Yorker, May 23 2011 p. 42
The boll weevil
In addition to the depression of 1873-93, farmers had to contend with the boll weevil, which entered from Mexico in 1892. See Wicked Bugs, by Amy stewart, 211-212.
Garibaldi?
Did Hamton’s Red Shirts ever liken themselves to Garibaldi’s Red Shirts? Find out. (Garibaldi 1840′s)
Simkins is One Expensive Autho
Now reading South Carolina During Reconstruction by F.B. Simkins, published 1932. I often want to buy a copy of useful books I get from the library. Here’s a link to Amazon listing of this book:
Amazon page.
Quite a hefty price, $266. guess I won’t be buying this one.
RR Fare from Newberry to Columbia
It’s about 50 miles from Newberry to columbia.
In 1910, Coley wanted the railroad passenger fare to be set at 4 cents per mile.
That would be $5.00 in 1910 dollars.
That would be about $46.00 in 2009 dollars.
A hefty fare, one-way.
notes on blease family
ADDRESS BY DR. DREW GILPIN FAUST
THE UNIVERSITY SOUTH CAROLINIANA SOCIETY
73rd ANNUAL MEETING
…The Bleases were sons of Henry Horatio Blease (1832–1892) and, in
the case of Coleman Livingston, Henry’s first wife, Mary Ann Livingston.
The mother of Eugene and Cannon was Elizabeth Satterwhite, Henry’s
second wife. A total of thirteen children were born of both marriages. Of
the sons, three became lawyers: Coleman Livingston, Henry Horatio, and
Eugene Satterwhite. Coleman was educated in the local schools of
Newberry, attended Newberry College through the end of his junior year
(1886), briefly attended the University of South Carolina, and eventually was awarded a bachelor of laws degree by Georgetown University,
Washington, D.C., in 1889. Admitted to the South Carolina bar on 30 May
1889, he practiced law with his brother Henry Horatio (Harry) in Newberry
during the 1890s. Coleman L. Blease, one of the state’s most controversial
politicians, served as a member of the state House of Representatives
(1890–1891, 1892–1893, 1899–1900) and Senate (1905–1906,
1907–1908), and was elected governor in 1910 and reelected in 1912. He
also served one term in the United States Senate (1925–1931). Henry
Horatio Blease (1865–1921) was schooled in Newberry, attended The
Citadel and Newberry College, and gained admission to the Bar in 1886, a
year before earning a law degree from Georgetown University. Harry and
Coleman practiced in Newberry until 1893 when Harry moved to
Anderson. Harry later relocated to Staunton, Virginia, and continued to
practice there until about 1917 when he returned to Newberry and joined
Eugene in a partnership, Blease & Blease. Eugene Blease, although not
as politically prominent as his brother Coleman, was also involved in
public service. He was elected to the House of Representatives from
Saluda County and served during 1901–1902. Later he was elected to the
state Senate and served for a portion of the 1905–1906 session, resigning
after the end of the second session (9 January–17 February 1906).
http://www.sc.edu/library/socar/uscs/2010/uscs2010.pdf
When Wade Hampton Came to Town
Notes to myself for story
Wade Hampton III came to Newberry on his campaign tour, Wednesday, September 13, 1876Newberry Rifles
[Newb', 68-69] Coley would be 8 years old on the 9th of October.
Gave speech at Cline’s Spring [there's a Cline Street just northwest of downtown]
Rifle clubs:
Newberry Rifles
Three Mile club
Belmont Mounted Rifles
Jalapa Mounted Club, etc.
totaled 2500 mounted, 1000 foot [newb, 68-69]
Rifle Clubs had been forcibly disbanded by (military) Gjov. Daniel H. Chamberlain in 1976, but many reformed with different names.
Union soldiers billeted in the College during war but withdrawn early in 1876.
College was former Lutheran Seminary
Courthouse, builty in 1850′s, burned during war–said to be by Sherman–really Sherman, or some outriding patrol?
Hampton commented on the large number of blacks in attendance [newb, ]
In city park: sweet gum trees; water oaks
Hampton’s campaign included:
Mounted torchlight parade in the evening
Chinese lanterns
Rockets, Roman candles
Anvil shooting [g'ville, p. 170]
Red Shirts — not alwayts all red, just a patch–”represents the blood of the niggers youi’ve spilled” –always gun clubs (remainders of the slave patrols)
Coley’s father, Henry Horatio Blease, is Justice of the Peace (which makes him the area judge when court is not in session). Coley has a brother Henry (“harry”) (born Feb. 4, 1875) [nberry] –maybe he was taking pot shots at anvils? Later went into law practice with Harry.
Open Wound
Open Wound: The Long View of Race in America by William McKee Evans, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 2009.
Two-thirds of this book concern antebellum America. And contains many revelations, such as the ‘slavery’ endured by the indentured in the 16th Century, and how white/black indenture became black slavery thereafter. Continues in lesser detail after the Civil War.
The Costs of Slavery
Bitterly Divided: The South’s Inner Civil War by David Williams (The New Press, New York, 2008) points out the bitter divisions in the South leading to and during the Civil War; most of the people were against secession, and denied a vote on the subject.
Probably a part and parcel of the upstate’s laborers’ resentment of the downstate planters. ‘Rich man’s war, poor man’s fight’ as it was said, and theat resentment continued after the war.
Striking, to me, the effects of monoculture in the South: monoculture, be it of sugar, rice, tobacco or, especially cotton, was labor-intensive, thus the ‘need’ for slaves. During the war, the Confederacy was hard-pressed to feed its troops, also the families left behind, as the planters continued planting only the cash crop, rather than the corn, wheat, barley, vegetables that the populace and troops needed.
Monoculture ruined the land, causing the erosion of the black loam (6-12 inches) that originally covered the State of South Carolina (“land rape” as Ben “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman called it). Dependence on slaves worked against the natural inventiveness of the local mechanics; it was a Connecticut Yankee (Eli Wittney) who invented the cotton gin; no native inventor was impelled to create a mechanical harvester–there were plenty of slaves for that.
Further, the capital of the South was tied up so completely in slave ownership, that when inevitably freedom came for the slaves, that vast pool of capital wealth disappeard, and there was nothing left with which to rebuild the South. So Northern investors were able to step in as the only source of capital; thus the effects of slavery lived on to work against the common man.
