A Just and Lasting Peace: A Documentary History of Reconstruction

by John David Smith

  For the reasons stated I feel constrained to withhold my assent to the opinion of the court.

  WASHINGTON LAFAYETTE CLAYTON, OLDEN TIMES REVISITED

  (1906)

  Washington Lafayette Clayton (1836–1921) was born in Jefferson, Alabama, but migrated with his family to Itawamba County, Mississippi, during the 1840s. He lived in Fulton and later moved to Tupelo, in Lee County, working as a circuit-riding lawyer with a keen eye for detail and local color. Early in the twentieth century, Clayton published several autobiographical articles in the Tupelo Journal chronicling the social history of northeastern Mississippi during Reconstruction. His historical memory of the period conforms to what historian David W. Blight termed “the white supremacist vision” of the Civil War era, which “by the turn of the century delivered the country a segregated memory” of the conflict “on Southern terms.” Clayton, for example, portrayed the freedmen as gullible, ignorant, ungrateful, yet wily. He believed that carpetbaggers, scalawags, and ex-slaves betrayed his fellow white Mississippians. Military rule and self-assertion by the freedpeople were odious, he recalled. The blacks, in his opinion, “kept moving from bad to worse.” In his final article, Clayton detailed the nonviolent means whites employed to trick and intimidate black voters. “This took place throughout the state,” he said, seemingly with pride, “and the Republican party was put out of business in Mississippi.”

  When the war of 1861 had closed and the survivors of the army returned to their homes, they found many changes had taken place in their absence, and especially was this noticeable in the border land of the country. In the first place, all property in slaves was destroyed, and the supply of horses and mules had been reduced very much. Such a thing as a good saddle horse or a good wagon mule could not be found, unless they had been hidden out, and this was a very dangerous thing to do. Some enemy or slave would be almost sure to point out the hiding place of the stock, and if the enemy came, he took them, and if the friend happened along, he impressed them for service, and in either event, the stock was gone and the owner none the better off, as the scrip given by the friend proved of no more value toward the last than the want of it by the enemy. To the everlasting credit of the negroes it must be said that they were so far loyal to their owners as a general thing that they remained at home and worked faithfully, and in many instances had the care and possession of the entire interests of their master’s farms and stock, and were ever ready to do and suffer whatever might be required for the interest of their owners.

  After the war in all the thinly settled slave districts, like North Mississippi, they still remained at home and finished the crops before they were turned loose as free. I have often thought that as the slaves assembled round the cabin hearths in the days succeeding the close of the war and before the time of their final release, they had wonderful reasonings among themselves as to what would be the outcome of the war to them. You must remember that they could neither read nor write, and only in a few instances had anyone explained to them that Lincoln had issued his proclamation freeing them, and as we went on with our work as formerly, they must have endeavored often to peer into wonderland to find what it would bring to them. And yet how cautious they must have been, because of the fear of punishment. They had not yet learned that they were no longer in fear of the Patrolers if they failed to carry a pass from their owners, and consequently had not moved about much. I remember very well that our slaves were just as obedient and worked as well during the making of the crop of 1865 as they had ever been and done. So one morning after the crop was completed, I said to my father, “Father, I think we had better tell our negroes they are free and have a right to go where they please.” He agreed it was the course to take, and we called them up and told them of their right to go or remain as they might choose, and that they were as free as we were, and I think we might have added, a little freer. And I assure you that the white women had the cooking to do that day, and many women who had never made a biscuit or fried ham and eggs, were forced to look into cookbooks to learn that which seemed to have come to the old black mammy by instinct.

  But I want to tell you it did not take a lifetime for the poor ignorant negroes to learn the extent of their freedom and their rights thereunder. When they ascertained the fact that they had a right to stand and listen to a white man talk, and none dare molest or make them afraid, they took advantage of every opportunity to listen and to learn. And when the reconstruction measures were passed by Congress, they were not long in learning that the bottom rail was on top. I remember and shall never forget the wonderful influence any worthless carpetbagger had on them to the exclusion of all advice any of us might give. Some irresponsible fellow put it into their heads that every slave was to be given forty acres of land and a mule from the lands of the former slave owners, and having once taken root, it spread through the land of the South, and was generally believed.

  Once upon a time one of these slick friends of the former slaves, and who had such wonderful influence over them, taking advantage of the ignorance and confidence of an old time darkey, meeting him on his former master’s plantation, informing the old ex-slave that he was one of the men whom the government had appointed to measure off the aforesaid forty acres and give him a deed to it, and that another man would be round soon to assign and deliver him his mule with which to work it. So with glad heart and ready hand the old negro assisted the pretended official in making the measurement. When that was done, the old man wanted his deed, which was readily written and delivered on the payment to the swindler of $8.75, being all the money the old man had. Some days after this the old negro seemed more independent than usual, and began putting on airs of ownership when his former master said to him, “Dick, what’s the matter with you? For some time you have been putting on airs like you owned the place.” “Yes, sar, I does own part of de place.” “How’s that? What do you mean, you old fool?” “Well, sar, de guberment man jist comed round and measured me off my forty acres offen your land, and gived me a deed to it.” Much astonished, but knowing some fraud had been practiced upon the old darkey, the owner asked to see the deed. Thereupon the old man handed out his supposed deed for the inspection of his former master, and the present landlord, and when held up to the light of intelligence, the old man was dumbfounded to hear the words read, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so have I lifted this old darkey out of eight dollars and seventy-five cents. Selah!” It was said long, long time ago that “a fool and his money are soon parted,” and this is especially true where gross ignorance and unbounded confidence [are] on one side and unscrupulousness on the other. But I have thought of all the villains known to mankind it is he who abuses the confidence reposed in him, and swindles under the guise of friendship. It puts me more in mind of the kiss with which our Saviour was betrayed than any with which I can compare it.

  It was some years before the old darkey ceased saying, “Masser” when addressing a white man. Old Uncle Jim Hussey, a fine old time darkey, who lived and died near Mooresville in Lee county, Mississippi, kept up the habit of calling his old friends Masser till the time of his death. There was another peculiarity about Uncle Jim which I do not think applies to any other ex-slave in all this country, and that is that he always under all circumstances voted the Democratic ticket. In the darkest days of Mississippi, when the colored population marched to the polls in solid phalanx and voted in columns for the Republican party, Uncle Jim always from the very beginning and as long as he voted, put in his vote for the Democrats. He always said that as the colored people were living with the whites and largely dependent upon them, it did seem to him that what was to the interest of one race must be equally so for the other, and that as the white people were the more intelligent, it stood to reason that they would advocate and vote for those principles which would make for their betterment and consequently for the best interests of all.

  He was a fine old character, as polite as a Chesterfield, and as ki
nd hearted as any man I have ever met, white or black. He thought nothing of taking off his hat and bowing graciously to anyone whom he met from pure politeness. But those kind are becoming fewer and fewer every year. If we had more such men as Uncle Jim, and fewer of the worthless and law-breaking class, the country would be better off.

  • • •

  Just what was heaped upon a proud and noble people here in the South after the war, none will ever know after this generation passes off the stage of action. We cannot write so succeeding generations can appreciate what we endured. The truth is that the South was settled by the chevaliers of England and their descendants, a proud and loyal people. In addition to this, they raised up what their enemies call a slave aristocracy, but which we thought of as agricultural kings, who lived on their plantations, surrounded by their slaves, managed generally by overseers, and dispensed hospitality like princes. Then we had the smaller slave-holders, nestled here and there amid these greater slave owners, and hoping to be larger owners of both slaves and land in the future, the most of those who did not own slaves hoped to do so some time in the future. There were really few of them of the renting class who aspired to no better situation in the financial world. The master owned his slaves, and when he said to one, “go,” he went, and when he said to another, “do this,” he did it. No questions were asked, but unquestioning obedience was the rule of the master. Not only this, but even those who did not own slaves, felt no hesitance in commanding them when about them as if they did own them. But when the reconstruction measures were enforced, all these ex-slaves were allowed to vote and hold office, while all the whites who had held any office, civil or military, in the United States, or in the different states, were disfranchised. As a general thing it was the custom to elevate to office our most intelligent and accomplished men; and so take the number who had held office, from the old men of eighty and the young men of twenty-one and all the way between, and there was a mighty host of our best men who could neither vote nor hold office under these infamous measures. Consequently, the negroes, just from the plow and the hoe, and having no learning, and in most instances no intelligence, took the offices and went to the capitals, to make laws for us. If a man is in bondage and has no desire for freedom and liberty of action and no aspirations for higher and loftier things, he may not suffer much from his condition, and especially when he has a kind and considerate master. But a proud, noble and intelligent people, like those of the South, to be subjected to such treatment as we received just after the war, was enough to cause more suffering and did cause more suffering than our slaves ever endured, mental suffering being so much worse than bodily suffering.

  I myself was in Jackson, Mississippi when the legislature was in session during the seventies, and while there were not as many negroes then in the legislature as there had been, they very largely predominated. The Legislative Hall looked like a great dark cloud with a small white rift at the edge of it. You know I suggested some time back that it was quite probable that the negroes, just after the war, and before they were actually told by their owners that they might go free, had many whispered talks as to what the war would bring to them, being still under fear of their old owners.

  The people of the South had seen much of sorrow and death during the war, and had been beaten and overpowered by numbers and forced to submit. Her brave and chivalrous sons were resting beneath the soil of the many battlefields on which they had sustained Her honor, or their bones were bleaching Her plains, where no friendly eye ever saw their forms after they fell. The military power of the United States, dotting town and hamlet, held the survivors in subjection. We were thus held beneath the rod and afraid to make a move for our release. You can understand, when you are told that many men came down from the North to lead these ignorant slaves and fatten on the South, why the Jews so much hated one of their own race who became a tax collector under the Roman Empire, to whom they were subjected in the time of our Saviour’s sojourn on earth. Men will have to be different to what they now are before they can quietly and placidly see their enemies take their sustenance, make the laws by which they are to be governed and appoint over them their former slaves to execute such laws. Nothing restrained our people during those reconstruction days but the fear of the military power.

  I remember very well how intense the feeling was against one, Flood, who was chief of the Registration Board at Fulton, where I then lived. That always was a white county, and it was almost impossible to restrain the boys from doing him some personal injury. He was a shrewd, unscrupulous adventurer, who came here, not to serve his country, but himself, and who ingratiated into the confidence of the negroes, and but for the fact that he feared the consequences of his conduct, would have remained there to try for office. But when the election was over by which the military constitution was adopted, he had seen enough to indicate to him that he might do better somewhere else. During the first campaign for the adoption or rejection of the constitution, which had been submitted to the people for ratification or rejection, I took a part in the speech making in opposition to the adoption. There were several features of that constitution which were so objectionable, that it failed of the necessary vote. Then the military authorities, who were in charge of the entire South, and who had all power, eliminated certain of those objectionable features, and the constitution for Mississippi was again submitted, with those features left off, and thus carried.

  In that first campaign Eugene Whitfield ran for Congress on the Republican ticket, and was opposed by a little fellow from the North, who ran for the same office, but now opposed the adoption of the constitution, and whom I suspect was here after the “loaves and fishes,” as well as Flood. His name has passed out of my mind. I remember to have made a speech at old Ryan’s Wells, north of Fulton, during this campaign, and in which Whitfield and his opponent also spoke. There was a yankee driving Whitfield around over the campaign, against whom Whitfield’s opponent seemed to have great feeling for some cause, and when he rose to make his speech in opposition to the constitution and Whitfield, I saw him place a cocked pistol in his hat behind where he stood to make his address, and I thought sure he was going to open in warm style on Whitfield. But when he began he said, “Gentlemen, I am not after Colonel Whitfield. He is a nice gentleman. But I am after his carriage driver.” And from that he went for the carriage driver in the roughest manner I have ever heard anyone abused from the stump, but he opened not his mouth. It seems he was a Republican booster of Whitfield, and was carrying him through the campaign.

  When we had defeated the first constitution, we really did not know whether to be sorry or glad. Those were perilous times, and we knew not what a day might bring forth. So while we were sure we had right yet, fearing what might be the next move of the powers at Washington, we were ill at loss. But it came out all right, and this is another illustration of the doctrine, “Do right and leave the consequences to God.”

  • • •

  Many of us remember and will ne’r forget the days from 1865 to 1875, ten eventful years in the history of our Southland. Of course it is impossible to paint in true colors the events of those years. Being under military rule part of the time, and under military power all this time, which means the same thing as military rule practically, we could do nothing openly that would alleviate our condition. What we did in the way of relief measures had to be done on the sly. Young men were growing up who had never been in the war, but whose hands were itching to take hold of something by which they might signalize their entrance into life’s arena by some action for the benefit and relief of their country and which might put a feather in their own caps that would in some degree look like they were worthy sons of worthy sires; and so they were ever ready to do anything which might be thought to even tend toward relief, and doubtless would have been guilty of many indiscretions but for the advice of older and wiser heads. But in the meantime the negroes kept moving from bad to worse, led on by unworthy and often triflin
g white men. Under these circumstances many devices were resorted to to checkmate their political moves. An old friend of mine, just before an election, happened to come into the possession of a Republican ticket. He showed it to some of the Democratic leaders in an adjoining county and they were delighted to get it, saying it was the very thing they had been endeavoring to secure for some time. You see, before the Democrats came into power and passed a law that no picture or device of any kind should be printed on any ballot by which it could be distinguished and that all ballots should be alike, the ignorant negroes knew their Republican ticket by the picture that headed it, and not by the names which were written thereon. You see how easy it was for the “leading politicians” on our side to duplicate the ticket, how easily these bogus tickets could be placed in the hands of the ignorant voters and how the count would show up on our side. Again, men did not scruple to take out the votes which were actually cast and substitute the Democratic ticket therefor, and ease their conscience by the thought that “all things are fair in war,” and that the good of the country demanded this. Sometimes one means was used and sometimes others to accomplish such action. It was well known that the most of the leaders of the negroes, both white and black, were quite venal and ready for a bid in money to betray their party. By this means the ignorant voter was often deceived by his pretended friends, and made really to vote the Democratic ticket, when he thought he was voting for the other side. Sometimes the tickets were exchanged by the art of legerdemain, so to speak, and the innocent leader gave out the tickets which had been left in place of the genuine article. You see the picture was there all the same, and it was that by which they judged. But, after a few of such tricks had been played on them, they were more careful and some other scheme had to be resorted to. The rule of the black voter was always to line up in solid column at voting time. This was very distasteful to the white man. Many means were resorted to to break up this custom. Sometimes the whites came to the polls with their cannons on the ground, booming them once and awhile while the white men stood ’round, and some of them occasionally fired off pistols or guns. There was nothing said to the negroes about not voting as they might please, and no intimidation whatever, but all the same the cannons were boomed and guns and pistols fired, and the negroes ran off and left the polls and never came back to vote.