Southern insurrection during Grant’s presidency

Joined
Aug 29, 2020
Looking to start a conversation regarding Southern uprisings in the South surrounding elections during the Grant years. I just completed the section on his Presidency in Chernow’s Grant, in which he highlighted multiple instances of severe Southern intimidation tactics against blacks, leading to a large number of black voters being murdered, as well as non-voting women and children in Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia.

As we all know, any period in history usually develops a narrative, typically in black and white language; in this case “Reconstruction was a disaster.” As seen in other threads, there were successes and failures during the Reconstruction period, and like any event or figure in history we can not discredit an entire multi-year time period as a total success or a total failure. I was, however, deeply moved and completely disturbed by the racial violence ensuing in the South, particularly surrounding black voting rights, but I also, of course, am viewing them from my 21st century view and have to check myself in regards to the Open Wound being experienced in the south in the wake of losing the war.

Was there anything Grant could have done better or differently to quash these uprisings? He generating criticism from both sides; certain Republicans and (obviously) Democrats felt that federal aide was unconstitutional, while Radical Republicans felt he didn’t do enough. Furthermore, feel free to share more specific information regarding racial violence in the south, or elsewhere; I have only just begun studying Reconstruction.

Looking forward to responses :smile:
 
Back
Top