Lot 258
[Georgia] Ku Klux and Other White Supremicists Block Black Voters, 1868. A fascinating and extremely descriptive 4pp letter written to General George Meade, the hero of Gettysburg, from a Republican sheriff on July 7, 1868, in Atlanta Georgia. The Sheriff, facing forces beyond his power to cope with, writes Meade concerning the true situation on the grass-roots level in an unreconstructed Georgia. In part: "We had on Tuesday last all over this country a grand farce called an election…The old disenfranchised Rebel leaders took entire control of the affair and run the machine on the Rebel plan….Colored men were told that unless they had paid their taxes they were not entitled to vote. What few colored men remained at the county precincts were compelled to vote for Seymore & Blair under threat of immediate expulsion from their homes, Ku Klux Clans &c., all the disenfranchised rebs voting. I would reasonably calculate that between four and five hundred colored men went away from the polls without voting…We cannot live at this rate. …there is but one way to manage these states lately in rebellion…These old rebel leaders must be kept out of the way for at least ten years. If they are permitted now to take part either in the courts, in the councils of this country, in the pulpits or any other position where they will have an opportunity of promulgating and decimating their hellish doctrines this country cannot have any permanent peace…."
The state of Georgia had the dubious distinction of being declared "reconstructed" in 1868, then being reoccupied under the orders of U.S. Grant due to the excesses there.
Estimated Value $1,000 - 2,000.
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| Realized $575 |
