Post-War Organization
The Civil War brought significant change to the status of Black Americans. During the war, enslaved people sought shelter in Union camps. While the Union was initially reluctant to free these enslaved people, they did not want them to help the Confederate cause. Consequently, many generals confiscated them as “contraband” and paid them for labor in Union camps. Read more about a contraband who moved to Athens County here, and more about the local response to contrabands here. This led white American leaders to reconsider the benefits of Black involvement in the war and paved the way for emancipation and Black enlistment. The heroism of Black soldiers contributed heavily to the war’s outcome, and this empowered Black activists to gain ground when arguing for greater rights across the United States.[1] In this context, more than ever before, Americans saw room in society for Black Americans.
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Black service in the Civil War contributed to the idea that free Black Americans deserved to be directly involved in the political process. Less than a decade after the war, Black Americans were given the Constitutional rights to citizenship and voting. In this time of enfranchisement, Black communities showed great initiative in organization and involvement in politics. Ohio communities were no exception. Chillicothe saw a “colored convention” in 1873, in which members advocated for the importance of voting and urged for the nomination of Black candidates.[2] Athens County saw its own convention held in Nelsonville in August of 1879, reported by the Messenger to be the first Black political convention of its kind in Athens County. Men from across the county came to discuss matters such as the need for Black juror rights, Black education, and support of the Republican Party, as well as the need for informed Black voters and Black elected officials. Driving the conventions was the idea that Black Americans had fought hard for their enfranchisement, and it was their duty to use it in a way that would improve their lives.[3]
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This 1866 Pennsylvania political cartoon expressed criticism of Black enfranchisement. Library of Congress.
The participants were energetic and ready to take up the mantle of their newfound place in civic affairs, as a reporter noted: “Each face beamed with delight and exhibited a consciousness of the importance of the business before them. It is but justice to the colored man to say, that their deliberations, and the good order prevailed, would have been very creditable to intelligent white men.”[4] The majority of the attendees were Republicans; if the Messenger is to be believed, the sole Democrat in attendance was an Albany newspaper reporter. Multiple speakers encouraged voting for the Republican ticket; most notable among the speakers was former Albany resident Milton Holland, who had received a Medal of Honor for his service and leadership as a Union soldier. Another speaker was T. J. Ferguson, a Black professor from the Albany Enterprise Academy who was an advocate for Black education.
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Milton Holland, c. 1900. Library of Congress.
While the convention was reported as the first of its kind in Athens, it was not the first political event in the area to give attention to similar issues. In 1879, Athens City Hall saw a meeting where a Black speaker from South Carolina delivered a well-received political speech.[5] While the newspaper report of the meeting did not print the speech, they named the speaker as W. H. Thomas, an Ohio native who was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1876.[6] Though he was dismissed by the community after publishing the widely unpopular and anti-Black book The American Negro: What He Was, Who He Is, and Who He May Become in 1901, at the time of his Athens speech he had worked for a decade as a legal and political reformer who supported Black enfranchisement and improvement.[7] His inflammatory new views came at the height of racial violence in the United States. Anger over the racial climate, as well as Thomas’ experiences with racism as a light-skinned biracial man, may have led him to project his anger in his later writings.[8]
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W.H. Thomas, c. 1930. Ohio History Connection.
The report of the 1879 convention suggests that those who were active in the county’s political scene at the time were unified enough to organize and form political platforms that they felt represented their interests. The vote in particular was important; Black Americans still struggled to gain the same level of rights as their white neighbors, and voting for a supportive candidate could make a large difference in the laws that were passed for or against a community’s rights. A community that wanted to be treated well by its leaders, who hoped to be recognized as intelligent equals, and who wanted better opportunities for their children needed to ensure it was united in voting for candidates who would support, or at least recognize, its needs.
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While white reporters and residents observed and commented on these developments as part of the broader political landscape, some participants in Black political organization viewed their work and interests as separate from movements among white political groups. Thomas J. Furguson, a Black professor at the Albany Enterprise Academy and president of the Nelsonville convention, wrote to the Messenger to clarify this position: “So far as my troubles are concerned they were about colored and not white men. Those difficulties have been adjusted in a manner honorable to all colored voters in this county. So far as difficulties among white brethren are concerned I have nothing to do with them. It is not my fight, no man has invited me nor have I volunteered any service with them.”[9] Furguson’s letter was a public announcement of his stance; he was uninvolved and uninterested in the political activities of his white neighbors, and viewed his own political involvement as something reserved for his own community. He also defended his position as a Republican after an August article accused him of giving a speech in support of the Democrats.[10]
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Notes
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1. Stephen Kantrowitz, More Than Freedom, 274-304.
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2. “The Democracy and the Colored Voters,” Athens Messenger, August 28, 1873.
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3. “The Colored Convention at Nelsonville,” Athens Messenger, September 4, 1879; “The Democracy and the Colored Voters,” Athens Messenger, August 28, 1873.
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4. “The Colored Convention at Nelsonville,” Athens Messenger, September 4, 1879.
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5. “The Colored Meeting Monday Night,” Athens Messenger, October 4, 1877.
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6. Athens Messenger, October 4, 1877; South Carolina Legislature, A Concurrent Resolution to Honor and Recognize the African-American Members of the South Carolina Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches of Government and the Members of the State’s Congressional Delegation Who Heroically Served the People of This State Following the Civil War Until the Early Twentieth Century, Session 117 (2007-2008), March 13, 2007. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/query.php?search=DOC&searchtext=jar%25&category=LEGISLATION&session=0&conid=9144718&result_pos=0&keyval=1173695&numrows=50.
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7. John David Smith, Black Judas: William Hannibal Thomas and The American Negro (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1999), 266-267.
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8. John David Smith, Black Judas, 163, 270-271.
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9. Thomas J. Furguson, “A Card from Prof. Furguson,” Athens Messenger, September 4, 1879.
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10. “Prof. Furguson at Nelsonville,” Athens Messenger, August 7, 1879.
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Image 1: "The constitutional amendment!" 1866. Broadside Collection, portfolio 159, no. 11A c-Rare Bk Coll. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661697/
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Image 2: Milton Holland, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right. LOT 11931, Daniel Murray Collection. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/97506054/
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Image 3: William Hannibal Thomas Photograph. 1930s. Ohio History Connection. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p267401coll36/id/23906/rec/1
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