Hope Gives Way
End of Chapter One
The 1880's would proved to be a mixed bag for African-Americans of the era. The massive gains made in the 1860's and 70's were rolled back by racist reactionary elements -
"Redeemers"- in the 1880's. Throughout the Southern States the Democrat Party -backed by terrorist organizations like the Red Shirts- rose to power by black suppression, violence, assassination, and even a coup d'teat in a North Carolina city. The black population slowly found themselves with a hostile government over them, opening the way for a life beyond their imagination.
Many blacks, seeing which way the wind was blowing, opted to get out while they could. Called
Exodusters, these African-Americans left the South for the lands of Kansas and Oklahoma, hoping to found all-black towns and escape persecution. For a time these people were able to accomplish this, living in relative seclusion -some of them even began to prosper as small business owners.
Despite the loss of political influence and protection, many blacks were able to make their way in the world. The largest and most financially secure group were the Civil War veterans. Having received a reasonable pay for service, and instilled with military discipline, this group was ready to take their place in the new America. Many of them had taken their pay and squandered it. Others deposited it in white-owned banks that either collapsed in the Panic of 1873 or were denied their deposits completely by racist bankers -in effect losing everything. Many others, however, deposited their money in the Freedman's Bank, which had weathered the storm and survived. These men thus had the savings for a rainy day or the capital to invest.
By far the largest investment made by blacks of the era was in education. Former slaves immediately recognized the value of education in America -they even recognized it as slaves- and they did everything in their power to get an education themselves or ensure their children had one. White philanthropists and Northern blacks often built schools themselves in rural areas to educate blacks in basic topics like reading and math. Despite attempts by racist paramilitary groups and a total dearth of funding by the state, black literacy climbed inexorably upwards.
The Freedman's Bank itself was undergoing a split in philosophy. The investment in the Liberian Exodus Joint Stock Steam Comapny, while small, produced a fiery debate in the Board. Frederick Douglass and his faction were completely against any funding of Liberian colonization efforts, arguing that it sent the message that blacks didn't belong in America. The other faction led by Charles Jackson -author of the buyout of the CMRDC- weren't particularly proponents of colonization. Instead they saw the long-term potential of a presence in Liberia and would not let idealism stand in the way of profit, which to them was the most important consideration a bank should have. Both groups wanted to help uplift the black community, but they had two different ways of going about it. Tellingly, Douglass' faction was losing ground. By 1885, mostly due to health, Douglass would step down as Chairman.
However, for most blacks the world of finance and debate was above them. Expecting a fresh start once freed, instead these people found themselves tied to the land as sharecroppers, drowning in a debt made worse by the decline of cotton prices. Everything they dreamed of, for themselves and their children, was submerged under the weight of racism and peonage. Even worse than sharecropping was the convict leasing system spreading through many of the southern states. Under this system, convicts would be leased out to certain parties in order to build infrastructure. That in itself is nothing new. Unfortunately, the system sparked a demand for convict labor, and blacks found themselves as the most targeted group for arrest. Forbidden to serve on juries, blacks arrested for anything could be assured a conviction, and they often faced much longer prison terms than whites for similar crimes. Unpaid and mistreated, convicted blacks were slaves in all but name.
Of course, we can also assume that many of them were innocent.
It is with this mixed bag that blacks made their way into the 1890's. Uncertain of what the future would bring, they found a vision of it in Paris, Texas. In 1893, a black man named Henry Smith was captured by a mob for the killing of a three-year old girl {a crime for which he was never tried or convicted, also a crime for which the police found no clues}. After being paraded on a float through town, he was tied onto a scaffold and tortured for an hour by the victim's family in front of a crowd of 10,000. As his torturers stabbed him with red hot irons, the crowd cheered at every scream. Eventually, they inserted two red hot irons into his eyes and down his throat.
Unfortunately for Henry Smith, he was still breathing. Upon discovering this, they poured hot pitch over his body and set him on fire. Smith, burning alive, tore off his bounds and fell to his death off of the scaffolding. The whites in the crowd fought each other in his ashes, rushing to claim his teeth and bones as mementos.
This would not be the last moment of barbarism and brutality blacks would suffer. The Nadir has begun.
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Author's Note: The Lynching of Henry Smith in an OTL event. Info for the interested
here
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Photo of the Lynching of Henry Smith