Have a smoother Reconstruction Era

Cook

Banned
The great difficulty is that blacks were a majority in some states, and a large majority in many localities. Full enfranchisement of blacks meant black control of local government, including law enforcement.

It was my understanding that 'people of colour' did not constitute a majority of any state in the Union at the time and represented only a quarter of the population of the Confederacy during the Civil War. While no doubt there were counties where they outnumbered whites, I'd be very surprised if there was any state where whites were the minority.

I don't see how this would be a problem anyway, if anything it should have made reconstruction easier and more effective.
 
It was my understanding that 'people of colour' did not constitute a majority of any state in the Union at the time and represented only a quarter of the population of the Confederacy during the Civil War. While no doubt there were counties where they outnumbered whites, I'd be very surprised if there was any state where whites were the minority.

I don't see how this would be a problem anyway, if anything it should have made reconstruction easier and more effective.
According to the US Census, South Carolina and Mississippi were black-majority in both 1860 and 1870. In Louisiana, a very small white majority in 1860 turned into an equally-small black majority in 1870. They were the only black-majority states of the Confederacy, though the numbers were rather close in Florida.

The reason this matters is that, even if a racist population might be convinced to give blacks a symbolic vote if there're too few of them to make a difference, they'll fight back a lot harder if blacks would actually be able to outvote them. Yes, if blacks could be meaningfully protected and assured a sustained vote, Reconstruction would be a lot easier in states where they formed a majority. Unfortunately, that never happened iOTL - which made Reconstruction a lot harder in those states.
 
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