Southern Whites Got Back in Control Only 5-12 Years After Being Defeated in the Civil War! How? Why?

Try to imagine other oppressive, intolerant leaders regaining total control after being severely defeated only 5-12 earlier:

Imagine the Nazi leadership taking back control of the German government in 1950-57, only 5-12 years after WWII!

Imagine the Japanese Warlords taking back control of Japan in 1950-57 after only 5-12 years!!

Didn’t happen. Probably couldn’t have happened.

So how and why were ex-Confederate leaders able to do the nigh impossible almost immediately after the Civil War where they had just been decisively defeated?

HERE’S the HOW:
Insurrection groups such as the Redeemers, Red Shirts, KKK, Knights of the White Camelia Southern ‘gun’ clubs, etc. intimidated, attacked, and often slaughtered Negroes who sought government positions, who sought to exercise their right to vote, who sought to decide when and where they would work and live.

Except for the Grant administration's crushing of the KKK in 1871, the Union didn't stop Southern violent groups from their actions.

Even the occupying Union Army in 1865-66 introduced Black Codes to try and get the Southern economy going again and to force former slaves to work.

Gone were the Union's promises of 4 acres and a mule to former slaves as promised only a few months before!

Then when Southern Political officials—former Plantation owners, slave owners, many of them former Confederate soldiers, etc. came to power, they basically, reintroduced the master-slave relationship toward Negroes, even though technically slavery was illegal.

Heck, in 1878, the U.S. government even passed "a law forbidding federal troops from intervening to protect African-American voters from harassment and intimidation."

From State of Mississippi Code, 1865:

“Section 2. Be it further enacted, that all freedmen, free Negroes, and mulattoes in this state over the age of eighteen years found on the second Monday in January 1866, or thereafter, with no lawful employment or business, or found unlawfully assembling themselves together either in the day- or nighttime, and all white persons so assembling with freedmen, free Negroes, or mulattoes, or usually associating with freedmen, free Negroes, or mulattoes on terms of equality, or living in adultery or fornication with a freedwoman, free Negro, or mulatto, shall be deemed vagrants; and, on conviction thereof, shall be fined in the sum of not exceeding, in the case of a freedman, free Negro, or mulatto, $150, and a white man, $200, and imprisoned at the discretion of the court, the free Negro not exceeding ten days, and the white man not exceeding six months.
Section 5. Be it further enacted, that all fines and forfeitures collected under the provisions of this act shall be paid into the county treasury for general county purposes; and in case any freedman, free Negro, or mulatto shall fail for five days after the imposition of any fine or forfeiture upon him or her for violation of any of the provisions of this act to pay the same, that it shall be, and is hereby made, the duty of the sheriff of the proper county to hire out said freedman, free Negro, or mulatto to any person who will, for the shortest period of service, pay said fine or forfeiture and all costs.”
https://www.britannica.com/topic/black-code

Historian Samuel McCall: They "established a condition but little better than that of slavery, and in one important respect far worse.”

HERE’S the WHY:

The main reason why Southern Whites so quickly got back into dominating power without changing their racist, oppressive, intolerant views is because of their CALVINIST THEOLOGY
which the large majority of Southerners subscribed to avidly!

R.L. Dabney, Southern Theologian, Chaplain to Stonewall Jackson's troops. Dabney published a book even after the Civil War which argued that slavery was the will of God, the Calvinist God.






However before explaining that, it needs to be emphasized that there are many other factors, too, as to why Southern Whites were able to create a racist social order and oppressive state governments within 5 to 12 years of the end of the Civil War.

#1 Many Northerners had only supported the invasion of the South because they wanted to force the seceding states back into the Union. Other Northerners did want to end slavery, but they didn’t want Negroes living near them, or having the same rights as Whites.

Even Abraham Lincoln as late as 1864 still supported the view that all Negroes ought leave the United States and go somewhere else—Africa or the Caribbean. Lincoln considered Negroes inferior to Whites. Only a minority of Northerners were abolitionists and for equal rights for Negroes.

#2 Since the U.S. government almost immediately rejected giving former slaves land and supplies, the Union army occupying the South thought that it must deal with the millions of freed slaves, so it introduced the Negro Codes, even though they were grossly unfair to the Negroes.

And Northern states also increased their anti-Negro Codes. Many towns and cities became anti-Negro Sundown towns. There were still at least 10,000 sundown towns even in the middle of the 20th century!

#3 Reconstruction failed, largely because of the failure of the U.S. government to radically alter the nature of Southern beliefs and society.

#4 The U.S. government pulled its troops out of the South in 1877, way too soon and because of a devil’s deal with Southern racists in order to get Benjamin Hays elected president.
-
"Southern segregation of the races began soon after the Civil War ended. Although segregation was more flexible during Reconstruction, more rigid laws were passed after federal troops withdrew from the South. These laws, which became known as Jim Crow laws after the name of a minstrel from the 1800s, prohibited African-Americans from using the same facilities and services as whites. In 1875, Congress had passed a Civil Rights Act that made racial discrimination in public places, including hotels and trains, illegal. However, in 1883 the Supreme Court declared that law unconstitutional. The court reasoned that refusing to accommodate someone because of their race was not the same as slavery, and did not violate the constitutional amendments abolishing slavery. The decision paved the way for extensive legalized segregation in the South."
https://classroom.synonym.com/happened-federal-troops-withdrew-south-1877-23217.html
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Notice even now in the present how quickly major national events can change because of differing philosophies. Despite 8 years of fairly moderate Obama-type politics, suddenly in 2017, the opposite side of the political spectrum came to power via the Electoral College (the Democrats won the popular vote by about 3 million). Then U.S. policy has swerved to fairly extreme right-wing views, statements, and actions under President Donald Trump.

And Donald Trump got elected partially because millions of white Evangelical (at least 81%) and Calvinists voted for and continue to support President Trump, despite his many immoral, unethical, unjust statements and actions.

TO BE CONTINUED:


Let us rise against injustice and inequality,

Daniel Wilcox

Throw Out the Laugh Line

Exhausted from living for justice and right? Feel like one would need to be Atlas to solve all of the trials, tribulations, and tragedies of current world conditions?

Grab hold of these belly-laughed country twines. Catch a line or three.

Then besides throwing out life lines* today, throw a few laugh lines.
Sometimes humor itself is a lifeline.

Do you know why there is the face of a Quaker on oats cereal in stores?

To remind you about honesty, to pay what you oat. But, remember, Quakers don't take oats, they only affirm in court.

--

Did you know many Friends are becoming vegetarians?

Yeah, I’ve herbivore.

--

After Martin Luther wrote another scatological attack against the Pope, troops from the Holy Roman Emperor, again, tried to arrest him.

But eye witnesses said, “Then ‘Luther ran.’"

And that’s how the denomination’s history began. It’s been running for almost 500 years.

--

"Are you sure my hunting dog went through your yard an hour ago?"

The Quaker pointed down at the prints in the muddy walkway and said, "I'm pawsitive."

--

When a secularist hiked past an old Quaker farmer standing by the lake holding a full sack,
the secularist decided to have a little fun, see if he could get the devout man upset.

“Tired? What’re you carrying in that bag, Friend, too many ears of corn?”

The Friend said not a word but glanced at his bag and took hold of two ears in it.

So the secularist added, “You Quakers are way too stuffy. You really need to let your hair down.”

Then the Quaker dropped the rabbit bag and smiled.

The secularist looked disappointed.

Finally, the Quaker spoke, “Thought you could get my goat didn’t you, but I don’t own one.”

--

Heard the joke about the Unitarian Universalist minister being confronted by an irate Southern Baptist leader:
"Your church is a joke! You reject all the creeds!" Then the Southern Baptist got so upset all he could shout and sputter was
"YOU, YOU...!"

And the Unitarian Universalist very politely said, "Yes?"

--

Here's a humorous adaption for the United Church of Christ:
A Calvinist theologian lectured a UCC minister standing at a conference.
"Your church doesn't preach the Reformed Gospel! Do you believe in the penal substitution?"

"No," said the UCC pastor.

YOU SEE! SEE what I mean!" demanded the Calvinist.

--

“You know, most of you modern Quakers don't look like Amish. What’s the deal with your new beard?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” responded the Quaker, “It sort of grew on me.”


--

In Kentucky one group of friars took care of the front of their chapel by planting beautiful flowers in profusion that grew all the way to the forest. After missionary work all day, two of them would take lighted lanterns and small cans of water to go out
and sprinkle their flowers because of the drought.

But one night, the first friar stumbled and broke his lamp; sparks landed on him and the other friar and in the woods
and started a terrible fire.

Fortunately, nearby lived a volunteer firefighter named Hugh.
He quickly turned on his garden hose and doused the flames on the friars and on the forest before too many trees had burned. This proves again that only Hugh can prevent florist friars.

--

An atheist student was complaining to the professor in class after lunch. “I hate all these Creeds of the Christian Church, in particular your Protestant ones.

They’re so horrific, so irrational, so immoral!”

Irritated the professor who was a Reformed theologian asked, “Such as?”

“Heard of the ‘Sin-odds’ of Dort?”

“Stop making fun of our beliefs!” Then because he was so upset, the professor belched.

The antagonist said, “I will, if you stop Belgicing.”

--

Many Friends admire Mahtma Gandhi, even though he wasn’t a Quaker. But he worked for peace and was a vegetarian. Of course his strict diet often gave him bad breath.
This made him a super calloused faragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

--

Okay, so I’ve given you more than ten puns. I’ve told them to others with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.


In the Lighthearted,

Daniel Wilcox
--

*Old Song: “Throw Out the Life Line”

Throw out the life line across the dark wave;
There is a brother whom someone should save;
Somebody’s brother! O who then will dare
To throw out the life line, his peril to share?

Refrain

Throw out the life line! Throw out the life line!
Someone is drifting away;
Throw out the life line! Throw out the life line!
Someone is sinking today.

By E.S. Ufford

The Nature of Baptism

As a Friend I am convinced that baptism is primarily a spiritual reality. For one reason the physical ritual includes all sorts of Christians who claim the other brands aren't even Christians. They attack each other verbally and often have slaughtered each other in so many Christian-sponsored wars.

How can there be ONE baptism in one Spirit when that happens?

And think of the many thousands of other disagreements among Christians:
Calvinists declare there are no Gifts of the Spirit but charismatics and Pentecostals claim the opposite.
Evangelicals claim the Bible is inerrant but liberals state Scripture has many errors.
Fundamentalists argue the Bible is scientifically accurate, evolution is a satanic lie, and the end of the world is coming in this generation
while mainline Christians think those views are ludicrous.

There are many Christians who support killing unarmed civilians in war, who think that the nuclear weapons are given to the U.S. by God, that using torture is justified, that becoming wealthy doesn't mean one needs to share with the world's impoverished.

Where is the love of Christ in this? Where is the Spirit of their formal baptism?

It seems rather that true baptism is spiritual and unseen, when God's Spirit begins to slowly transform a person toward the Truth, the Good, and the Loving.

Physical acts of baptism may be used by some who derive much comfort or inspiration from outward signs, but the danger always remains.

Allegedly, most Germans of the Great War and the Nazi Holocaust War (WWII) era were baptized
yet that didn't show forth in their lives as they went out to slaughter other Christians of the Allies.

And Allied baptized Christians returned the evil favor, urged on by war promoters such as American evangelist Billy Sunday.

Don't forget the Thirty Years War, the American Civil War, and the English Civil War (where Cromwell's "New Model Army" which killed while singing Bible verses! attacked the King's forces who also killed for Jesus Christ).

Sounds more like a baptism into injustice and sin.

No wonder Jesus wept.