Excerpt from The Prostrate State

Published in 1874; reprinted on Making of America Books (Web site)

A Reconstruction-era journalist provides an inaccurate account of the African American politician

"Seven years ago these men were raising corn and cotton under the whip of the overseer. To day they are raising points of order and questions of privilege. They find they can raise one as well as the other. They prefer the latter. It is easier, and better paid.…"

To the white Southerners who lost the American Civil War (1861–65), nothing was more humiliating than the idea of their former slaves casting ballots and holding elected office. They argued that African Americans, particularly the illiterate (unable to read or write) ex-slaves who had no education, were too ignorant to vote or rule wisely. They also held...