Thad Stevens was one of the great advocates for racial equality in the United States Congress. When he died, there was an outpouring of sadness from many African American communities. The August 14, 1868 New York Herald had this account of the official mourning period for Thaddeus Stevens in South Carolina.
Before the Civil War, most people in South Carolina were slaves. After the 13th Amendment passed, a majority of voters in the state were black.
Before he died, Thad Stevens had arranged for a Black military guard while he lay in state and a Black band to play during his body’s transfer to a train to Pennsylvania. Thousands of people viewed his body in the Capitol. Many of those coming to pay their respects were Black. Stevens made sure that his death would provide an opportunity for Black and white to come together.
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Well, is it from the Times or the Herald?
Bruce Levine, your suspicion is correct. It is the Herald and not the Times.
Is history saying South Carolina did something right?
The article is correct in saying most individuals in SC at the time we’re slaves..what it doesn’t mention is that a majority of the slave population were located on plantations on the coast. And were owned by a minority of citizens. The majority of South Carolinians, as in the entirety of the south, were not slavery owners. In fact, in the Upstate of South Carolina, a majority of citizens were opposed to slavery and opposed to secession. It wasn’t until Lincoln invaded that citizens of Upstate SC joined the Confederacy. As with 99% of the soldiers of the Confederacy, South Carolinians fought for freedom from a tyrannical government who would invade a then sovereign country. They fought to protect their homes from an invading force. I am a 14th generation South Carolinian with ancestors who were both coastal plantation owners and upstate abolitionists. It’s no surprise that South Carolinians would mourn the death of Stevens. There were many abolitionists in SC before the war.
Robin Henderson Aristides, thank you for your comment. As the blog post is about the mourning period in the South Carolina legislature in August 1868 following the death of Thad Stevens, I did not include statistics on the distribution of slaves in the state. If you would like to link to statistics on that subject, I am sure that other readers might find that interesting.