In November 1868, Republican Ulysses S. Grant defeated Democrat Horatio Seymour for the U.S. Presidency on the national stage, but Seymour prevailed in the Georgia vote by a wide margin. It was the first presidential election since the Civil War, and the first in which African Americans could vote in the South. Georgia had just been readmitted to the Union with the proviso that it had to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment. It did, but the backlash swept away the Black members of the Georgia General Assembly, including Tunis Campbell of McIntosh County.
Why did Seymour win in Georgia when African Americans were entitled to vote? The backlash had become violent. “In the November 1868 general election, the Democrats, running on a platform of white supremacy and home rule, perfected and intensified the tactics of intimidation and violence they had employed in the preceding April election. The Freedmen’s Bureau reported that in August, September, and October of 1868, there were thirty-one murders, forty-eight attempted murders, and sixty-three beatings inflicted upon blacks. Much of the violence in the state, not to mention economic and social coercion, went unreported…in many Georgia counties, the Klan kept blacks from the polls at gunpoint.”[1]
Voting was not just putting a mark on a piece of paper. It carried the risk of death, retaliation, and arrest, and given the climate, the chances of success were low. But Liberty County’s Black voters were not deterred. On November 3, 1868, court officials did not open the Riceboro precinct polling place in an attempt to suppress the Black vote, as Riceboro was majority Black. Not deterred, local Black leaders opened the polling place and collected the votes of hundreds of people. The Savannah Morning News reported that “Tom, late representative of Liberty county in the General Assembly, as chief manager of the election, brought in the returns to the county officers, who rejected the vote as illegal.”[2]
Retaliation was swift. On the same day, the Liberty County Grand Jury indicted the following individuals “for false swearing at the late election”: Stephen Grant, Dick Fabian, Handy Howard, Charles Law, P. Gately, Stephen Baker, Shadrach Baker, J. Hamans, Prince Smith, Terance Graham, George James, A. Fraser, Joe Bacon, Boser [Boson?] Baggs, Bill Bradley, Tony Roberts, Silas Quarterman, Joe Baker, John Fabian, Ben Walthour, Shadrick Roberts, Dick Berry, Robin Lambright, Simon Marshall, Daniel Winn, Israel James, Jacob Driger, Jacob Allen, John Grice, Jacob Smith, Daniel Steuart [alt: Stewart], Thomas McIver, Pompey Hill, P. Albin [alt: Alvin], S.A. McIver, Hilinton [alt: Hillington] Bacon, H. Fraser, Isaac Stewart, Jack Maxwell, Stepny Campbell, Isaac Golden, H. Bertow [or Berter], Mingo Bacon, Jesse Ryals, Wm. [William] Berry, A. Neuman, Sam Williams, Prince Fabian, Peter Cassels, Lewis Goodman, Wilsher Bacon, John Baker, J. Bradly, Daniel Baker, Laurence McIntosh, Simeon Barnard, Rich Wells [or Mills], Neal Bacon, Cyrus Caswell, Bob Mot, Shadrach Honord [Howard?], Henry Hamond, Is. Stevens. Prince McIver, Simon Harris, Sam Stevens, J. Bowen, Will Stevens, Ben Spencer, Wm. Andrews, Billy Law, Abram Bowen, Abraham Boggs, Al. Maxwell, James Gaulden, Ceasar McIver, Ceaser Holmes, Cain Baggs, Bram Baker, William Spencer, Thos. Stewart, Peter Jackson, Harry Lambert, Cuffee James, Flanders Bragg, John Molone, Isaiah Mercherson, Henry Hardee, Peter Blue, [name] Bacon, Benj. Moore, Shad. Lotner, Sam Walthour, G. Bacon, W. Bacon, Ambros Smith, Henry Norman, Ed. Bacon, Rob Williams, Ned Bacon, Jerry More, J. Winn, Wm. Baker, Prince Hargraves, Bill Thomas, John Stewart, Robt Wilson, Joe Bacon, Prince Spencer, Ceasor Rolls, Benj. Popwell, Newton Bradly, Levy Johnson, Tom Wilder, Harrison Bradly, Jerry Maxwell, Wash. Bacon, Ant. Bacon, Harry Holmes, John Jones, Anto. Winn, Andrew Lawson, Fortune Baker, Aberdeen Holmes, Jeffry Way, July Baker.[3]
In the April 1869 term of the Liberty County Superior Court, a Grand Jury indicted Samuel Stevens, Peter Cassels, George James, Samuel A. McIver, Samuel Walthour, Daniel Winn, William Baker, Thomas Wilder, July Baker, Thomas Steuart, Joshua Bacon, John Baker, Flanders Pray, Isaiah Muchison, Joe Bacon, “persons of color,” for false swearing. The Jury alleged that they had laid their hand on the Bible and had sworn that they had paid “all legal taxes, which have been required of me” but that they had in fact not paid those taxes.
The Grand Jury members who presented this indictment were William Hughes, Jr. (foreman), John D. Bryant, Artemas Dreggors, Archibald J. Baggs, David A. Miller, Samuel G. Martin, Needham G. Yarbrough, David Delk, James M. Smiley, William G. Sheppard, Thomas J. Dunham, John E. Mann, William R. Shave, John D. Cay, Thomas G. Bradley, Eli S. Moody, James L. Jackson, John W. Haymans, John M. Ivey and Edward P. Miller.[4]
In its report for the April 1869 Liberty County Superior Court term, the Grand Jury also stated that it had examined the “Insolvent Tax List” presented by the County Tax Collector, “and find the same unusually large, there being four hundred and twenty two (422) persons of color in the County who have paid nothing.”
Examination of the Liberty County Superior Court minutes from this time through November 1871 found no evidence that any of these people were prosecuted.
In the 1870 election, the same thing happened again. The Daily Constitutionalist Newspaper reported: “We are informed that a party of negroes in the lower part of the county, without any legal authority whatever, opened a poll at Riceboro, where several hundred went through the form of voting, but no returns had been received from the same up to the legal hour for closing the consolidation at the Court House. Riceboro is neither a town incorporated nor organized, nor is it a county site, although [Governor] Bullock appointed managers for the place.”[5]
No mention was made, of course, in any of the records of the 1869 election being only four years after these same “persons of color” were freed from chattel slavery. More than 125 formerly enslaved men of Liberty County insisted on exercising their voting rights as freed men, no matter the cost — the risk of violent attack, prosecution, and future retaliation.
November 3, 1868, is a day that should be remembered in Liberty County history.
Sources:
- McDonald, Laughlin, A Voting Rights Odyssey, p. 21. ↑
- Savannah Morning News, November 6, 1868, page 2; digital images, Georgia Historic Newspapers (gahistoricnewspapers.galilieo.usg.edu : accessed 7 Oct 2022). ↑
- Note that some of the names were difficult to read and may not have been transcribed correctly. Liberty County, Georgia, Superior Court Minutes, November 3, 1868, Grand Jury November Term Report, page 268; digital images, FamilySearch.org, “Superior Court Minutes, 1784-1935 [Liberty County, Georgia], (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H3-49MZ-F : accessed 18 Oct 2023), image 143 of 661. ↑
- Liberty County, Superior Court Minutes, April 1869, Grand Jury Special Present, pages 281-282; (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3H3-49S3-P : accessed 18 Oct 2023), images 149-150 of 661. ↑
- Daily Constitutionalist Newspaper, December 29, 1870; digital images, Georgia Historic Newspapers (gahistoricnewspapers.galilieo.usg.edu : accessed 7 Oct 2022). ↑