Joseph Crews: Difference between revisions
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FloridaArmy (talk | contribs) As a quote parantheitxal probably might not be needed. When did Ginsburg write this? Seems pretty non-neutral for a historian and yes I read the last sentence of scalawag |
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'''Joseph Crews''' (d. September 13, 1875) was an American state legislator from [[Laurens County, South Carolina]], during the Reconstruction Era. A "highly visible [[scalawag]]", according to [[Benjamin Ginsberg (political scientist)|Benjamin Ginsberg]] |
'''Joseph Crews''' (d. September 13, 1875) was an American state legislator from [[Laurens County, South Carolina]], during the Reconstruction Era. A "highly visible [[scalawag]]", according to [[Benjamin Ginsberg (political scientist)|Benjamin Ginsberg]], he was the highest-ranking military official in the 1870s, and was put in charge of the state militia whose purpose was to protect African-American voters,<ref name=ginsberg>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=44uF943aw18C&pg=PA102 |title=Moses of South Carolina: A Jewish Scalawag during Radical Reconstruction|first=Benjamin |last=Ginsberg |date=April 12, 2010 |publisher=JHU Press|via=Google Books |pages=71, 102-103, 133, 136}}</ref> but was murdered by [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]]<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vUI4AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA31 |page=31 |title=1877: America's Year of Living Violently |first=Michael A. |last=Bellesiles |publisher=The New Press |year=2010 |isbn=9781595585943}}</ref> in the run-up to the [[1876 South Carolina gubernatorial election]].<ref name=ginsberg/> |
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Before the [[American Civil War]] Crews was what was called a "Negro trader", meaning a white businessman who dealt with African-American customers and partners; he was "accused of Union sympathies".<ref name=ginsberg/> During the [[1870 South Carolina gubernatorial election]], he was a county election commissioner in [[Laurens County, South Carolina]], and in that capacity had ordered all ballot boxes to be set up in the county seat. This disadvantaged rural voters, but enabled him and the state militia to oversee the election process and to mobilize black voters. However, armed whites attacked the black militia and disarmed them; some were wounded, others murdered. "Like companies of Confederate cavalry", "heavily armed whites" pushed away black voters--until Federal troops came from twenty miles away, with Crews, and took the ballot boxes.<ref name=ginsberg/> |
Before the [[American Civil War]] Crews was what was called a "Negro trader", meaning a white businessman who dealt with African-American customers and partners; he was "accused of Union sympathies".<ref name=ginsberg/> During the [[1870 South Carolina gubernatorial election]], he was a county election commissioner in [[Laurens County, South Carolina]], and in that capacity had ordered all ballot boxes to be set up in the county seat. This disadvantaged rural voters, but enabled him and the state militia to oversee the election process and to mobilize black voters. However, armed whites attacked the black militia and disarmed them; some were wounded, others murdered. "Like companies of Confederate cavalry", "heavily armed whites" pushed away black voters--until Federal troops came from twenty miles away, with Crews, and took the ballot boxes.<ref name=ginsberg/> |
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Revision as of 01:58, 8 June 2020
Joseph Crews (d. September 13, 1875) was an American state legislator from Laurens County, South Carolina, during the Reconstruction Era. A "highly visible scalawag", according to Benjamin Ginsberg, he was the highest-ranking military official in the 1870s, and was put in charge of the state militia whose purpose was to protect African-American voters,[1] but was murdered by Democrats[2] in the run-up to the 1876 South Carolina gubernatorial election.[1]
Before the American Civil War Crews was what was called a "Negro trader", meaning a white businessman who dealt with African-American customers and partners; he was "accused of Union sympathies".[1] During the 1870 South Carolina gubernatorial election, he was a county election commissioner in Laurens County, South Carolina, and in that capacity had ordered all ballot boxes to be set up in the county seat. This disadvantaged rural voters, but enabled him and the state militia to oversee the election process and to mobilize black voters. However, armed whites attacked the black militia and disarmed them; some were wounded, others murdered. "Like companies of Confederate cavalry", "heavily armed whites" pushed away black voters--until Federal troops came from twenty miles away, with Crews, and took the ballot boxes.[1]
A congressional report lists him as having distributed guns and ammunition to African-American citizens; he was reported as "'Joe Crews', the great agitator of strife between the two races, who, in that very canvass [the 1870 elections], harangued the negroes from the stump, inciting them against the whites and their property".[3]
According to a letter sent to US president Ulysses S. Grant by L. Coss Carpenter, an Internal Revenue Service collector in South Carolina, Crews was shot by armed men, three miles from the Laurens County courthouse, on the morning of September 8, 1875. He was traveling in a buggy and was ambushed while crossing a creek. He was wounded by five pellets from a shotgun blast, one of the pellets piercing his spine and causing him to be paralyzed. He died on September 13, at midnight. At the time, according to Carpenter, he was the leading Republican politician in the county, and without him it would have been very difficult to prevent "a democratic ascendancy". Crews was a "special deputy" for the IRS, but Carpenter felt assured that it was not his IRS but his political activity that led to his murder.[4]
References
- ^ a b c d Ginsberg, Benjamin (April 12, 2010). Moses of South Carolina: A Jewish Scalawag during Radical Reconstruction. JHU Press. pp. 71, 102–103, 133, 136 – via Google Books.
- ^ Bellesiles, Michael A. (2010). 1877: America's Year of Living Violently. The New Press. p. 31. ISBN 9781595585943.
- ^ United States. Congress. Joint Select Committee on the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States (1872). Report of and Testimony, Volume 1. pp. 543–45.
- ^ Simon, John Y.; Lisec, Aaron M., eds. (2003). The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: 1875. Papers of Ulysses S. Grant. Vol. 26. SIU Press. p. 524. ISBN 9780809324996. Retrieved June 7, 2020.