| Judge John Underwood, chair of Virginia's 1867-68 constitutional convention - courtesy Library of Congress Thomas Nast, "Colored Rule in a Reconstructed State" (1874) - courtesy Library of Congress “I want it distinctly understood that the old slaveholder’s coach moves too slow for us. They design again to enslave the blacks if they can. The design to make him a slave by cutting him off from all opportunities for labor, by starving and oppressing him. No slaveholder is competent to frame a constitution for a free people. … We shall recognize manhood suffrage if we succeed in doing nothing else.” – Thomas Bayne, in Virginia’s 1867-68 constitutional convention |
EMPIRE OF LAWS - The Legal History of the 50 American States > 3. OLD SOUTH LEGAL HISTORY > 3.4 The Old South: Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-1877) > 3.4.1 The Old South (1861-1877): Law and War > 3.4.2 The Old South (1861-1877): Coming to Grips with Emancipation >