Miscegenation and other problems of social equality Lonas v. State – Tennessee, 1871 (50 Tenn. 287)
“The laws of civilization demand that the races be kept apart in this country. The progress of either does not depend upon an admixture of blood. … Their [blacks’] rights, social, civil, political and religious, will be jealously guarded; but they must not marry or be given in marriage with the sons and daughters of our people.” – Justice John Sneed, in Lonas
Coming to grips with emancipation: the furor over black testimony Bowlin v. Commonwealth – Kentucky, 1867 (65 Ky. 5)
Enforcement of slave contracts after the war Jacoway v. Denton – Arkansas, 1870 (25 Ark. 625)
Klan laws Walpole v. State – Tennessee, 1878 (68 Tenn. 370)
“It is apparent that the object of this statute was to repress a great evil which arose in this country after the war … This [vigilantism and Klan activity] was a kind of mob law, enforced sometimes by a multitude of vagabonds, who grew to be a great terror to the people … The penalties for a violation of this law are severe, but they have proved themselves wholesome in the partial suppression already of one of the greatest of the disturbing elements of social order in this State.” – Justice John Sneed, in Walpole | ![]() Cartoon, "The Miscegenation Ball" (1864), expressing white fears about racial mixing - courtsey WIkimedia Commons “[The 13th Amendment] gave the colored race nothing more than freedom. It did not elevate them to social or political equality with the white race. It … left them equally free in all the States, and equally subject to State jurisdiction and State laws … Notwithstanding the abolition of slavery, a State in which ‘freedmen’ reside might attempt their disfranchisement, or withhold from them the privileges of free men.” – Chief Justice George Robertson, in Bowlin “[W]hile we have attained a higher civilization than has blessed any other people we are not to perfection. An age in the future may as deeply censure some of our present lawful practices as we now do that which has been termed ‘the legalized crime of the past.’” – Justice Lafayette Gregg, in Jacoway ![]() |
EMPIRE OF LAWS - The Legal History of the 50 American States > 4. MOUNTAIN SOUTH LEGAL HISTORY > 4.3 Mountain South: Civil War and Reconstruction (1861-1877) > 4.3.1 Mountain South (1861-1877): Law and War > 4.3.2 Mountain South (1861-1877): The Restoration and Reconstruction Eras >