Monday, August 19, 2013

What was the name given to the former antebellum leaders of Georgia who came to power after Reconstruction?

The antebellum leaders that came to power after Reconstruction in Georgia, as in most Southern states, were known as Redeemers. They were mostly wealthy Democrats, some of whom--John B. Gordon, for example--had been leaders in the state, and indeed in the Confederacy, during the war. They were able to rise to power by appealing to the racism of Georgia's white voters on the one hand and to the interests of wealthy investors and industrialists on the other. Georgia's "redemption" took place in 1872 when a Democratic candidates won the gubernatorial election and a majority in the state's legislature. By that point, African-American voters had been mostly disenfranchised, and this process was made complete after 1872. Indeed, black legislators and other officeholders were purged in the aftermath of a return to Democratic rule. Because they were associated with wealth and privilege, and the "old regime" of the state, the Redeemers in Georgia and throughout the South were often called "Bourbons," a reference to the French dynasty of kings. 

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