Aaron Astor's book Rebels On The Border reflects the states of Kentucky and Missouri throughout the Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction. While talking about reconstruction in class discussing Redemption, which had a partial focus on Missouri, I decided to take Astor's book and detail in on the changes in political parties of Kentucky after the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment.
Like many states, outrage came from Kentucky at the ratified Fifteenth Amendment. Astor states that the Harrodsburg People newspaper wrote in august of 1870 that "The first Monday in August 1870 will be a day long remembered in the history of Kentucky. On that day, culminated in our State the series of outrages which within the last five years have been perpetrated upon the constitution of the United States and the liberties of the people. On that day took effect the fraudulent Amendment of the constitution which in violation of the laws of Kentucky, forced to the polls a vast horde of men, utterly ignorant of the duties and responsibilities attached to the new position into which they had been thrust by the bayonet and by congressional corruption" (Astor, 208). It just so happened that on the elections of 1870, riots in Harrodsburg, KY would occur just as the newspaper and Democrats suggested. Astor likes to make a point in his book that Kentucky and Missouri had a different experience with the Amendment then other states of the north and south. States of the previous Confederacy had allowed the votes of blacks since 1867 with the Congressional Reconstruction Acts. While states of the northern union had a lower black vote, of which Ohio lead with only 2.4 percent. However Kentucky and Missouri had a black percentage vote of 16.8 and 6.9 which could lead to a more monumental change in the polls in 1870.
Astor throughout his chapters over reconstruction goes to show how the African American votes would drastically change the power of the Republican party over Kentucky. He states that African American community went towards the Radical Republican party much more open ended in Kentucky then that of Missouri or other states. The conservative Versailles newspaper rote that "(African Americans) will be inspired with hatred and distrust of Democrats...the Democrats are his enemies and the Radicals are his only friends" (Astor 215). He also shows that the Radical Republicans expected the black votes to do their job's within Kentucky even though they believed that the Whiles will remain In control of the party. Astor states that the Radical Republicans of Versailles again expects that blacks shall do "his duty to help the party, which means to contribute from his scanty earnings to political documents, papers, preachers, etc" (Ibid).
The most interesting thing I found throughout reading Astor's book was tables and data he showed. The introduction of black votes effected that of central Kentucky the highest and the exerted the most change in urbanized areas. To show this change Astor pulls records from the Kentucky Gazette of both the 1867 and 1870 elections for Lexington, KY and then data of Population for the four wards that were up for election both times. For the total city of Lexington in 1867 Democrats had a vote of 681 while Republicans had a vote of 493 giving the Democrats a victory of 188 votes. However that all changes in the election of 1870. Democrats get an increase of vote to a total of 1,402 (721 vote increase from 1867), while Republicans votes equals a total of 1,976 (1,483 vote increase from 1867). It is important to note that the population of blacks in the city of Lexington in 1870 was 48.4 percent.
I think that Astor's book is a well written book and I liked his use of chart's and data to show statistical information. It is also interesting to have a book that pulls from old Kentucky newspapers that are still in existence today. It show's the importance the black vote had over Kentucky politics after the Fifteenth Amendment.
Primary Source:
Astor, Aaron. Rebels on the Border: Civil War, Emancipation, and the Reconstruction of Kentucky and Missouri. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2012. Print.
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