I haven't read any assumptions denying your first proposition--merely
requests for verification or sourcing for a statement of yours, which
appears to have been based on knowledge of one county. I for one can
neither deny nor confirm the statement, as in my research on
Reconstruction, I have never paid any attention to the taking of the
Census of 1870 (mea culpa). I can say that none of the primary or
secondary reading I have done has exposed me to any controversy
surrounding the Census that year. That is no doubt a function in part of
my failure to raise the question. I _have_ read historical assessments of
the relative unreliability of the statistics generated that year. The
reasons for this unreliability may be, as you seem to assume, because many
of the people doing the counting were incompetent to the task. But I can
think of many other reasons why this might have been the case, foremost
among them the disorder and economic devastation wrought by the war. All
such ideas would need to be tested, of course, and I know of no systematic
study that does so. Perhaps the collective efforts of members of this list
can provide some insights. 

As for your second statement, it's important to distinguish between when
the military was actively in charge of governing southern states (during
the Congressional period) and when military units were still stationed in
the South but merely as a reinforcement of the region's Republican-led
governments (roughly 1870-1877). During the first period, ex-Confederate
states were indeed governed by Union officers--for example, John Schofield
in Virginia. After the election of new state governments and the
readmission of states, the military was essentially a reserve police
force--and an increasingly ineffective one at that. This is not to say
that that military presence was not significant, if only as a symbolic
manifestation of federal power. But it is to say that the notion that
southern states were under federal military government throughout the
Reconstruction period is an exaggeration and essentially denies the
legitimacy and efforts of those elected governments.

 ______________ 
 W. Bland Whitley 
 Assistant Editor 
 Papers of Thomas Jefferson 

 On Fri 29/10/10 11:57 AM , Craig Kilby [log in to unmask] sent:

 What concerns me here is the suggestion that some people simply refuse to
believe that persons of color could be incompentant and illiterate enough
to conduct a census. Worse, some people seem to be unwilling to
acknowledge is that there was a Federal Military government that far
exceeded 1870. Revisionist history is fine, but simply white-washing an
entire era is inexcusable.

 Craig

 

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