Low voter turnout in the South is not an accident, it is the result of conscious
state policy.  Southerners have many, many reasons to vote, but both black and white
southerners have been discouraged from voting by laws and the administrative structures
for elections, at least since the 1870s.  Just take a look at the
statistics for South Carolina, or even Virginia, when compared with
say Minnesota.
  Were white supremacy the ideology that truly governed the post-
bellum South, one would assume that white voting would have been
fascilitated rather than discouraged.  The real story of general
decline in voter participation at every level (in the entire nation, to
be sure) particularly in the South, lends remarkable complexity to
southern political history.


Date sent:              Tue, 05 Feb 2002 07:10:23 -0500
From:                   Randy Cabell <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:                Re: The Vote to secede
To:                     [log in to unmask]
Send reply to:          Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
        <[log in to unmask]>

> Ye gods  ONLY ...80% voted!!!!!!!!!!  How long has it been in Virginia, or
> any other state, since 80% of the (adult) population voted on anything....
> even 80% of the registered voters would be an amazing statistic.
>
> For those seven states, do you have a breakdown by state on the percents
> voting and the percent of those voting for secession?
>
> Randy Cabell
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Diana Bennett" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 4:49 PM
> Subject: The Vote to secede
>
>
> > Dear Listers:
> >
> > Can someone explain the following passage to me? It indicates that a
> > small majority won the election, but then it says that no state had a
> > majority in the November election?
> >
> > "The vote of the seven southern states to secede was won by only a
> > narrow margin. Only 60-80% of the population voted. And in no state did
> > the Secessionists receive a vote large enough to have been a majority in
> > the November election."
> >
> > Thanks for the explanation.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Diana Kercheval Bennett
> >
> > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the
> > instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html


Harold S. Forsythe
Assistant Professor History
Director:  Black Studies
Fairfield University
Fairfield, CT 06430-5195
(203) 254-4000  x2379

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html