Pitchfork Ben Tillman, South Carolinian
by Francis Butler Simkins
On This Page
Description
Benjamin Ryan Tillman (1847-1918) accomplished a political revolution in South Carolina when he defeated Governor Wade Hampton and the old guard Bourbons who had run the state since the end of Reconstruction. Tillman and his movement aimed to expand the political control of the state to lower- and middle-class whites at the expense of African Americans and the state's former leaders. During his political ascendancy as governor and then United States Senator, Tillman introduced the state's show more dispensary system and shaped the state's 1895 constitution into a bulwark of white supremacy. His legacy was one of divisiveness between black and white and between whites of differing economic and geographical backgrounds. Even as Tillman championed greater equity for white farmers and mill workers, he masterminded the pernicious system of segregation and disfranchisement for African Americans during the 1890s when he not only trampled their needs, but stripped them of fundamental political and civil rights. Almost single-handedly Tillman established the iniquities of Jim Crow that countless other Southern demagogues would imitate. These "accomplishments" would plague the South and the nation until this day. Orville Vernon Burton's new introduction to this Southern classic looks at both Tillman and author Francis Simkins as prime examples of southerners with tremendous talent but unsettling accomplishments. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
1596 Pitchfork Ben Tillman: South Carolinian, by Francis Butler Simkins (read 20 Nov 1980) I first heard of this book in 1944 and have wanted to read it ever since, and finally have. I would have enjoyed it more in 1944. It is poorly written, and far too favorable to its subject than it would be if it had been written today [in 1980]. Tillman's attitude to the Negro is unbelievable, even defending lynching and saying he'd lead a lynching mob. He was elected Governor in 1890, reelected in 1892, and went to the Senate in 1895, and stayed there till he died. He was planning to run for renomination when he died on 3 July 1918, even though he had been feeble or getting senile when he was reelected in 1912 already. He really is not a show more worthwhile character, but the book is amateurishly written. Readable, but not well-written. show less
Southern biography series
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
11+ Works 158 Members
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, History, Biography & Memoir, Politics and Government, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 923.273 — History & geography Biographies, Genealogy, Heraldry Unique Notables Government North America
- LCC
- E664 .T57 .S5 — History of the United States United States Late nineteenth century, 1865-1900 Biography
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 27
- Popularity
- 1,012,656
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (2.50)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
- ASINs
- 2
