Disordered Communities
Disordered Communities
Freedpeople, Poor Whites, and “Mixed Blood” Families in Reconstruction North Carolina
This chapter discusses Clinton A. Cilley's bleak assessment of race relations in the state of Mississippi. Superintendent Cilley estimated that about three-fourths of blacks were willing to work, while the rest made their livings by stealing and prostitution. Although he estimated that three-fourths of whites were likewise willing to employ blacks, he thought that only two-thirds were willing to pay fair wages—and that even they would not treat blacks fairly except for the “advice and authority” of the Freedmen's Bureau. Were the bureau discontinued, he concluded, “blacks would be no better off than before the war.” It is not surprising that Southern white men, especially former slaveholders, would rage against their loss of political authority and racial dominance. For a brief few years, their world was turned upside down, and most did not doubt that their diminished power signaled the destruction of civilized society.
Keywords: Clinton A. Cilley, race relations, Mississippi, fair wages, Freedmen's Bureau
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