To start this article, Wayne K. Durrill, tells of how four freedmen by the names of Jim and Lewis Coppedge who are brothers, Ned Myers who is Coppedge’s step-father, and George Chambers kill James W. Redfearn. Redfearn is the owner of a general store called Whites Store in Anson County North Carolina. It is believed that the freedmen committed crime because the KKK was coming to the store. Testimony was used to convict Lewis and Ned of Murder. This same testimony was used to convict Jim as well, but at a later time. Details that surfaced later revealed that the crime might have been part of a larger conflict with serious political implications, not regular murder and robbery. This murder and trial marked the end of a struggle that could be describes as short, violent, and decisive, which began in Spring 1867 in Anson County North Carolina. Violence was used to control local courts, establish political dominance, and the legitimacy of that dominance which was most important.
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A crucial link was then formed between economic and political power in the South during reconstruction. Since before the Revolution, the means to power for landowners had been local courts. After 1868, to regain control of the courts, merchants and landowners acting in a way similar to the KKK resorted to violence. This led to a crisis of legitimacy throughout the South. A group formed called the “red strings” by freed people in Wadesboro. …show more content…
The group was modeled after a secret White Unionist organization called the Heroes with America. Their main goal was to protect themselves against the control of local courts. Congress wanted to hold a Constitutional Convention in North Carolina as a result of bringing an end to military rule in state. In 1867, planters, merchants, yeoman farmers, and freedmen worked hard to register both black and white voters. The convention ended in January 1868, and it gave delegates the right to write a constitution that made all Judicial offices elective, if approved by electorate. This is what Democrats feared. Scanty wages from years before left poor people with nothing to live off of. These poor people decided to raid the properties of merchants and landowners, which led to confrontations in local courts. Vincent and Reuben Medley were accused of plotting to kill planter Joseph Medley in May 1868. Joseph Medley was their former owner. Mr. Davis, who had caught ear of this plan, informed Joseph Medley. Soon afterwards, Reuben and Vincent were arrested. A petition was created by a representative of the freed people by the name of Cyrus Knight. This petition, which was signed by 289 people, was sent to Raleigh. It proposed a pardon in Jim Coppedges’s case, being that he was only a young boy who was forced by his father to commit murder. Ultimately, the governor of Raleigh, Governor Caldwell, accepted the pardon proposed by Cyrus Knight. Planters and merchants had two choices: They could either participate in what promised to be a loyal society ruled by poor blacks and whites through the Republican Party, or they could oppose local courts created by the constitution of 1868, violently. In the late 1860s and the early 1870s, the Democrats lost their claim to be legitimate leaders because of actions of fraud, violence and intimidation. The struggle to gain control of local courts in Anson County North Carolina suggests that the local elites failed to create a legitimate power of the
A crucial link was then formed between economic and political power in the South during reconstruction. Since before the Revolution, the means to power for landowners had been local courts. After 1868, to regain control of the courts, merchants and landowners acting in a way similar to the KKK resorted to violence. This led to a crisis of legitimacy throughout the South. A group formed called the “red strings” by freed people in Wadesboro. …show more content…
The group was modeled after a secret White Unionist organization called the Heroes with America. Their main goal was to protect themselves against the control of local courts. Congress wanted to hold a Constitutional Convention in North Carolina as a result of bringing an end to military rule in state. In 1867, planters, merchants, yeoman farmers, and freedmen worked hard to register both black and white voters. The convention ended in January 1868, and it gave delegates the right to write a constitution that made all Judicial offices elective, if approved by electorate. This is what Democrats feared. Scanty wages from years before left poor people with nothing to live off of. These poor people decided to raid the properties of merchants and landowners, which led to confrontations in local courts. Vincent and Reuben Medley were accused of plotting to kill planter Joseph Medley in May 1868. Joseph Medley was their former owner. Mr. Davis, who had caught ear of this plan, informed Joseph Medley. Soon afterwards, Reuben and Vincent were arrested. A petition was created by a representative of the freed people by the name of Cyrus Knight. This petition, which was signed by 289 people, was sent to Raleigh. It proposed a pardon in Jim Coppedges’s case, being that he was only a young boy who was forced by his father to commit murder. Ultimately, the governor of Raleigh, Governor Caldwell, accepted the pardon proposed by Cyrus Knight. Planters and merchants had two choices: They could either participate in what promised to be a loyal society ruled by poor blacks and whites through the Republican Party, or they could oppose local courts created by the constitution of 1868, violently. In the late 1860s and the early 1870s, the Democrats lost their claim to be legitimate leaders because of actions of fraud, violence and intimidation. The struggle to gain control of local courts in Anson County North Carolina suggests that the local elites failed to create a legitimate power of the