The arrival of Union soldiers in Spartanburg in April 1865 marked the end of the Civil War for the region. Spartanburg County had undoubtably suffered a devastating military loss. Civil government had collapsed, and the entire state had been placed under military rule. The economy was in shambles as the emancipation of slaves – the main source wealth for white men – had wiped out the finances of the wealthiest men in the area and disrupted labor. Although Spartanburg was not the site of any battles, a majority of white men had served in Confederate army, and many had been killed or permanently injured.
One of the few sources of hope was the nature of the economy. While Spartanburg County unquestionably had been a slave society, its economy was less dependent on slavery than many other parts of the south. A large number of residents were small farmers who owned no slaves, and the economy was relatively diverse. The region was home to ironworks and cotton mills,
Despite all the ink that was later spilt complaining about "bayonet rule," military rule was mild. The garrison stationed in Spartanburg village was small (twenty-five soldiers in May 1866), and there appear to have been few tensions. The only incident documented by the town council was one in November 1865. Two white men (William Spencer and James Ally) tried to provoke a "general riot" and "raise a difficulty" with some Union soldiers, but the incident does not appear to have any great political significance. The men pled "guilty but drunk" and were fined fifteen dollars plus court costs. In May 1866, the garrison was temporarily removed, and Carolina Spartan newspaper that it "would have preferred that [they] should have remained" as they had been well-behaved.
For many residents, the divisive politics surrounding the war and secession were an unaffordable luxury. Much more important was restoring civil order and the economy. The prominent Spartanburg politician James Farrow expressed the views of many in a speech he delivered in October 1865. Farrow was running for US senate in the first election held since the war, and he was using the occasion to present himself as a candidate. He argued that there were no differences between the candidates on policy: everyone was running on a platform on restoring civil government and "rebuilding our shattered fortunes." The candidates differed in how palatable their political records were to northern politicians. Like all other candidates, Farrow had served the Confederacy. His strength, he argued, was that he had been pardoned by the president and had advocated for accepting the results of the war as a "settlement of the great issue."
Farrow did not explain what he meant by "the great issue." He likely meant the right of states to secede and perhaps also the right of the federal government to outlaw slavery. What he almost certainly did not mean was extending equal rights to formerly enslaved people. That remained an anathema to white elites. The Carolina Spartan newspaper expressed the opinions of many by publishing the poem "Harry Hopeful Sees the Spartan." The newspaper had closed at the end of the war and recently reopened under a new editor. Most of the poem described how the paper had changed, but it also described the political changes that had recently taken place:
Other changes here [in the newspaper] I find,
But of a very different kind,
Not in the "style of publication."
But in the way they work the nation
So that any moment you may choose,
The Legislative Acts peruse;
Our folks (I fear 'twas by compulsion)
Have made somewhat of a revulsion
Like some folks North (who think it right)
Tha've made the Black, as good as white,
And as a good old [expletive deleted] said
"It puts the Devil in their head,"
Stealing is common thro' the land,
I guess, the bottom rail was rotten,
So they want the top one on bottom,
A close look at the county's political leaders sheds light into regional political developments. Efforts to restore civil government began in fall 1865 when voters elected delegates to a state-wide constitutional convention and then legislators under the new state constitution.
Freedmen were excluded from voting, so predictably all elected officials were white southerners. However, a close examination of the individuals shows some surprises. Only one of the men elected was a planter. That man was John Winsmith (not to be confused with his son, John C. Winsmith, who also was active in politics). Winsmith worked as a physician, but he also ran one of the largest plantations in the county. He had a deep personal investment in labor relations between planters and freedpeople. Prior to emancipation, he enslaved almost one-hundred people. His election also demonstrated the continued political influence of the county's traditional political leaders: Winsmith had served two terms in the state legislature.
Other antebellum politicians who were reelected were Gabriel Cannon, James Farrow, and John W. Carlisle. These men were not planters. Farrow and Carlisle were lawyers, while Cannon had ran a cotton manufacturing business. In particular, Cannon's economic interests were different from those of planter's like Winsmith. Cannon was less dependent on the labor of freedmen and more interested in state-supported economic developments like railroad construction.
Other elected officials were new to politics. Two of the men, Andrew Copeland and A. B. Woodruff, had run successful family farms, while M. C. Barnett and D. R. Duncan were professionals (a mechanic and a lawyer, respectively). All of them had served as officers in the Confederate army, and their military service likely had been their entry points into politics.
The hostility of white elites to the rights and interests of freedpeople ultimately doomed early efforts at Reconstruction in South Carolina, and the former Confederacy more generally. In national politics, there was widespread anger and frustration at the continued resistance to political changes in the former Confederate states. Congress refused to seat many ex-Confederates, including Spartanburg resident James Farrow, who won the election for US Congress. After Republicans swept the 1866 election, they imposed harsher conditions for the restoration of civil government. Martial law was restored to South Carolina, and Congress required the state to make further changes to the state constitution – including the enfranchisement of Black men – before civil government was restored.
In the long-term, white elites in Spartanburg County would realize their vision for the region. While freedpeople would ostensibly enjoy full political rights, they remained an economically disadvantaged group that was almost wholly excluded from political decision-making. Former planters would enjoy the cheap labor provided by a political and social system that forced former slaves to labor as sharecropper, while budding industrialists would benefit from development efforts that ultimately make the region a center for cotton manufacturing.
The short-term impact was very different. Conflict over the enfranchisement of Black men would plunge the county into chaos and violence. Spartanburg would see some of the worst Ku Klux violence in the nation as well as the most punitive efforts by the federal government to curb racial and political violence.
In his October 1865 speech, James Farrow spoke about his attitude towards the defeat of the Confederacy. He insisted that South Carolinians must accept that the dispute over states' rights and slavery had been settled by the Confederacy's military defeat, but at the same time, they must reject "the craven surrender of all thoughts, feelings and recollections of a Southerner." Voters, he advised, should behave like the King of India, Porus, when he was captured by Alexander the Great: voters should insist that they continued to be treated "like a king!" White elites in Spartanburg County would force the nation to continue treating them like kings but at terrible cost.
1. "Garrison Removed." The Carolina Spartan. [volume], May 03, 1866, Image 2
2. "A New Garrison" The Carolina Spartan. [volume], May 10, 1866, Image 2
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