Painting of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson in his Confederate General's uniform.
This #ScalawagSaturday we have a What If? Would Stonewall Jackson have been a Scalawag? The "martyr of the lost cause" was uncomfortable with slavery and saw the hand of God in everything. He likely would have seen Union victory as God's judgement and might have followed Longstreet into the GOP.
Picture of Senator Franklin J. Moses jr. of South Carolina
#ScalawagSaturday looks at the complex legacy of Franklin J. Moses jr. of South Carolina. A Secessionist who became a Scalawag Senator, he armed Black militias to defend themselves from the KKK. His lavish parties and patronage system fed rumors of corruption later weaponized against all Scalawags.
Photo of Christopher Sheats (from Encyclopedia of Alabama courtesy of Reita Jones)
#ScalawagSaturday celebrates Christopher Sheats of Alabama, a Unionist who governed the breakaway "Free State of Winston" in Northern AL and spent time in a CS prison. After the war he became a Scalawag politician, Congressman, and Ambassador to Denmark.
encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/chri...
Cover of Frank Wetta's The Louisiana Scalawags depicting a half-man, half-lizard caricature of a scalawag in a crown.
#ScalawagSaturday celebrates the Scalawags of Louisiana. Derided as White Trash opportunists and race traitors, they were in fact capable patriots who allied with the free creole community to oppose secession and support Reconstruction. Shown: Frank Wetta's authoritative text on them.
Photo of William "Bull" Nelson. By Civil War glass negative collection (Library of Congress) - This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs divisionunder the digital ID cwpb.06191.This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16522290
#ScalawagSaturday salutes William "Bull" Nelson, the Navy Commander who became an Army General. This Kentuckian's actions early in the war ensured Kentucky stayed in the Union and he was ready to liberate East TN in 1861, a move that would have severed VA from the west. Killed by a rival not war.
Photograph of a seated James L. Alcorn by Mathew Brady.
#ScalawagSaturday explores the complex story of James L. Alcorn. Born in IL, he bought a plantation in MS & 100+ slaves. He fought for the CS but after the war became a Scalawag & backed Civil Rights yet believed in White Supremacy. Alas in retirement he sadly reverted & backed disenfranchisement.
Image contrasting the Lily White and multiracial Back and Tan factions of the Republican Party showing the various members with the former labelled "invalidation" and the latter "We refuse to vote."
#ScalawagSaturday salutes the multiracial Black and Tan faction of the Republican Party who still clung to the principles of the Party of Lincoln as the Lily White faction slowly took over. They pushed for racial equality and opposed Jim Crow. As the GOP embraced the Southern Strategy they went Dem.
Print from The Wedge magazine showing a wedge splitting the log of the Solid South with the banner "Death to Bourbonism."
#ScalawagSaturday gives its Valentine's Day love to the Readjuster Party of Virginia, a multiracial coalition that for a while liberated the Commonwealth from the grip of the Landed Gentry oligarchs and delayed the onset of Jim Crow in the Old Dominion. One of several "could have been" moments.
Photograph of William Mahone by Mathew Brady
Sometimes the villain becomes the hero. William Mahone of Virginia opposed secession yet ended up a CS General. But he makes #ScalawagSaturday for after the war when he joined the multiracial Readjuster Party and became VA's Scalawag Governor, championing racial equality and opposing Jim Crow.
Woodcut print of East Tennessee bridge burners in Barton's A Hero In Homespun.
#ScalawagSaturday Alfred Cate, Southern Unionist turned guerilla fighter, organizing the East Tennessee Bridge Burnings and successfully leading the torching of the Hiwassee bridge. He later fought for the Union. After the war he became a Scalawag Republican and voted to affirm the 14th Amendment.
Samuel F. Phillips, second United States Solicitor General, politician and civil-rights lawyer.
#ScalawagSaturday celebrates Samuel F. Phillips of North Carolina. Opposed secession, lobbied for peace during the war, became a Scalawag Republican after the war, and advocated strongly for equal rights after. Ultimately fought "Separate but Equal" in the landmark Plessy V. Fergusson.
Photo of James L Acorn by Mathew Brady seated wearing a suit.
#ScalawagSaturday explores the complex legacy of James L. Acorn of Mississippi. A Unionist who became a CS General. A White Supremacist who became a Scalawag Republican and supported Civil Rights for Freedmen. He lost the support of the Freedmen when he was too soft on the KKK.
Gelatin silver print of a photograph of Walter Francis White. Per the National Portrait Gallery: Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Walter White headed the NAACP from 1931 to 1955. During these difficult years, he directed an unsuccessful struggle for an anti-lynching bill and implemented a long-range campaign of legal actions culminating in the 1954 Supreme Court decision outlawing discrimination in the nation's schools. White's tenure at the NAACP saw it through the Depression, when membership and donations declined precipitously and it faced a strong challenge from the Communist Party-USA, which actively competed for African American members. After World War II and during the beginning of the Cold War, White remained a staunch anti-Communist and stressed the need for racial justice in America to compete with the Soviets in winning third-world allies. Due in part to White's urging, Harry Truman ran on a civil rights platform in the 1948 presidential election. Dimensions: Image/Sheet: 25.3 × 20.3 cm (9 15/16 × 8") Mat: 55.9 × 40.7 cm (22 × 16") National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; bequest of Phyllis Fenner
#ScalawagSaturday celebrates Civil Rights activist Walter White (not that one) of Atlanta. Mixed race but by all appearances white, he could have passed and lived comfortably. Instead he joined the NAACP and fought Jim Crow and Lynching and helped convince Harry Truman to support Civil Rights.
Middle Tennessee State University libraries Shades 266 photo of Rev. William Blount Carter 1820–1902
A day late on #ScalawagSaturday given yesterday's insanity, but let's explore an example of honor amid chaos with Rev. William B. Cater of Tennessee who opposed secession, organized the East TN bridge burnings, and became a scalawag Republican opposing Jim Crow after the war.
Wood engraving of Sarah Moore Grimké
Wood engraving of Angelina Emily Grimké
#ScalawagSaturday is going back to the early Republic to honor Sarah and Angelina Grimké of South Carolina. Raised in a slave-holding plantation, they were sickened by slavery's cruelty from a young age, becoming "radical left scum": ardent abolitionists and true believers in equal rights.
Period painting of General William Whipple, Founding Father who freed his slaves.
Not often you see a Yankee on #ScalawagSaturday, but back when New Hampshire still had slavery Gen William Whipple became the one Founding Father to take "All Men are Created Equal" literally and the only one to free all his slaves while alive. The year? 1776.
Period photograph of General John Gibbon in his Union Army uniform. His eyes are piercing. He has a serious mustache over a trimmed beard.
#ScalawagSaturday salutes MGEN John Gibbon. Born in PA, his family moved to NC when he was 11. His parents owned slaves and most of the family sided with the CSA, but he stayed loyal, leading the storied Wisconsin Iron Brigade who bore the brunt of repulsing Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg.
#ScalawagSaturday honors the Bridge Burners of East Tennessee, Unionists who failed to break away from Nashville but managed to burn most of the bridges on the VA, TN, & GA Railroad in anticipation of a Union offensive that never came.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Te...
#ScalawagSaturday celebrates the Union Labor Party of Arkansas, a biracial coalition of farmers and laborers who in 1888 nearly overturned decades of segregationist Democrat rule. Violently suppressed, the ULP offered hope in an oppressive system.
whatitmeanstobeamerican.org/encounters/t...
Photo of James Daniel Boyd, a soldier in the 1st North Carolina Union Volunteers
#ScalawagSaturday honors the men of the 1st and 2nd "Loyal" North Carolina Volunteers who were among the roughly 10,000 NC men (and disguised women) who fought for the Union. CS forces under Pickett hanged NC POWs as "traitors" in one of many CS war crimes. Shown is James Boyd of the 1st.
Photograph of Horace Maynard by Mathew Brady.
#ScalawagSaturday celebrates Horace Maynard, an architect of the East Tennessee Convention, which attempted to meet secession with secession and keep the "Frankland (or Franklin)" in the Union. He went on to become a Scalawag politician during Reconstruction. He was known for his biting sarcasm.
Photograph of Francis Harrison Pierpont.
#ScalawagSaturday celebrates Francis H. Pierpont, the "Governor in Exile" of "Loyal" [West] Virginia who opposed secession and helped establish the government of what would become West Virginia. Appointed at the Wheeling Convention, he'd eventually become the Reconstruction Governor or Virginia.
Photograph of Sam Houston by Matthew Brady showing a troubled face.
A Texas-sized #ScalawagSaturday as we explore the complex legacy of Sam Houston. A slave owner who opposed slavery's expansion. An adopted Cherokee named Raven who supported Andrew Jackson. And an opponent of secession who sat out the Civil War. As contradictory as the blue dot that bears his name.
A 1780 miniature portrait of John Laurens, by Charles Willson Peale
For our #NoKings #ScalawagSaturday we honor the OG Scalawag, John Laurens of South Carolina. Born a Slaver Aristocrat, he opposed slavery and favored emancipating and arming slaves to fight against King George. He sadly died near the end of the war before he could be a southern voice of abolition.
@korgx3.bsky.social please remind me in a week to do John Laurens for #ScalawagSaturday. OG #scalawag!
Daguerreotype of Charles Christopher Sheets of Walker County, Alabama, who resisted secession and refused to sign the Declaration of Secession and was imprisoned by the CSA for treason. He went on to become a Scalawag politician post-war.
#ScalawagSaturday celebrates Charles Christopher Sheets of Walker County, AL. He resisted secession and refused to sign the Declaration of it. He was imprisoned by the CSA for treason and freed only after the war. He went on to become a Scalawag GOP Congressman. Northern AL remained pro-Union.
Photograph of Major General Montgomery C/ Meigs in his uniform.
#ScalawagSaturday reminds you that Logistics wins wars as we honor Major General Montgomery Meigs of Georgia, who stayed loyal to the Union and became US Quartermaster General. As QG he forged an amazing logistics system that kept US soldiers fed, armed, and shod while barefoot CS soldiers starved.
Period photograph of The Reverend Moses Dickson, founder of the Knights of Liberty
#ScalawagSaturday celebrates Rev Moses Dickson, founder of the Knights of Liberty secret society which planned a slave uprising. Not technically a scalawag, this former slave built the infrastructure by which slaves during the Civil War were able to resist, assist, rise up, and escape to freedom.
Photograph of William B. Carter.
#ScalawagSaturday honors Rev. William B. Carter of Tennessee, an anti-slavery Southerner from East Tennessee who organized the East TN Unionist partisans who burned bridges along the ET&VA RR in anticipation of a Union invasion that never happened.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Te...
Black and white photograph of Mildred and Richard Loving, who won the right to be married in the landmark 1967 Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court case.
Sometimes the greatest warriors are those who fight in the courts rather than the battlefield. #ScalawagSaturday celebrates Mildred and Richard Loving of Virginia whose landmark 1967 SCOTUS victory finally legalized interracial marriage. Mildred later supported LGBTQ rights in 2007. Loving wins!
