Postwar Society In Tennessee (Lesson 82)

Tennessee's largest city suffered serious problems in the last part of the nineteenth century. A serious riot erupted in 1866. Reports circulated that black soldiers killed a white police man arresting another soldier. White mobs formed and attacked freedman's camps and neighborhoods for two days. Forty-six blacks and two white where killed.

Hundreds of blacks where molested or beaten, and much property was destroyed. Hundreds of blacks where arrested and hundreds more fled the city. The riot against blacks was probably mostly the result of white anger and frustration over the Southern loss in the Civil War, the large numbers of blacks wanting help and the changing nature of the southern society. 

 (People DIED. May I Repeat? PEOPLE DIED. Because they where FRUSTRATED.)

One result of the disturbance was was the hardening of Radical Republicans in Congress against and any mild plans for reconstructing the southerns states. 

A few years later, Memphis a series of serious  outbreaks of yellow fever. The disease was carried by mosquito, probably brought to the area by ships coming up the Mississippi  River from the Caribbean or Africa.The cause of the disease was not known however till the 1900s. The disease caused chills, fever, bleeding, and black vomit and sometimes yellowed or jaundiced skin giving it it's name. Only the first frost would stop the disease. Memphis has endured some yellow fever cases earlier in the century , but the first serious outbreak was in 1873 when 2,000 people died The disease stroke again in 1878. Over 5,100 people died and 25,00 left the city (when the population was less than 100,000). 

Unfortunately the disease spread to the nearby towns when infected people went there to get away from Memphis. A smaller Outbreak occurred in 1879. the fewer numbers of deaths them probably came from having a cleaner city and from people becoming immune to the disease. The city recovered remarkably well and the population was a little over 100,00 in 1900.  

The Civil War literally divided the nation and pitted brother against brother, Republicans  and Democrats had many sharp political battles on the national sand state levels in the last part of the nineteenth century. Republicans won all but two of the Presidential races between 1868 and 1900. In In Tennessee, Democrats won most of the governors races between 1968 and 1900. In the 1886 election for governor, two brothers, Robert And Alfred Taylor, opposed each other and candidates. They came from a politically active East Tennessee family. Their father was a farmer and Methodist minister who sever two terms as a US congressman. Alfred was born in Happy Valley in Carter County in 1848. He served in the Tennessee legislature from 1875 to 1879. He married 1881, and he and his wife has ten children. Robert was also born in Happy Valley but in 1850. He was elected to Congress in 1878 after his brother Alfred lost the republican primary for the same position. After losing her re-election bit and in 1881 ran for the US Senate, Robert ran a news paper in Johnson City. In 1886 Robby was nominated for the Governor by the Democrats, and Al was nominated by the Republicans. The campaign cam to be called the War of the Roses. in 15th century England, to related families fought each other for the throne in what was called the War of Roses, The symbol for the York family was a white rose and the symbol for the Lancaster family was a red rose. 

Supported for the two candidates for governor as well as Robert and Alfred themselves, started to wear roses. Democrats wore white and Republicans red. Although the campaign was far from war is was a kind campaign and the brothers toured the state together. The brothers appeared on the came platform forty-one times, playing their fiddles and giving good-natured speeches. Their gentle campaign was a welcome relief for the bitter feelings of the postwar era. 

Democrat Robert won the 1886 election. He was reelected two years earlier and won third term in 1896. Robert was defeated in an attempt to win US Senate seat in 1893. He finally achieved his dream of serving as the US Senate when the General assembly chose him for the office in 1906 Republican Alfred was elected to his fathers seat in congress for three terms beginning in 1888. he eventually won a single two tear term as governor in 1920. When he was inaugurated as governor when he was 72 years old, making his Tennessee's oldest governor. In 1890's, the Taylor brothers toured the country fiddling , speech making and story telling. Their speeches were entitled "Yankee Doodle and Dixie". they became well known for their appearances. Their tour tried to bring healing to the country as a whole the way their election campaign had done in Tennessee. The Taylors showed that brothers can differ politically and still be brothers. This was a lesson that the country needed to hear. The Taylor brothers are buried in Johnson City.