Kenneth and John B. Rayner and the Limits of Southern DissentIn this fascinating story of two nineteenth-century southern political mavericks, Gregg Cantrell details their fate as dissenters, telling a human story at once heroic and shameful, hopeful and tragic. The two mavericks were the slaveholding congressman and planter Kenneth Rayner of North Carolina and his illegitimate mulatto son, John B. Rayner of Texas. Born in 1808, Kenneth served in the North Carolina legislature for twenty years and in Congress for six as a Whig. In 1854 he became a major leader of the American (Know-Nothing) party. His staunch Unionism and a willingness to cooperate with Republicans incurred the wrath of his fellow southerners. After supporting secession, working for a peace settlement during the war, writing a biography of Andrew Johnson, and going broke in a grandiose cotton-planting venture, he joined the Republican parry and held federal offices in the Grant, Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur administrations. Kenneth Rayner's son, John, was born in 1850. His mother was a slave. The elder Rayner acknowledged his paternity and provided a college education. John held local offices in North Carolina during Reconstruction, then led a migration of black farmworkers to Texas in 1880. There he preached, taught school, and took part in his adopted state's prohibition battles. A master orator, he joined the Populist party in 1892 and soon became its preeminent black leader. After the turn of the century blacks were disfranchised and Rayner, like his father before him, found his political career in ruins. He spent the rest of his days working for black education and trying to preserve some voice for blacks in southern politics. Both men were out of step with the rapidlychanging politics of their time. Each eventually compromised his principles and personal dignity in futile efforts to salvage a way of life that earlier actions had jeopardized. Both were devoted to traditional republican principles, which estranged them from the South's major political parties. In the end, however, their political careers - Kenneth's in North Carolina and John's in Texas - were destroyed by their adherence to unacceptably liberal positions on the issue of race, a topic that indeed constituted the limit of southern dissent. |
From inside the book
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Page 108
... Republican strategists , were actively scheming to merge the North Americans into the Republican party . With these plans afoot there was never the slightest possibility that the North Americans would re- unite with the rest of their ...
... Republican strategists , were actively scheming to merge the North Americans into the Republican party . With these plans afoot there was never the slightest possibility that the North Americans would re- unite with the rest of their ...
Page 164
... Republican party was approaching moral bankruptcy . If the party was not interested in building a permanent , national organiza- tion , it could be little better than the hated Democrats . In the spring of 1877 , Rayner expressed to ...
... Republican party was approaching moral bankruptcy . If the party was not interested in building a permanent , national organiza- tion , it could be little better than the hated Democrats . In the spring of 1877 , Rayner expressed to ...
Page 274
... Republican conventions in the South will not in these days be able to induce other white men to unite with the Republican party . " 8 There was much truth in this analysis . The great stumbling block for the Republican party in the ...
... Republican conventions in the South will not in these days be able to induce other white men to unite with the Republican party . " 8 There was much truth in this analysis . The great stumbling block for the Republican party in the ...
Contents
I | 9 |
High National Considerations | 27 |
We Live in the Age of Improvement | 49 |
Copyright | |
13 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
American appeared August become believed called campaign candidate cause Civil claimed colored Congress constitutional continued convention County course December defeat delegates Democratic district early efforts election explained fact father February final forced former fusion hands Henry History hope House interests issue January John July June Kenneth Rayner Know-Nothings labor land later leaders legislature letter living majority March meeting movement needed negro never nomination North Carolina northern November October organization party party's political Polk Populism Populist position president principles prohibition question quotation race racial Raleigh Records reported represented Republican second quotation Senate September slavery slaves soon South southern speech Susan Texas third Thomas ticket tion took Union United vote voters Washington Whig wrote York