Mary - Journeytohistory

282 From Slavery to FreedomIntimidation continued on an extensivescale. Earlier it had been justified in orderto wrest political control from unworthyRepublicans, both white and black, butonce control was secured, the more sensitivewhite Southerners deemed it irresponsibleto depend on night riders andRed Shirts to maintain the Democrats inpower. For many white Southerners, however,violence was still the surest meansof keeping blacks politically impotent,and in countless communities blacks werenot allowed, under penalties of severereprisals, to show their faces in town onelection day.Other devices, hardly more legal thanviolence and intimidation, had a more respectableappearance. Polling places werefrequently set up far from black communities,and the more diligent blacks failedto reach them upon finding roads blockedand ferries conveniently out of repair atThe Wbi'.e Lellgucr were vi!torously oppo ed to election time. Polling places were someblael,voting. Here. they turn back a blaek nHIIl who times changed without notifying blackwants to vote the Republican ticl ct. ("'Republican voters; or, if they were notified, electionTicket" cngrnvill" by J.fJ. IVCln~s. Fmnl, Leslie' officials thought nothing of making a last­IIInstr"ared News)minute decision not to change the placeafter all. Election laws were so imperfectthat in many communities uniform ballotswere not required, and officials winked at Democrats who made up several extraballots to cast with the one given them. The practice of stuffing ballot boxeswas widespread. Criminal manipulation of the counting gave point to the assertionof an enthusiastic Democrat that "the white and black Republicans mayoutvote us, but we can outcount them."For what black votes were cast and counted, the white factions vied witheach other. Dances and parties, with plenty of barbecue and whiskey, were heldfor black voters on election eve as a reminder that they should vote for theirbenefactors. Some planters brought their black workers to the polls and "votedthem like a senseless herd of cattle." At times black candidates were nominatedby whites in order to divide the vote of the race, while the whites allvoted for one of their own race. A few candidates sought black votes by advocatingmeasures favorable to them. In 1882, when he was running for the Georgialegislature, Tom Watson won many black votes by demanding free blackschools and condemning the convict lease system, which was especially burdensometo blacks.