A fact from Thomas Minott Peters appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 5 March 2015 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that although Alabama Chief Justice and botanist Thomas Minott Peters owned slaves before the Civil War, he later championed equal rights for African Americans and women, and wanted Jefferson Davis hanged?
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Latest comment: 9 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
What I'm about to say comes purely from general knowledge of US history, backed up by the information in the Wikipedia article on the History of Alabama. I wonder if this article was written by someone not fully familiar with post-Civil-War history in the south, specifically Reconstruction. I'm referring, really, only to some word choice in this passage: "Despite [thinking Confederates were traitors], Peters, a Republican, was elected to the Alabama Supreme Court in 1868 and became the Chief Justice in 1873. He was defeated for reelection in 1874, likely because he supported equal rights for women and African Americans." In 1868, Alabama was under Federal occupation. The elections were run under Reconstruction rules, with black participation encouraged and the participation of whites who'd fought against the Union discouraged. In 1874 Reconstruction ended in Alabama and the white Southern Democrats regained control of the state government. "Despite" makes it sound like he was elected by people who overlooked his Union sympathies, but he was elected because the Union was, effectively, running the state at the time. And yes, I'm sure he was defeated in 1874 because of his views on equality (and everything else), but it wasn't because the electorate changed its mind or his views on equality were not known previously, it's because control of his state had changed from the Union to the locals. He's lucky he didn't get lynched, frankly, or have to move to the North to avoid it. I'm surprised the Ku Klux Klan didn't get him. My overall point is that the sentences I quoted ... ignore the change in power structure; make it sound like the dates are just a coincidence. He was elected as part of Reconstruction coming in and lost as part of it going out. I'm not sure I've expressed that well. His views were WHY the Northerners saw to it he was elected in 1868; they were looking for people like that to put in power. He was defeated in 1874 because the power had shifted. It wasn't "despite" anything. Gms3591 (talk) 11:54, 5 March 2015 (UTC)Reply
