1894 Backdoor Visitor

by Miriam E. Waters

The knock on the screen door came as a surprise.  Mama Tidwell wasn’t expecting any visitors and she was busy shaking pans to feed the family.  Her grandchildren were hearty eaters and demanded good food after a hard day’s work.  Still, a brief rest for her weary feet and a hot mug of chic’ry would be a welcomed distraction.  She shuffled over to the door to discover her guest’s identity.

Mama was startled to see a tall white man standing on her stoop.  She didn’t get many white visitors.  Once in a while an itinerant preacher would stop by to try to share the Good Word, but she was already saved, thank you.  Mayhap this man was a preacher, but she didn’t think so.  He didn’t have that wild look in his eyes like the others.

“Evenin’,” the man said when he saw her approaching the door.

“Evenin’,” Mama responded.  Experience had taught her to be cautious.

“I’s an agent for Sheriff Pickett.  I’d like to talk to you ‘bout the ‘lection what’s comin’ up.”

Mama indicated the empty rocker near the kitchen table and invited the man to sit with a nod of her head.  What was she to do?  Here was a strange white man wantin’ to talk to her.  Not much choice in the matter.

“The Sheriff feels that he can do a lot more good when he’s re’lected.  Now, he’s countin’ on your man to do his part to make sure that happens. There’s a nice silver dollar waitin’ for him when he casts his vote for the Sheriff,” the man promised.

That man’s smile so oily it ‘mos slipped off’n his face, Mama thought.

“We ‘ppreciate the offer, but he be backin’ Jimson Davis come the ‘lection,”

Mama said in her calm and quiet manner.

“Surely you don’ think that boy’s a better choice than Sheriff Pickett?” the white man sputtered.

Mama Tidwell shifted her large body in the old kitchen chair so that she faced her visitor.  She studied him intently.  “No means no ‘roun these parts,” were the only words she granted him.  Her visitor rose and strode angrily out the screen door, letting it slap back into place with a crack like gunshot.

“Umm, umm, umm,” Mama murmured.  After rising, she turned her back and with a shake of her grey head resumed her position in front of the cookstove.

*******

"The 50 Greatest American Civil War Names"

SOURCE:  http://www.theweeklings.com/bclaycomb/2013/07/04/the-50-greatest-american-civil-war-names/  

Retrieved: January 28, 2015

“47.  George Pickett – It’s a good enough name for a Southern general, but we remember it mainly for that disastrous charge at Gettysburg that bears his name.

1.     Shellanna Marvilla Holt Tidwell – They named her shell-anna because shells from the siege of Atlanta nearly ended her life before it began.  Already named Shellanna Marvilla Holt, she had the good sense to marry a man named Tidwell, giving us the best name of the era.  Thank you, Ms. Holt Tidwell.  We’re in your debt.”

The U.S. Morgan Dollar

SOURCE:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_dollar   

Retrieved:  January 28, 2015

Morgan Dollar -- Minted 1878-1904, 1921

Obverse

Reverse

"Voting Rights Act"

SOURCE: https://www.aclu.org/voting-rights-act-major-dates-history

Retrieved:  January 28, 2015

The Voting Rights Act is a historic civil rights law that is meant to ensure that the right to vote is not denied on account of race or color.

1866

Civil Rights Act of 1866 grants citizenship, but not the right to vote, to all native-born Americans.

1869

Congress passes the Fifteenth Amendment giving African American men the right to vote.

1896

Louisiana passes "grandfather clauses" to keep former slaves and their descendants from voting. As a result, registered black voters drops from 44.8% in 1896 to 4.0% four years later. Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama and Virginia follow Louisiana's lead by enacting their own grandfather clauses.

February 25, 2015.  All Rights Reserved.