JF Ptak Science Books Post 2528--expanded
De Bow's Review in 1867--in the dire straights of the antebellum South, in the doom and despair of the just-finished war--lashed out like a wicked Alex Jones conspiratorial wingnut against the Northern states and anyone who comforted them. Published in Nashville, all I have of the magazine presently is this loose issue for November 1867, and in spite of the energetically positive view depicted on the cover of the magazine had little to do with what you found in the writing inside.
The leading article is an odd one, yelling about Great Britain manufacturing the cause of anti-slavery in the United States, which pretty much is made abundantly clear in the title, "Black Republicanism, the Dupe and Agent of British Policy in Respect to American Interests". The "scheme of so-called Negro Emancipation...is a British Invention" crushing the U.S. which "suffered immeasurably" under the Abolition Program, "the fatal deadfall of the abolition trap", all of which in the end will "crush the innards out of the "Black Republican Yankee". It was the Brits according to the writer of this article who FORCED THE UNITED STATES TO ABOLISH SLAVERY" [caps in the original].
The second article is called "No Treason" and makes the case for the Confederacy for not having committed treasonous acts.
The article ends with the following enormously assumptive and categorical statements:
This might be the bones of this issue, but the next article, comes the marrow: "The Future of the Blacks". It is here where "the Blacks" are threatened with death as a race should they become politically and economically mobile, and threatened in such a way that they were being given advice for their own good should the "blacks" (with a little "b") "forget their true position":
The short article was long on advice for the newly-freed slaves of the United States to abide. For example, in citing a letter to the freedmen of Lowndes county, Mississippi (by the same author as this article, still unnamed), the writer admonishes "Mingling in politics never did any man any good, and may prove your ruin". And more:
The writer then cautions Blacks against an alliance with Northern concerns, because "whether slavery was right or wrong, both North and South were responsible for its existence" and that Blacks should remember that though freed by the North they were also sold by the North. Votes for the Black person "could prove ruinous" and "equally delusional". The idea of social equality was the Black equivalent of "firewater to the Indian". Lastly in this article God Almighty is brought in: "God has created all men, and all races, for some valuable purpose, and to attempt to elevate races of men out of their proper sphere is to violate Heaven's great law, and must always result disastrously".
Add on it goes, this bitter article, into its long, fearful, vengeful, and sweaty night.
Notes:
1. The variations in the title of the magazine gives you a pretty good idea of what they're about: 1846-June 1850, The Commercial review of the South and West (caption title, 1846-Jan. 1847, July 1848-June 1850, The Commercial Review; from Feb. 1847-June 1850: De Bow's commercial review of the South and West)--July 1850-Dec. 1852, De Bow's review of the Southern and Western States (caption title: De Bow's southern and western review); 1853-July/Aug. 1864, De Bow's Review and Industrial Resources, Statistics, etc.' 1866-Dec. 1867, De Bow's review, devoted to the restoration of the Southern States, and the development of the wealth and resources of the country...
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