Franklin Moses Jr. is one of the great forgotten figures in
American history. Scion of a distinguished Jewish family in South
Carolina, he was a firebrand supporter of secession and an officer
in the Confederate army. Moses then reversed course. As
Reconstruction governor of South Carolina, he shocked and outraged
his white constituents by championing racial equality and
socializing freely with former slaves. Friends denounced him, his
family disowned him, and enemies ultimately drove him from his home
state.
In "Moses of South Carolina," Benjamin Ginsberg rescues this
protean figure and his fascinating story from obscurity. Though
Moses was far from a saint--he was known as the "robber governor"
for his corrupt ways--Ginsberg suggests that Moses nonetheless
deserves better treatment in the historical record. Despite his
moral lapses, Moses launched social programs, integrated state
institutions, and made it possible for blacks to attend the state
university.
As a Jew, Moses grew up on the fringe of southern plantation
society. After the Civil War, Moses envisioned a culture different
from the one in which he had been raised, one that included the
newly freed slaves. From the margins of southern society, Franklin
Moses built America's first black-Jewish alliance, a model, argues
Ginsberg, for the coalitions that would help reshape American
politics in the decades to come.
Revisiting the story of the South's "most perfect scalawag,"
Ginsberg contributes to a broader understanding of the essential
role southern Jews played during the Civil War and
Reconstruction.
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