tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146767.post2547383361995252288..comments2023-11-05T19:28:30.016+11:00Comments on Southerly Buster: Yes, Sorry, there is a VirginiaUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146767.post-83592174581861751972007-08-16T13:34:00.000+10:002007-08-16T13:34:00.000+10:00Actually 1995...'It took 130 years, but the 'Deep ...Actually 1995...<BR/><BR/>'It took 130 years, but the 'Deep South" State of Mississippi has finally accepted the verdict of the American Civil War by becoming the last State in the Union to formally approve the abolition of slavery. The State’s legislature yesterday approved without dissent or debate a resolution ratifying the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery. When other States approved the amendment at the end of the Civil Warm, the white law-makers of Mississippi, still bitter about their defeat by Abraham Lincoln’s forces, angrily rejected the amendment. The Mississippi hold-outs demanded that slave-holders first be compensated for the value of slaves freed at the end of the war. The amendment became law across the US on December 18, 1865, after being ratified by 27 of the 36 States that then existed. The other nine States gradually approved the amendment but the exception remained Mississippi, a home of much Ku Klux Klan activity and one of the fiercest opponents of the desegregation and black rights movements of the 1960s. Most current members of the State legislature were unaware that Mississippi had never ratified the amendment until a black Democrat, Senator Hillman Frazier, discovered the State’s stubborn refusal to sign while searching historical records earlier this year. Senator Frazier drafted yesterday’s resolution and convinced his colleagues it was time to put the matter to rest."<BR/><BR/>- Peter Wilson, "Mississippi ratifies 1865 law to abolish slavery," <I>Weekend Australian</I> (18-19 February 1995).Tom Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06246157794276270490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146767.post-66830198284283484072007-08-14T15:19:00.000+10:002007-08-14T15:19:00.000+10:00The last of the Southern US States didn't ratify t...The last of the Southern US States didn't ratify the Thirteenth Amendment (abolishing slavery) until 1994, 130+ years after the Amendment took effect (after 3/4 of the other States' legislatures approved it).<BR/><BR/>Granted, the last 20 or so of those 130 years, non-ratification was a matter of oversight rather than determined "segregation forever!", but still...Tom Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06246157794276270490noreply@blogger.com