Destroying the Republic: Jabez Curry & the Re-education of the Old South

Jabez Curry was an aristocratic Alabamian. In the ante-bellum South he had a distinguished career in both the Alabama Assembly and the United States Congress. He tirelessly advocated the principles of state sovereignty and limited Federal Governmental power. As an active promoter of education, he staunchly believed that this important …

Jabez Curry was an aristocratic Alabamian. In the ante-bellum South he had a distinguished career in both the Alabama Assembly and the United States Congress. He tirelessly advocated the principles of state sovereignty and limited Federal Governmental power. As an active promoter of education, he staunchly believed that this important function was entirely each state’s responsibility and completely outside Washington’s Sphere.

And yet, in the years following the Civil war, in a complete reversal of philosophy, Curry became the top executive of the Peabody Education Fund, the largest educational philanthropy of the 19th century, which united private Southern schools with the anti-Southern carpetbag state governments which were committed to eradicating the “culture of rebellion” from the minds of the ex-Confederates’ children. By the 20th century, this plan had turned on itself and emptied out Northern children’s minds as well. This transformed the US republic in the 21st century into an emerging dictatorship.

The War for Southern Independence and the problems of Reconstruction have been the subject of more than 20 articles and three monographs published by John Chodes. This book compiles them all and is very valuable to the Historian studying Reconstruction.