Charles Caldwell was never meant to have a voice. Mississippi’s white ruling class ensured it stayed that way.
In 1860, Caldwell was part of the state’s silenced majority—436,600 enslaved individuals compared to 354,000 white people, as recorded in the Census. After the Civil War, formerly enslaved individuals were granted full citizenship.
By 1868, Caldwell became one of 16 Black delegates at the state’s post-war constitutional convention, which granted voting rights to all men and laid the foundation for public education.
A white politician’s historical account of the Clinton Riot described Caldwell as “one of the most daring and desperate negroes of his day.” He was considered “the dominant factor in local Republican politics.”
