 |
 |
|
Biography of Benjamin Ryan Tillman
Name: Benjamin Ryan Tillman
Birth Date: August 11, 1847
Death Date: April 3, 1918
Place of Birth: Edgefield Country, South Carolina, United States
Nationality: American
Gender: Male
Occupations: politician
Benjamin Ryan Tillman
Benjamin Ryan Tillman (1847-1918), an American statesman for the South and a demagogue, was known as "Pitchfork Ben." His political campaigns on behalf of poor whites gave direction to a new generation of Southern activists who reorganized post-Reconstruction politics and society.Benjamin Ryan Tillman was born in Edgefield Country, S.C., on Aug. 11, 1847, of an old Southern family. He was raised on a plantation which boasted numerous slaves. A bright student, Tillman was prevented from serving with the Confederate forces during the Civil War because of the loss of his left eye. After the war he began farming, experiencing the frustrations of Southerners under Reconstruction policies and Federal troops.Despite his many acres Tillman identified himself more with poor white farmers than with the aristocrats of his state who sought to return to what they recalled as a gracious and chivalrous era. The fear poor white farmers felt and their hatred …showed first 150 words…
You are viewing only a small portion of the biography.
Please login or register to access the full copy.
|
|
…showed last 150 words…divided both liberals and conservatives. Tillman's hatred of President Theodore Roosevelt became a major motif in his career. Nevertheless, his exposé of the inordinate profits gained by steel manufacturers for government ships, his battle for naval expansion, and, most important, his work to revitilize the Interstate Commerce Commission through the Hepburn Act (1906) gave him status among those working for progressive measures.Although Tillman remained a senator and a figure in South Carolina politics, he loomed largest in his last decade as the prototype of New South politicians like James K. Vardaman in Mississippi and the later Jeff Davis of Arkansas. Both roused their poor white constituents for progressive social measures but also for the suppression of black civil rights. Tillman died on July 3, 1918, in Washington. Further Reading The authority on Tillman is Francis B. Simkins: see his The Tillman Movement in South Carolina (1926) and Pitchfork Ben Tillman, South Carolinian (1944).
Need a custom written paper?
|
|
 |
|
