Black Republicans "The Term"

Black Republicans

was a term applied by southern Democrats in the years before the Civil War to members of the Republican party.

Those who used this term intended it to be an insult, hoping that white Americans who felt racial prejudice toward African-Americans would reject the Republicans as too sympathetic to the slaves' demands for liberty and equal rights.

They continued to use this term during the Reconstruction period to label Republicans who favored legislation and other government action to help the freed slaves.