On August 5, from 7 to 8 pm at the Tabernacle, Dr. Elaine Franz will give a talk on a season of unrest.
Due to chaos that followed the 1876 presidential election, when there wasn’t a clear winner, those attending the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting may have felt relieved to escape the mainland. In 1877, the Republicans ultimately made a deal to give the presidency to Rutherford B. Hayes. In exchange for this decision, they had given up the work of Reconstruction — rebuilding the South after the Civil War and protecting newly freed African Americans. This decision left former slaves and their supporters without the federal help they’d had before.
For Methodists from New England and New York, the end of Reconstruction was especially challenging. They had toiled for years working to help freed people, but 1877 marked the end of that mission. This political upheaval caused massive social unrest. In July, the nation was shaken by a national railroad strike. Frightened Americans feared a revolution. The federal response was frightening too. Hayes violently suppressed the strike, and the death toll was in the dozens.
Drawing on a weekly journal heavily read by Martha’s Vineyard visitors — Zion’s Herald — and other sources, Frantz will discuss what the Campgrounders on the Vineyard read, and how they kept their faith in the work for social justice during this difficult summer. 80 Trinity Park, Oak Bluffs. mvcma.org.
