Editing McIntosh County, Georgia (section)

=== Reconstruction ===
{{Main|Georgia during Reconstruction}}
[[File:The Smallest Church in America, McIntosh Co, GA, US.jpg|right|thumb|200px|The Smallest Church in America <ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.exploregeorgia.org/darien/general/historic-sites-trails-tours/the-smallest-church-in-america |title=The Smallest Church in America }}</ref>]]
From the end of the Civil war to Georgia's 1907 disenfranchisement laws, McIntosh County was a base of black political power in the state. "Tunis Campbell was the highest-ranking and most influential African American politician in nineteenth-century Georgia", according to the ''New Georgia Encyclopedia''.<ref name="Tunis Campbell (NGE)">{{cite web |last1=Duncan |first1=Russell |title=Tunis Campbell (1812-1891) |url=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/tunis-campbell-1812-1891 |website=New Georgia Encyclopedia |publisher=Georgia Humanities |access-date=February 25, 2020 |date=February 21, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190703181107/https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/tunis-campbell-1812-1891 |archive-date=July 3, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> In March 1865, [[Tunis Campbell Sr.|Tunis G. Campbell Sr.]] was put in supervision of land claims at the [[Freedmen's Bureau]] for a group of Georgia barrier islands, including [[Sapelo Island|Sapelo]] in McIntosh County. After the land in question was returned to plantation owners by President Andrew Johnson, “Campbell quickly purchased 1,250 acres at Belle Ville in McIntosh County and there established an association of black landowners to divide parcels and profit from the land.”<ref name="Tunis Campbell (NGE)"/>

After the military registration carried out in early 1867, 600 black people and 307 white people were on the voter rolls in McIntosh.<ref>{{cite news |title=Election Returns |newspaper=The Weekly Constitutionalist |url=https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn87090503/1868-05-06/ed-1/seq-7/ |access-date=September 24, 2019 |publisher=Stockton & Co. |date=May 6, 1868 |location=Augusta, Ga. |page=7 |volume=27 |issue=19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225195456/https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn87090503/1868-05-06/ed-1/seq-7/ |archive-date=February 25, 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Election Returns |newspaper=Federal Union |url=https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn85038488/1868-05-05/ed-1/seq-3/ |access-date=October 4, 2019 |publisher=Boughton, Barnes & Moore |date=May 5, 1868 |location=Milledgeville, Ga. |page=3 |volume=38 |issue=40 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225195457/https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn85038488/1868-05-05/ed-1/seq-3/ |archive-date=February 25, 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In late 1867, Campbell was elected as one of two delegates from the second senatorial district – Liberty, McIntosh, and Tattnall counties – to Georgia's constitutional convention.<ref name="Order 89">{{cite book |last1=Pope |first1=John |title=United States Congressional serial set, Volume 1346 |chapter=General Orders No. 89 |date=November 19, 1867 |publisher=Headquarters Third Military District |location=Atlanta, Ga. |page=118 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hlpHAQAAIAAJ&q=third+military+district+general+orders+no+89&pg=RA15-PA118 |access-date=February 25, 2020}}</ref>

In April 1868, Campbell was elected as the state senator for the second district, and his son Tunis G. Campbell Jr. was elected as state representative for McIntosh County.<ref name="Order 90">{{cite book |last1=Drum |first1=R.C. |title=United States Congressional serial set, Volume 1362 |chapter=General Orders No. 90 |date=June 25, 1868 |publisher=Headquarters Third Military District |location=Atlanta, Ga. |pages=5–7 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cvxXAAAAcAAJ&q=third+military+district+general+orders+no+90&pg=RA6-PA45 |access-date=February 25, 2020}}</ref> While both Campbells were among the black legislators expelled later in 1868, they were able to return to office in 1871; Campbell Sr. left office in 1872, while Campbell Jr. served until 1874.<ref name="Register 1957-8">{{cite book |title=Georgia's Official Register, 1957-1958 |publisher=Longino & Porter |location=Hapeville, Ga. |pages=986, 1176 |url=http://statregister.galileo.usg.edu/statregister/view?docId=statregister/stat1957/stat1957-1180.xml |access-date= February 25, 2020}}</ref>

Campbell Sr. also served as the Vice President of the Georgia Republican Party. As an elected official, “Campbell [Sr.] organized a black power structure in McIntosh County that protected freed people from white abuses, whether against their bodies or in labor negotiations,” and he was rumored to be protected by a 300-person militia.<ref name="Tunis Campbell (NGE)"/> In fact, that power structure lasted for decades, as evidenced by the fact that the county had three black representatives from 1875 to 1907: Amos R. Rodgers (1878–79), Lectured Crawford (1886–7, 1890–1, 1900–1), and William H. Rogers (1902–07).<ref name="Register 1957-8"/>