<Tr> <Td> 1876 </Td> <Td> 7 mills </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Source </Td> <Td> J.S. Reynolds, Reconstruction in South Carolina, 1865--1877 (Columbia, SC: The State Co., 1905), p. 329 . </Td> <Td> J.H. Hollander, Studies in State Taxation with Particular Reference to the Southern States (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1900), p. 192 . </Td> </Tr> <P> Called upon to pay taxes on their property, essentially for the first time, angry plantation owners revolted . The conservatives shifted their focus away from race to taxes . Former Congressman John R. Lynch, a black Republican leader from Mississippi, later wrote, </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td> The argument made by the taxpayers, however, was plausible and it may be conceded that, upon the whole, they were about right; for no doubt it would have been much easier upon the taxpayers to have increased at that time the interest - bearing debt of the State than to have increased the tax rate . The latter course, however, had been adopted and could not then be changed unless of course they wanted to change them . </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr> </Table>

Who had the power to direct the reconstruction