Du Bois found Reconstruction Negroes sought self-ownership rather than proletarian dictatorship.

Evidence

“The record of the Negro worker during Reconstruction presents an opportunity to study inductively the Marxian theory of the state. I first called this chapter ‘The Dictatorship of the Black Proletariat in South Carolina,’ but it has been brought to my attention that this would not be correct since universal suffrage does not lead to a real dictatorship until workers use their votes consciously to rid themselves of the dominion of private capital. There were signs of such an object among South Carolina Negroes, but it was always coupled with the idea of that day, that the only real escape for a laborer was himself to own capital.” — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2297

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows Du Bois refining Marxian state theory against Black Reconstruction evidence, where the Black worker’s aim was capital ownership, not state control.