Bourbon Triumvirate Three Democrats who led the state during the Redemption period were known as the Bourbon Triumvirate. Joseph E. Brown Alfred H. Colquitt John B. Gordon When Reconstruction was over it was time “redeem” the state from its hardships.

Interests and Accomplishments of Bourbon Triumvirate -All three men had extensive interests in the railroad and coal-mining industries, among other commercial pursuits. -All three championed white supremacy; -Frugal state government that demanded little of taxpayers, and provided few services; -Maintenance of subservient labor forces on farms and in factories. -Gordon and especially Brown both made use of convict labor in their industrial enterprises.

Joseph E. Brown Joseph Emerson Brown (April 15, 1821 – November 30, 1894), often referred to as Joe Brown, was the 42nd Governor of Georgia from 1857 to 1865, and a U.S. Senator from 1880 to Became a Republican scalawag for a short time, but returned to the Democratic party. Wanted to keep white supremacy tradition in GA

Alfred H. Colquitt Alfred Holt Colquitt (April 20, 1824 – March 26, 1894) was a lawyer, preacher, soldier, 49th Governor of Georgia and two term U.S. Senator from Georgia where he died in office. He served as an officer in the Confederate army, reaching the rank of major general.

John B. Gordon John Brown Gordon (February 6, 1832 – January 9, 1904) was one of Robert E. Lee's most trusted Confederate generals during the American Civil War After the war, he was a strong opponent of Reconstruction and is thought by some to have been the leader of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia during the late 1860s. A member of the Democratic Party he served as a U.S. Senator from 1873 to 1880, and again from 1891–1897. He also served as the 53rd Governor of Georgia from 1886 to 1890

BOURBON TRIUMVIRATE - All three men had something in common: conservative Democrat Governors who embraced the New South movement by wanting to transform Georgia from an economy based on King Cotton agriculture to a more modern industrialized economy that traded with the northern states. At the same time these three conservative Democrats wanted to keep the old traditions of white supremacy in the South during the “Redemption Period”, a period of regaining political power from the Radical Republicans and restoring the type of government that once ruled before the Civil War