After Slavery: Race, Labor, and Citizenship in the Reconstruction South

by Bruce Baker (Editor), Brian Kelly (Editor)

Overview

"Is there really anything new to say about Reconstruction? The excellent contributions to this volume make it clear that the answer is a resounding yes. Collectively these essays allow us to rethink the meanings of state and citizenship in the Reconstruction South, a deeply necessary task and a laudable advance on the existing historiography."—Alex Lichtenstein, Indiana University

Freedom for African Americans is often assumed to have been granted and fully realized when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. In reality, the meaning of freedom was vigorously, often lethally, contested in the aftermath of the Civil War. After Slavery moves beyond broad generalizations concerning black life during Reconstruction in order to offer a well-rounded portrait of the era.

Topics include urban unrest in New Orleans and Wilmington, North Carolina, loyalty among former slave owners and slaves in Mississippi, armed insurrection along the Georgia coast, and racial violence throughout the region.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813060972
Publisher:	University Press of Florida
Publication date:	10/21/2014
Series:	New Perspectives on the History of the South
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Bruce E. Baker, lecturer on American history, Newcastle University, is the author of numerous books, including What Reconstruction Meant. Brian Kelly, director of the After Slavery Project and reader in the School of History and Anthropology at Queen’s University Belfast, is the author of Race, Class, and Power in the Alabama Coalfields, 1908-21.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

List of Abbreviations ix

Introduction Bruce E. Baker Brian Kelly 1

1 Slave and Citizen in the Modern World: Rethinking Emancipation in the Twenty-First Century Thomas C. Holt 16

2 "Erroneous and Incongruous Notions of Liberty": Urban Unrest and the Origins of Radical Reconstruction in New Orleans, 1865-1868 James Illingworth 35

3 "Surrounded on All Sides by an Armed and Brutal Mob": Newspapers, Politics, and Law in the Ogeechee Insurrection, 1868-1869 Jonathan M. Bryant 58

4 "It Looks Much Like Abandoned Land": Property and the Politics of Loyalty in Reconstruction Mississippi Erik Mathisen 77

5 Anarchy at the Circumference: Statelessness and the Reconstruction of Authority in Emancipation North Carolina Gregory P. Downs 98

6 "The Negroes Are No Longer Slaves": Free Black Families, Free Labor, and Racial Violence in Post-Emancipation Kentucky J. Michael Rhyne 122

7 Ex-Slaveholders and the Ku Klux Klan: Exploring the Motivations of Terrorist Violence Michael W. Fitzgerald 143

8 Drovers, Distillers, and Democrats: Economic and Political Change in Northern Greenville County, 1865-1878 Bruce E. Baker 159

9 Mapping Freedom's Terrain: The Political and Productive Landscapes of Wilmington, North Carolina Susan Eva O'Donovan 176

10 Class, Factionalism, and the Radical Retreat: Black Laborers and the Republican Party in South Carolina, 1865-1900 Brian Kelly 199

Afterword Eric Foner 221

Bibliography 231

List of Contributors 255

Index 259

Editorial Reviews

Highly recommended.”—Choice
“The essays highlight how the Reconstruction era was truly a tumultuous period in which black self-determination, the plight of white yeoman farmers, labor radicalism of urban workers, and the desires of emasculated masters converged. . . . Will truly enhance both undergraduate and graduate courses on the legacy of emancipation, and, most importantly, they will spark new avenues of research for young scholars.”—Reviews in American History
“Persuasively argues that many questions remain unanswered about this frequently misunderstood period in American history. . . . The authors in this collection provide nuanced interpretations for understanding the divergent experiences of laborers throughout different parts of the country.”—Southern Historian

From the Publisher