Synopses & Reviews
A century after Appomattox, the civil rights movement won full citizenship for black Americans in the South. It should not have been necessary: by 1870 those rights were set in the Constitution. This is the story of the terrorist campaign that took them away. Nicholas Lemann opens his extraordinary new book with a riveting account of the horrific events of Easter 1873 in Colfax, Louisiana, where a white militia of Confederate veterans-turned-vigilantes attacked the black community there and massacred hundreds of people in a gruesome killing spree. This was the start of an insurgency that changed the course of American history: for the next few years white Southern Democrats waged a campaign of political terrorism aiming to overturn the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and challenge President Grant'ssupport for the emergent structures of black political power. The remorseless strategy of well-financed "White Line" organizations was to create chaos and keep blacks from voting out of fear for their lives and livelihoods. Redemption is the first book to describe in uncompromising detail this organized racial violence, which reached its apogee in Mississippi in 1875.
Lemann bases his devastating account on a wealth of military records, congressional investigations, memoirs, press reports, and the invaluable papers of Adelbert Ames, the war hero from Maine who was Mississippi's governor at the time. When Ames pleaded with Grant for federal troops who could thwart the white terrorists violently disrupting Republican political activities, Grant wavered, and the result was a bloody, corrupt election in which Mississippi was "redeemed" that is, returned to white control.
Redemption makes clear that this is what led to the death of Reconstruction and of the rights encoded in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. We are still living with the consequences.
Review
"Historians and general readers will find his work scandalously engrossing." Library Journal
Review
"A sobering account of the true end of Reconstruction, long suppressed in favor of the self-serving fairy tale peddled by the victors." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"In this grim, fascinating book, Lemann...argues that the Civil War didn't really end in 1865; instead, it simmered on for a decade until Southern whites won back much of what they had lost in the war. Lemann offers plenty of evidence to back up his assertion." Seattle Times
Review
"In Lemann's hands, the episode stands chillingly on its own, as an account of the possibilities that the Civil War and Reconstruction heralded, and of the failure of our democratic institutions to advance, or even to defend, those possibilities." Steven Hahn, The New Republic (read the entire New Republic review)
Synopsis
Lemann opens his extraordinary new book with a riveting account of Easter 1873 in Colfax, Louisiana, where a white militia attacked the black community and massacred hundreds. For the next few years, white Southern Democrats waged a campaign of political terrorism aiming to overturn the 14th and 15th Amendments and challenge President Grant's support for the emergent structures of black political power.
Synopsis
A master Civil War historian re-creates the final year of our nationand#8217;s greatest crisis. With Tarnished Victory William Marvel concludes his sweeping four-part seriesand#8212;this final volume beginning with the Virginia and Atlanta campaigns in May 1864 and closing with the final surrender of Confederate forces in June 1865. In the course of that year the war grows ever more deadly, the home front is stripped to fill the armies, and the economy is crippled by debt and inflation, while the stubborn survival of the Confederacy seriously undermines support for Lincolnand#8217;s war.
In the end, it seems that Lincolnand#8217;s early critics, who played such a pivotal role at the start of the series, are proven correct. Victory did require massive bloodshed and complete conquest of the South. It also required decades of occupation to cement the achievements of 1865, and the failure of Lincolnand#8217;s political heirs to carry through with that occupation squandered the most commendable of those achievements, ultimately making it a tarnished victory. Marvel, called the and#8220;Civil Warand#8217;s master historical detectiveand#8221; by Stephen Sears, has unearthed provocative details and rich stories long buried beneath a century of accumulated distortion and misinterpretation to create revisionist history at its best.
Synopsis
"An arresting piece of popular history." --Sean Wilentz, The New York Times Book Review Nicholas Lemann opens this extraordinary book with a riveting account of the horrific events of Easter 1873 in Colfax, Louisiana, where a white militia of Confederate veterans-turned-vigilantes attacked the black community there and massacred hundreds of people in a gruesome killing spree. This began an insurgency that changed the course of American history: for the next few years white Southern Democrats waged a campaign of political terrorism aiming to overturn the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and challenge President Grant's support for the emergent structures of black political power. Redemption is the first book to describe in uncompromising detail this organized racial violence, which reached its apogee in Mississippi in 1875.
Synopsis
A critical look at the the fourth year of Lincoln's administration and the conclusion of the author's four-volume re-examination of the Civil War.
About the Author
WILLIAM MARVELand#8217;s many acclaimed books on the Civil War include
The Great Task Remaining,
Lincoln's Darkest Year,
Mr. Lincoln Goes to War, and
Andersonville. He has won a Lincoln Prize, the Douglas Southall Freeman Award, and the Bell Award.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrationsand#8195;ix
List of Mapsand#8195;ix
Prefaceand#8195;xi
Part Iand#8194;and#8226;and#8194;Like Snows the Camps on Southern Hills
and#160;and#160;and#160;1.and#160;and#160;and#160;Inscription Rude in Virginiaand#8217;s Woods
and#160;and#160;and#160;2.and#160;and#160;and#160;The Mouldering Coat and Cuddled-up Skeleton
and#160;and#160;and#160;3.and#160;and#160;and#160;From Their Graves in the Trenches
Part IIand#8194;and#8226;and#8194;The Bravest Pressand#8217;d to the Front and Fell
and#160;and#160;and#160;4.and#160;and#160;and#160;She with Thin Form Presently Drest in Black
and#160;and#160;and#160;5.and#160;and#160;and#160;Horseman and Horse They Knew
and#160;and#160;and#160;6.and#160;and#160;and#160;From Charred Atlanta Marching
Part IIIand#8194;and#8226;and#8194; Like a Tireless Phantom
and#160;and#160;and#160;7.and#160;and#160;and#160;With Burning Woods Our Skies Are Brass
and#160;and#160;and#160;8.and#160;and#160;and#160;Forests of Bayonets
and#160;and#160;and#160;9.and#160;and#160;and#160;No More to Know the Drum
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;Epilogue
Endnotesand#8195;345
Sources and Acknowledgmentsand#8195;420
Indexand#8195;423