Redemption

The Last Battle of the Civil War

Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, Civil War Period (1850-1877)
Cover of the book Redemption by Nicholas Lemann, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Nicholas Lemann ISBN: 9781429923613
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publication: August 21, 2007
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Language: English
Author: Nicholas Lemann
ISBN: 9781429923613
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication: August 21, 2007
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Language: English

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.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

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.

More books from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Cover of the book Fresh Complaint by Nicholas Lemann
Cover of the book Poems 1959-2009 by Nicholas Lemann
Cover of the book New Poems, 1907 by Nicholas Lemann
Cover of the book Sonnets to Orpheus by Nicholas Lemann
Cover of the book The Last Best Days of Summer by Nicholas Lemann
Cover of the book Hazy Bloom and the Tomorrow Power by Nicholas Lemann
Cover of the book Hunger by Nicholas Lemann
Cover of the book Shrek! by Nicholas Lemann
Cover of the book Acts and Letters of the Apostles by Nicholas Lemann
Cover of the book Scar Tissue by Nicholas Lemann
Cover of the book A Rage for Order by Nicholas Lemann
Cover of the book The Magician's Apprentice by Nicholas Lemann
Cover of the book The Men's Club by Nicholas Lemann
Cover of the book Selected Poems by Nicholas Lemann
Cover of the book The Chosen Ones by Nicholas Lemann
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy