Reconstruction in Alabama: From Civil War to Redemption in the Cotton South

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"Reconstruction in Alabama" examines the Civil War and Reconstruction era in Alabama, the first full-scale reexamination in over a century. Michael W. Fitzgerald research shows how predominant black belt majorities enabled concentrations of freedpeople to deter most terrorist violence for several years. The impact of a resulting labor shortage in the heart of the plantation region forced rich planters toward relative moderation until a severe depression swept away the possibility of racial coexistence and economic balance. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part I 1. A Mere Lapsus: Unionists and Conservative Dissidents during the Civil War 2. The Last Relicks of Barbarism: Army, War, and Reconstruction 3. Presidential Reconstruction: Unionism and the Politics of Definition 4. The Premature New South of Governor Robert Patton Part II 5. Black Liberation: Freedom and Political Mobilization 6. Implementing Reconstruction: Governance and Biracial Politics 7. The Difference between Whaling a Freeman and Pounding a Slave: Terrorism and Resistance in the Klan Era 8. Railroads, Race, and Reconstruction: The Curious Legacy of Governor William H. Smith 9. Bipartisan Disaster: The Advent of Governor Robert Lindsay 10. False Dawn: The Promise of Reconstruction in the Early 1870s Part III 11. Beneath the White Banner: Depression and the Overthrow of Reconstruction 12. “It Only Requires a Little More Figuring”: Redemption’s Aftermath Notes Select Bibliography Index Photos