We begin Reconstruction in Virginia part one with a survey of the period, 1863-1877 in “Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution”. Virginia’s Reconstruction was extended by Readjusters to 1883 as described in “Two Paths to the New South”. The politics of race in post emancipation Virginia is studied in “Before Jim Crow”.
“Shattered Nation” investigates the intellectual history of white elites during the Reconstruction period, and “Reconstruction of White Southern Womanhood” explores how social, domestic and public lives of some Virginian women changed.
For book reviews at The Virginia Historian.com in this historical period addressing other topics, see the webpage for Antebellum, Civil War, Reconstruction. General surveys of Virginia History can be found at Virginia History Surveys. Other Virginia history divided by topics and time periods can be found at the webpage Books and Reviews.
Reconstruction: Unfinished Revolution
Eric Foner wrote Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 in 1988, an updated reprint in 2014. It is now available on Kindle and in paperback. Emancipation destroyed the social and economic system of the South, leading blacks to hope for free labor, citizenship and equal justice. In the North by the 1880s, industrialized class conflict replaced sectional divisions, and the South’s commercial leaders found allies to violently suppress black labor and overthrow Reconstruction Republican state governments.
Foner describes black agency creating independent lives apart from white domination both economically and socially. The part of white Unionists in the Republican Party is brought to light, as are events related women’s rights. Whites of all social classes contributed to the end of biracial democracy in the South. Learn more to buy “Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution” here for your bookshelf.
Two Paths to the New South
James Tice Moore wrote Two Paths to the New South: The Virginia Debt Controversy, 1870-1883 in 1974, it was reprinted in 2014. It is now available in paperback. Beyond the initial attempts at bi-racial society represented by Reconstruction, lies the story of the Readjusters in Virginia. Led by former Confederate General William Mahone, a self made businessman in the railroad industry, Readjusters sought a modernity grounded in economic prosperity for all. The opposing Funders sought to pay all of Virginia’s prewar debt and restrict capitalization to industries that they could closely control. Once economic depression was averted in the 1870s, Funders dropped their economic program and successfully emphasized racial division to “redeem” the state for Conservatives.
Readjusters were Virginia westerners, blacks and new urban men, none of them connected to the old regime by family. They sought state education, racial justice and democratization in politics. Funders opposed them at every turn. They were typically related to prewar planters, veteran Confederate officers and lawyers educated at the University of Virginia. Learn more to buy “Two Paths” here for your bookshelf.
*Richard G. Lowe wrote Republicans and Reconstruction in Virginia, 1865-1870 in 1991. It is out of print but available online used. Learn more to buy “Republicans and Reconstruction in Virginia” here for your bookshelf.
*Jack P. Maddex Jr. wrote The Virginia Conservatives, 1867-1879: A Study in Reconstruction Politics in 1970. It is out of print but available online used. Learn more to buy “Virginia Conservatives” here for your bookshelf.
Before Jim Crow
Jane Dailey wrote Before Jim Crow: The Politics of Race in Postemancipation Virginia 1861-1890 in 1979 and reprinted in 2000. It is now available on Kindle and in paperback. The book focuses on the years 1879-1883 and the intersecting forces of race and gender. The chapter on the Danville race riot stemming from a bump on the sidewalk is a telling example of where the freedmen and women with “acts of self definition” that provoked violent white reaction.
Daily concludes Jim Crow in Virginia did not begin until after the 1902 Constitution. “Before then…nothing was sure and, it often seemed, anything was possible,” from the political efforts of the Republicans, Readjusters, Knights of Labor and Populists. Learn more to buy “Before Jim Crow” for your bookshelf.
*Allen W. Moger wrote Virginia: Bourbonism to Byrd, 1870-1925 in 1968. It is out of print but available online used. Learn more to buy “Bourbonism to Byrd” here for your bookshelf.
Shattered Nation
Anne Sarah Rubin wrote A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy,, 1861-1868 in 2005. It is now available on Kindle and in paperback. After the political reality of a nation-state for the duration of the Civil War, Rubin addresses the experience of a national culture that endured after the fall of the Confederacy. Once defeated, southern nationalists revitalized white supremacy as the core of their identity, using segregation to dominate social, economic and political life in the South.
For them, “Southerner” came to mean a white Southerner who supported the Confederacy. Before Southerners had stressed common “Cavalier” origins and a states’ rights view of the Constitution. Later during this period of war and Reconstruction to 1868, the emphasis was in shared and rehearsed Confederate experiences as white supremacists. Learn more to buy “Shattered Nation” here for your bookshelf.
*James L Roark wrote Masters without Slaves: Southern Planters in the Civil War and Reconstruction in 1977. It is out of print but available online new and used. Learn more to buy “Masters without Slaves” here for your bookshelf.
*David F. Allmendinger Jr. wrote Ruffin: Family and Reform in the Old South in 1990. It is out of print but available online used. Learn more to buy “Ruffin: Family and Reform” here for your bookshelf.
White Southern Womanhood
Jane Turner Censer wrote The Reconstruction of White Southern Womanhood, 1865-1895 in 2003. It is now available on Kindle and in online new and used. Censer focuses primarily on Virginia and North Carolina across three generations of women. The thoughts and behavior can be distinguished among those born before 1820, between 1820 and 1849, and after 1850. The changes adopted in the third generation demonstrate the effects of post Civil War life among educated white women.
They asserted more independence in social activities and courting rituals. With the equalization of sibling inheritance, teaching provided many with the means to remain single or unmarried widowed. Their distaste for African American domestics led to a more hands on work ethic assisted with new cook stoves, sewing machines and washing machines. The most striking development was access to public life through the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, Ladies Memorial Associations concerned with reburial of Confederate dead, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Learn more to buy “White Southern Womanhood” here for your bookshelf.
These books are all used in bibliographies found in peer-reviewed surveys of Virginia history of scholarly merit currently used in Virginia university history departments. Additional insights are used from articles in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, the Journal of Southern History and the Journal of American History.