Restoration, Resistance, and Reconstruction: Liberty at Last in Clarke County, Virginia, 1865-1879

<p>The transition from slavery to freedom after the Civil War was a drawn out struggle to define how African Americans and whites would share the new social, political, and economic landscape. In Clarke County, Virginia, whites attempted to create political solidarity by demonizing blacks. Black and white voting patterns show how well the editors of the local newspaper, the Clarke Courier, encouraged the restoration of white supremacy with their negative writing about African Americans. White concerns about potential black challenges to their political and social supremacy created cultural space for African Americans to resist in ways that white people did not find threatening. Blacks took advantage of poor Conservative party discipline and white class schisms to build community institutions, like churches, schools, and mutual aid societies. The restoration of white supremacy encountered stiff black resistance, but elite whites eventually consolidated their power. Although it would be another century before African Americans could freely, and without the fear of retaliation, claim equal social and political rights, during Reconstruction they found their redemption in the creation of all-black towns.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Year dc:date.available

2010

Author dc:creator

• Ainsworth, Kyle Allen

Contributors dc:contributor

• Douglas Chambers
• Sarah Franklin
• Max Grivno

Repository record dc:identifier

https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/382

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:aquila.usm.edu:masters_theses-1452