The death of Reconstruction
Subtitle: race, labor, and politics in the post-Civil War North, 1865-1901
By: Heather Cox Richardson.
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 312
Subjects: Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- ) -- History -- 19th century; Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877) -- Public opinion; Freedmen -- Southern States -- Public opinion; African Americans -- Civil rights -- Public opinion; Public opinion -- Northeastern States; African Americans -- Civil rights -- History -- 19th century; Working class -- United States -- History -- 19th century; United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1900; United States -- Economic conditions -- 1865-1918; Northeastern States -- Race relations
Description: "Historians overwhelmingly have blamed the demise of Reconstruction on the South and on white Americans' persistent racism. Heather Cox Richardson argues instead that class, along with race, was critical to Reconstruction's end. Northern support for freed blacks and Reconstruction weakened as growing labor interests critiqued the economy and called for government redistribution of wealth.".

"Using newspapers, public speeches, popular tracts, Congressional reports, and private correspondence, Richardson traces the changing Northern attitudes toward African-Americans from the Republicans' idealized image of black workers in 1861 through the 1901 publication of Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery. She examines such issues as black suffrage, disfranchisement, taxation, westward migration, lynching, and civil rights to detect the trajectory of Northern disenchantment with Reconstruction.

She reveals a growing backlash from Northerners against those who believed that inequalities should be addressed through working-class action, and the emergence of an American middle class that championed individual productivity and saw African-Americans as a threat to their prosperity."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-302) and index.